All tagged John Calvin Abney
What do you say when the word goes by through a window? How do you talk about home when the ground always seems to be shifting under your feet? John Calvin Abney answers this throughout the narrative weaved on Tourist. With this album, you get the feeling of going home to the same landscape and piece of nostalgia, but there is also a layer of deja vu or perhaps a sensation of the uncanny valley. Nothing is different, yet somehow nothing is the same. Also an expression of a life lived passing through towns from one stop to the next. Two themes somehow juxtapose to a single sentiment that’s difficult to put into words, unless you're John Calvin Abney, who somehow knows exactly how to do just that.
Last year seemed like a banner year for releases, but the buzz for 2020 albums, tours and festivals had everyone thrilled for what was to come. No one imagined that all of that would come to a screeching halt in Mid-March when a global pandemic struck. A devastating blow to the performing arts community among so many other small businesses, the education system and the healthcare community. Many musicians had just released or were nearing release dates for their music, but were left unable to tour in support of it. Some chose to delay their releases and others forged on and released albums, EPs and singles anyway. I have a great deal of respect for those that took a gamble and provided us with one of the most important things to help get us through this difficult period. The power of music has continued to bring us together when we can’t join each other like we normally would. Thankfully, social media has allowed the artists to perform livestreams or even just promote their art. It’s allowed the fans to share music and continue to discuss and analyze it. Here at the Amp, we’ve made our own individual lists of our favorite three albums this year to share with our readers. We hope that you’ve listened to some of these amazing artists and their albums, but if not, we hope that you’ll at least give them a listen and perhaps find some new favorites.
March 2020 will be remembered as the month the music stopped. John Calvin Abney was set to tour with his long-time collaborator, John Moreland, to promote his latest record (LP5) when the pandemic shut everything down. That’s when Abney holed up at his current home in California’s Bay Area to begin writing the songs that would become Familiar Ground. He says, “I had written some of the songs before everything went down but some of the songs really took form as I had this surplus of time and lack of tour so I ended up having a lot of mental space and physical space to delve into writing. I also got to workshop some of these songs and hone their edges.”
