“Hey now, I’m not lonely / Look here, I’m not cryin’ / See that, see the horizon / Tomorrow is bound to come.”
We recently made the acquaintance of emerging Winnipeg, MB singer-songwriter Larysa Musick, who shared some fabulous news with us about her upcoming debut EP – one released out into the world just last Friday. Having teased with several singles from this EP prior to the release, Larysa holds one remaining ace up her sleeve – an animated lyric video for the title track, “Tomorrow Is Bound To Come,” which GDW are delighted to premiere here today.
After giving this tune a whirl a couple of weeks ago, we challenged ourselves to find an apt way to describe Larysa’s wonderful sound – and words failed us. Happening up her official bio, the two sentences convey everything perfectly, so we’ll take the easy option and share here: Given her last name, Larysa Musick was probably meant to be a singer-songwriter. Her wide-eyed vintage-nostalgia folk songwriting combines effortless finger-picking guitar, lush mezzo-soprano vocals and earnest lyrics.
When the mainstream news outlets managed to pause from their 24/7 coverage of mind-numbing and petty political squabbles both here in the US and up in Canada, the second most reported topic this year may well be the impact of the Canadian wildfires. Starting back in March, and intensifying by early summer, all 13 Canadian provinces and territories were affected by outbreaks of large fires – something quickly recalled when hearing Larysa’s opening lines from this tune: “Someday I’ll wipe smoke from the sky / Someday I’ll grow sunflower high / I’ll show off my green and swing / Painting gold everything / I’ll shake dirt in wintertime / Painting deep as wild rye / No sweat I’ll say / Pullin’ needles from the hay.”
Even here in our part of central PA, we experienced several days/weeks of poor air quality and the grimy, grey haze as the smoke from those wildfires blew south – many of my own coworkers accosting me and asking that I politely tell my Canadian friends to quit sending it our way. “The opening line of the song goes ‘Someday I’ll wipe smoke from the sky,’ I wrote that three years ago,” Larysa recalls. “I hope my songwriting was premonition. I hope the smoke clears. I hope for a lot, but I also realized that there are powers in the world greater than us, and time is running out.” Indeed, the news outlets may have moved on, but the damage remains real – with the wildfires burning the most Canadian land on record so early in the season – more than 11.6 million acres, per the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.
Drawing upon her experience as both a poet and illustrator, Larysa creates and produces the wonderful lyric video that accompanies this single, entrusting the animation duties to Winnipeg based animator Hailey Furkalo – and the result is fabulous. Featuring native wildflowers from Manitoba that surround a ticking antique clock, you cannot fail to detect birdsong as the video plays out. Of course, we have one of those authentic ‘bird call’ clocks at home here in our kitchen, so our ears are accustomed to hearing such sounds each and every daylight hour. “Someday I’ll buzz with bumblebees / Hop with the chickadees / Someday I’ll lift massive stones / Blazing trails out on my own.”
Recorded at Boy Golden’s home studio in Winnipeg, Larysa takes care not only of the vocals, but handles most of the instrumentation (guitar/banjo/percussion) too, with additional contributions courtesy of Nathan Bliss (harmonium), and backing vocalists Sierra Noble (co-producer) and Madeleine Roger (engineer). “I wrote the song while walking around prairie grass reserves in 2020. Their roots are as tall as the average person or bigger – 5 to 15 feet deep. That’s how they last through frigid winters. This got me thinking about the earth’s resilience,” Larysa adds. “To me, tomorrow is bound to come means that with or without me, without all of us, there will be a tomorrow. The trees may or may not be here. The oceans may be bigger. The earth will exist in some form or other after humans are gone, a humbling idea.”
Photo credit: Laina Brown
The British guy that crossed the ocean and crash landed in central Pennsylvania (to quote Greg Keelor, “And I wonder what am I doing here?”). As the youngest of four siblings, exposure to music from a very early age nurtured my passion and appreciation for many musical genres. Continuing to discover some amazingly diverse and talented musicians based in Canada, I gravitate to live music experiences and remain devoted to spreading the word about such a vibrant music scene.
