Lake Forest is the introspective and sometimes melancholic folk music of Will Whitwham, singer and songwriter of The Wilderness of Manitoba. Last winter, in between tours with the band, I attempted to write and record a song per day and see how long it took to get something I felt could be a snapshot of a period in time. The winter was a catalyst as every season can be. The Lake Forest name came from a place or a number of places that felt synchronistic, both internally and externally. One is a city in Illinois from Dave Egger's novel - "A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius". Another is the name of a road up north near the cottage my family has had since 1979 and is also the only place I continue to have recurring dreams of. The last was an image in my mind of a frozen ground surrounded by evergreens which came to me in the form of a beautiful photograph a good friend of mine took. It then almost immediately became the album cover; a very cold, surreal and moving piece all at once.