Few artists have the capacity to write kind of song. Perhaps it's not about a person's ability or an artist's creativity, but rather about the choice of the muse to visit some songwriters in such a tangible way. No matter.

Whatever it is about Foy Vance that allows him to pen songs like "She Burns" or "Joy of Nothing" or "Guiding Light" has struck again in the form of "Sapling," a new single released recently in tangent with the title track from his forthcoming album, Signs of Life.

The melody itself is just beautiful, armed with a tense and insistent single note on the piano that won't let go for the song's duration but allows for an emotive backbone that swells with the song's chorus. Vance's best work lives in these musical dilations and "Sapling" certainly fits that mold.

However, "Sapling"'s resonant power is found in Vance's lyrical approach here, a vulnerable admission of a man who wishes to be rooted much deeper than he is as present. Those roots would have yielded stronger branches to provide shade and support to others and fruit from which others could find sustenance. Instead he searches inside and asks, "Am I strong enough?" for what really matters most to him.

It's not as if Foy Vance's catalog needed another devastating song like this one to speak to the substantive nature of his work, but he's gifted us all, once again, with language and imagery in which we find ourselves and our own struggles to grow and mature into our better selves.

"Sapling" Lyrics:

I remember way back when
I felt only ennui
Like nothing could complete me
No promise of a rising sun
Illuminating everyone
The very thought defeated

My life was a blinded light
Must be what it's like when worlds collide
Especially when he sees her
Pretty soon he'll tease her
I was on the road too long
My laboured lover only song
Not one of them a keeper

But if I woke in the morning to find you were gone
I know I'd try and find the will to be strong
But am I strong enough? Am I strong enough?
I once built a bower, I could build you a home
Together forever but forever and on
Is still not long enough, it's still not long enough

The look of fear was in your eyes
And I could see myself as a child
Such a devastating feeling
I wished I could go back in time
But all I could do was apologise
Right there in your eyes were healing
Healing

Oh, if I woke in the morning to find you were gone
I know I'd try and find the will to be strong
But am I strong enough? Am I strong enough?
I once built a bower, I could build you a home
Together forever but forever and on
Is still not long enough, it's still not long enough

Oh, I've been Cain but I wanna be Abel
Been a drunken fool but I wanted to be stable enough
To lay every one of my cards on the table
Hope it's not too late for us to find a way through

If I woke in the morning to find you were gone
I know I'd try and find the will to be strong
But am I strong enough? Am I strong enough?
I once built a bower, I could build you a home
Together forever but forever and on
Is still not long enough, it's still not long enough

I will look, get inside myself for a home
Find only a sapling in search of an oak
But it's a start my love, oh it's a start my love
But am I strong enough?

VISIT: Foy Vance