Plenty of attention has been paid to the "cabin in the woods" component of Bon Iver's success. "Musician down on his luck heads to secluded cabin and makes album!" But you might say the real inspiration for Justin Vernon's first album, "For Emma Forever Ago" -- and the inspiration for his melodies and his falsetto singing style -- came after he left North Carolina and headed back to his hometown of Eau Claire, Wis., where he is now permanently based. People knew so little about Eau Claire when Vernon first appeared on the scene that he often had to explain it in interviews.