You know you have found a good song when it comes to an end, and you hit repeat, jumping back to the start. Such is the experience when first discovering “Long Time Gone,” the recent single from Nelson, BC folk-roots singer-songwriter Maddie Storvold.
This is a gentle country song that explores a foray into a new love from the perspective of a child whose parents’ infidelities left painful memories to the point where Storvold questions whether faithful and enduring love is even possible. “I was born to burn and bound to break / But that’s the thing about blood they say / That it’s mostly water anyway” – whilst ultimately sowing the seeds of trust in herself as a person separate from her parents and their mistakes – “And I wander to the sea / Kneel by the shore / To wash my spirit clean / Of all the dirty stories of who I’m supposed to be.”
Storvold’s voice is itself an instrument of pure beauty, indeed special enough to have won CTV’s “The Launch” and subsequent record deal with Big Machine Label Group. Following with her 2019 single, “Don’t Say You Love Me,” written and produced by Bryan Adams, this tune shot to #1 on the country charts in less than 3 hours, and peaked at # 3 in the mainstream music charts, surpassing Lady Gaga and Pink.
However, having become increasingly disheartened with Nashville’s “vision” for her career, Maddie stepped away from her label to take control of her career (in similar fashion to Alberta’s JJ Shiplett). Based on this single, Maddie is clearly the winner, and for me, her forthcoming “Sunstorm” album due for release early next year is already an eagerly anticipated ‘must-listen.’
A round of applause goes out also to producer Graham Lessard for a musical backdrop that, whilst never overtly intruding, provides enough interest and body to perfectly fit this song. For Maddie Storvold, great things surely await.
Photo Credit: Sheena Zilinski
Music has been a lifelong passion, a journey that as a child embraced the late 60's counter culture and has lasted until the present day. Despite trying to play guitar for the best part of 45 years, to his own frustration, never much beyond the first four bars of “Stairway to Heaven.” A self-confessed vinyl junkie, his other interests include collecting music memorabilia, old Muhammad Ali fight programs, and watching film. He lives alone in Nottingham (England) and still uses the term “Groovy” - these two facts may be intrinsically connected.
