DeYarmond Edison

Though active only briefly during the 2000s, DeYarmond Edison anticipated several key directions later taken by experimental indie rock, as its members subsequently launched the widely impactful outfits Bon Iver, Megafaun, and Field Report. Across two studio albums the group blended introspective, occasionally dreamlike indie folk with more exploratory sonic elements, and long after its dissolution the 2023 box set Epoch gathered hours of scarce material, concert performances, previously unheard recordings, plus a lengthy written chronicle of the group’s story.

The project originated in Eau Claire, Wisconsin in 2001 when an earlier ensemble called Mount Vernon evolved into DeYarmond Edison. Justin Vernon supplied the name from his own middle names, while the lineup also comprised Chris Porterfield, Joe Westerlund, and brothers Brad Cook and Phil Cook. Although grounded in acoustic folk rock, the music incorporated orchestral horn sections, ambient electronics, and unconventional compositional strategies. The musicians concentrated on local performances, issuing a self-titled album in 2004 and Silent Signs the following year, before relocating to Raleigh, North Carolina in an attempt to turn the band into a full-time occupation. The move precipitated their breakup, which they announced in September 2006 and marked with one final EP of unreleased songs shared online. Vernon headed back to Wisconsin to begin the first Bon Iver sessions, Westerlund and the Cook brothers stayed in North Carolina to start Megafaun, and Porterfield spent years developing new songs before launching the folk-oriented Field Report. The original lineup reconvened for a lone performance at the 2011 South by Southwest festival and later contributed a cover of “Black Muddy River” to the 2016 Grateful Dead tribute compilation Day of the Dead.

Epoch, the multi-disc box set issued in 2023, assembled 83 DeYarmond Edison tracks, most of which had seen only limited circulation. Alongside a 60,000-word written history, the collection contained the complete Silent Signs, various demos, live documents, early Megafaun rehearsal tapes, Vernon’s pre-Bon Iver solo work, and additional artifacts spanning the band’s brief existence and subsequent activities.