"Days roll past my line of sight / Seasons change like stoplights / When the evening slows / How good is the night?"
There is something sort of pop Biblical about "Holy Golden West" by acclaimed singer-songwriter John Calvin Abney and from his sixth upcoming album "Tourist" on August 5th (2022) via Black Mesa Records. For me anyway, the halcyon days of pure indie pop is the 70's and within the pearly Fender Rhodes tones, the snappy drum work, dreamy subtle pop embellishments, that luscious bass work and Abney's gorgeous pop vocal aesthetic that screams those hacyon days. There is a purity of sound and lyrical imagery and like a crazy amalgam of mid 70's artists like Paul McCartney and Wings, Little Feat, Harry Nilsson, Todd Rundgren and Steely Dan there is a crushing timelessness here. A pure distillation of folk, gardenrock, orchestrated pop that (to me) has always had a universal pull.
The song born out journeys during the pandemic from San Francisco to Austin with Abney actually recording tracks from hotel room to hotel room and friend's spare rooms along the way feels tinged with the patina of traveling. This might explain the whimsy, the wistful colors and wanderlust cadence. Longtime friend and creative collaborator John Moreland added his own contributions to the tracks remotely.
“The song is about feeling out of place in this world,” Abney says. “California was burning down and my health was wavering. Time moved in elastic ways, loneliness was stark, and the 'Holy Golden West' was a metaphor for comfort, paradise, or safety.”
Beautifully vast, tenderly drawn, the song rolls like California surf. The Official Video by directed by Rahul Chakroborty pulls more nightmarish imagery to offset the delicate beauty. I love it.
-Robb Donker Curtius
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Acclaimed singer-songwriter John Calvin Abney is set to release his sixth album Tourist on Aug. 5 via Black Mesa Records. To coincide with the announcement, Abney has shared the record's engulfing new single "Holy Golden West."
“The song is about feeling out of place in this world,” Abney says. “California was burning down and my health was wavering. Time moved in elastic ways, loneliness was stark, and the 'Holy Golden West' was a metaphor for comfort, paradise, or safety.”
"Holy Golden West" is the first sampling of a project born during a trek that Abney first started shortly after the pandemic began, taking him from San Francisco to Austin. At each town and pit stop along the way, Abney paused to take in his surroundings and all the characters who weaved in and out of those new backdrops. The songs on Tourist paint those scenes onto a new canvas, poetically examining the passage of time, the places we call home and how even the smallest of moments can leave a lasting mark.
Instead of hunkering down in a studio, Abney recorded the tracks on Tourist remotely from the hotel rooms and spare rooms of friends' homes that he stopped in during his long, explorative journey. Longtime friend and creative collaborator John Moreland added his own contributions to the tracks from afar, using modern technology to shorten the distance between them.
Tourist continues a thread first sewn with his 2020 release Familiar Ground, again evolving his sound with the addition of layered synthesizers and drum machines. Through his engaging lyrics, Abney transports the listener into his passenger seat, allowing us to experience and savor every blurred, fleeting second as we pass through.
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John Calvin Abney, Singer Songwriter, Americana, Indie Rock, "Holy Golden West", multi-instrumentalist, indie rock, dream pop, ballads, 70's pop tones, "Tourist" album,
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