John Calvin Abney - “Transparent Towns”
Tulsa, Oklahoma-based John Calvin Abney has just released the reflectively melancholic indie folk track, “Transparent Towns.”
“Transparent Towns” has a gorgeous, immersive intimacy and quiet grace. From start to finish every note is allowed to breathe with a kind of devastating dream-like beauty. The arrangement is stripped back but it is never sparse. In fact, it is magical to listen to each element rising up and dying back like it is caught in a soothing pulse of a tide.
Over the unhurried heartbeat of the drums and mellow texture of acoustic guitar, layers drift tenderly over the top. Vivid swells of pedal steel, comforting harmonica, flickers of electric guitar, reflective piano and waves of tender violin weave together like the colours radiating across the sky at dusk.
Resting at the heart of this canvas is the gentle, luminous vocal of John Calvin Abney. With the support of heartfelt vocal harmonies by Lydia Loveless, the intimate performance feels like you are being carried on a slow winding river full of reflection and quiet longing. It is pleasure to just lose yourself in the tones of the delivery or to unravel the poetic lyrics.
On the track John Calvin Abney adds: “This song was written and re-written probably ten times, as the sentiment formed. I was heavily influenced by the book Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, and learned that the stories we tell of people and places influence the way we perceive them in return and departure. Our memories are altered by subsequent tales and encounters. We arrive at a town worn or leave a city with a faint destination in mind; we do the same with life. Mortality isn’t a stranger to any one of us but I started thinking of what it might be like to reunite with the folks who have gone on ahead of us and what a weary catch up would be like after we arrive.”
“Transparent Towns” is a slow burning composition that lingers long after the final note. The song is the title track of John Calvin Abney’s forthcoming new album slated for release September 19th via Well Kept Secret. Pre-order the album here.
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