The little voice in our heads takes center stage in singer/songwriter Caroline Strickland’s new single “Martha’s Calling” as inner angst consumes her and she aches from the inside out.
Stream: “Martha’s Calling” – Caroline Strickland
‘Martha’s Calling’ is the deliriousness that follows, the hope in some spirit to save you, the faith in the void to fill itself, the desperation for a sign to tell you where to go and what to do.
We’ve all got a little voice in our heads.
Most of the time, it’s quiet and keeps to itself; we go through our days and nights, weekdays and weekends, weeks and months undisturbed, living out our lives in relative peace and quiet, without too many disturbances, distractions, or interruptions.
But then trouble rears its ugly ahead, and at the worst possible time, our little voice pipes up, too. Brash, bold, and unrelenting, it says the quiet parts out loud – and given it’s within us, paying attention is relatively unavoidable. Like a check on our sanity, the little voice asks all those questions we’d prefer to ignore and avoid to the best of our abilities. It challenges us; it tests us; it confronts us, and in doing so, it forces us to confront ourselves.
That little voice takes center stage in Caroline Strickland’s latest single, as inner angst consumes her and she aches from the inside out. Dreamy, impassioned, and melodramatic, “Martha’s Calling” is the cathartic release of a heavy heart and weathered soul; a beautifully tender alt-folk eruption that is at once relatable, and yet so intimate to the artist, speaking to her own inner reckoning and painful reflections;.
Oh baby Martha is calling again
She’s asking where have you gone,
where you been
She’s begging me to explain why you left
I say now Martha I know you’re upset
You’re upset you’re upset
Martha’s calling
Martha’s calling
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “Martha’s Calling,” out October 16th via Good Eye Records. Caroline Strickland’s emotionally charged second single of 2024 (following late August’s “Loving You Right”) feels painful, poignant, and powerful in all the right ways; the Brooklyn by way of Virginia singer/songwriter dwells in a deeply introspective state as she wrestles with her demons, that inner voice – or in this case, Martha – taking up her headspace in such a way that she’s can’t deny her that room at the inn. When our Martha calls, we have to answer her eventually – even when it hurts.
For Strickland, “Martha’s Calling” is more than the next song in a series of releases; it’s a deeply personal release that comes from the artist’s innermost sanctum. “‘Martha’s Calling’ is the second single and title track off my five-song EP, coming out in 2025. It flows directly in a narrative, which starts off with my song ‘Loving You Right.’ The EP follows a person on a journey towards self-actualization and realization, towards accepting grounded solitude and humility,” she tells Atwood Magazine.
“I wrote this track during the spring of 2023. If ‘Loving You Right’ is the initial running away from one’s problems, the admission of fault and lack, the facing of the mannequin void, the heartbreak of leaving someone, ‘Martha’s Calling’ is the deliriousness that follows, the hope in some spirit to save you, the faith in the void to fill itself, the desperation for a sign to tell you where to go and what to do. After running for so long, a figure I decided to name Martha came along. I decided she was calling me, a phone spirit haunting me. I had lost my job in March 2023, and I hated that job, but the fall to insecurity and uncertainty ripped off the curtains covering the faults within me and my life, and everything began to change. Though I technically wrote this song before I wrote the first song on the project [‘Loving You Right’], it comes second to signify the moment in the journey from uncertainty to groundedness in which the person has seen the problems, whatever they are, once and for all, and has run as long as they could. Now they’re tired, and in the breathlessness and blurred vision of the gasps after a long run, magic or god or a sign feels like the only answer. When you are lost, you want something magic to look for and to save you.”
“So, Martha came to me, one day last spring, a little after I began to realize I wasn’t loving right. It sparked that possessed and twisted search for a sign or higher power or something. When you are lost, you want something magic to look for and to save you. She lodged herself in my ear before I even knew the sun was setting on my life as I knew it. Even when the sky grew purple, and the golden sun began to truly die, Martha didn’t leave. She got louder and more obvious and she kept f*ing calling. Martha’s Calling. Martha’s Calling. Martha’s Calling. She rang when I was writing other songs, she rang when my old boyfriend and I were breaking up, she rang when I was crying and she rang when I was praying. My mannequin void of a self couldn’t face the call, couldn’t hold up the line to my lips and spit out the good stuff. Phone tag! Tag, you’re it. Martha is sometimes a devil. But sometimes she is the angel-agent of a 1980s muralist failing to come through on the set design for the Joffrey Ballet’s new work debuting this upcoming season. And there I was, a painter on Cape Cod, trying to redeem myself.”
Strickland continues, “This section you just read lacks any sense because Martha came from nothing, didn’t come from a real place. She showed up on the coast and I picked her up and took her for a walk on the beach. I tried to lock eyes with her, but she was always looking somewhere else. I didn’t have the guts to trust her, to realize she was simply an omen that things will fall apart. She is the sign that all is about to collapse. After that comes the rebuild, the construction of better and brighter things, the last stretch to wholeness, and the rest of this five-song project.”
Oh the wind meets the river again
I brush the tears from your eyes in the morning
Are you waiting on an answer to save you
For the light upon the water to tell you
Who’s the far and fighting voice that compels you
The weight of the world seems to fall on Caroline Strickland as “Martha’s Calling” comes to life in just under three minutes’ time, with a crescendo at the end capturing the sheer intensity, as well as the raw fragility, of her situation. In the song’s Leyla Ebrahimi-directed music video, a pensive Strickland is constantly followed by a red phone that, like the Martha of her song, demands her attention. She runs from it, going so far as to the rocky outcroppings around the East River, looking West toward Manhattan, where she finds momentary respite and tranquility to read her book (Interpreting Dreams A-Z), enjoy the view, and –
The camera pans to see the red phone on a neighboring rock.
This time, Strickland picks up the phone, shouting into the red receiver as she struts around the rocky Brooklyn beach, and emphatically hangs up – hopefully putting to rest Martha’s persistent calls, at least for a while. That little voice never goes away for good, but if we listen to what it’s saying, we just might find some long-sought peace of mind – and we just might find ourselves better off than when we started. “Martha’s Calling” doesn’t offer any answers or solutions to our issues, but it’s a reminder, to all of us, that our little voice is on our side, even when it feels like our enemy. Stream the latest Caroline Strickland single exclusively on Atwood Magazine, and stay tuned for much more to come from the rising singer/songwriter as she prepares her new EP, Martha’s Calling, out in early 2025!
Oh Martha is a vision
And you’re a California liar
Who can’t make a decision
Oh Martha’s waiting patiently
There’s a hand for you to hold
It’s a call on the line
Ringing softly
Martha’s calling
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:: stream/purchase Martha’s Calling here ::
:: connect with Caroline Strickland here ::
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Stream: “Martha’s Calling” – Caroline Strickland
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© Aaron Champagne art © Leyla Ebrahimi
© Aaron Champagne
art © Leyla Ebrahimi:: Stream Caroline Strickland ::
