Justin Vernon of Bon Iver has recently released “Your Honor,” a new song in honor of the late Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The new song appeared in a video which saw Vernon speaking with two local residents of his hometown in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The video, which is the first installment of his new series, “A Visit With Vernon,” begins with Vernon discussing how important voting is to the residents. Vernon then began to dive into his song “Your Honor.”
“I wrote a song on Friday which I never do anymore,” Vernon said in the video. “I kinda wrote it right after we heard about Ruth Bader Ginsberg passing. She just opened so many doors for so many people that people don’t even understand or realize. And her service to the nation I think is still somehow underestimated.”
Vernon begins the song with quick strums of the electric guitar, the track flowing through in a s soft melody. “Who the safety is for/Danger comes knocking at the door/Don’t let your heart on the floor,” Vernon begins to sing, his heartfelt voice delivering the piercing lyrics. “Can’t you just feel for another,” he asks.
Ginsberg passed away on September 18, following a long battle against metastatic pancreatic cancer. She had been the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court, and spent her career championing for equal rights for women. Among her achievements, Ginsberg helped to inspire the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which helped employees win pay discrimination claims and allowed women to have equal pay to their male counterparts.
The “A Visit With Vernon” series has local residents in Eu Claire, Wisconsin, nominating friends who are on the fence about voting to appear on the show. The two friends then sit with Vernon and discuss how important the right to vote is. The new series is just one of many ways that the music industry has been trying to encourage people to vote in the upcoming election. Live Nation and the Hollywood Bowl have offered their venues to be used as polling places during the election, while Evanescence and Willie Nelson have released tracks that encourage listeners to vote.