AUSTIN CITY LIMITS: Bon Iver

AUSTIN CITY LIMITS (ACL) Season 38 hit its stride with a breathtaking performance by 2012 Grammy Award-winning Best New Artist Bon Iver in a standout ACL debut. Joined by an eight-piece band for the occasion, frontman Justin Vernon turns his intimate confessionals into orchestral pop anthems in his first turn at ACL.

Vernon performs songs from "Bon Iver, Bon Iver," the 2012 Grammy Award-winner for Best Alternative Album, and also includes gems from his 2007 breakthrough "For Emma, Forever Ago."

“This is a trip,” a heartfelt Vernon says from the ACL stage at The Moody Theater in downtown Austin. “I used to be on the other end of the screen when I was 10.”

Bon Iver is the moniker of Wisconsin native Justin Vernon, a name derived from the French phrase for “good winter.” Written during a secluded winter stay in a remote cabin in Northwest Wisconsin, Vernon crafted a stunning collection of bold, ardent musings layered with pastoral melodies and his hauntingly smooth falsetto into Bon Iver's acclaimed debut "For Emma, Forever Ago."

In 2011, Bon Iver released the much-anticipated follow-up, "Bon Iver, Bon Iver," earning two Grammy Awards in 2012 for Best New Artist and Best Alternative Album.

“In my opinion, Justin Vernon is a musical genius,” says ACL Executive Producer Terry Lickona. “The music he creates through Bon Iver transcends anything else out there in pop or rock. The orchestration may be dense and the lyric abstract - to say the least - but together the effect is riveting. Seeing it live really brings it to life in a way ACL does best.”

Vernon had high praise for his debut ACL experience: “This is the only perfect, wonderful music show that we have.”

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AUSTIN CITY LIMITS is on Facebook, and you can follow @acltv on Twitter. Bon Iver is on Facebook, and you can follow @boniver on Twitter.