3. John Calvin Abney: Safe Passage
Singer/songwriter and in-demand multi-instrumentalist John Calvin Abney shares a new album today, Safe Passage, on Tulsa’s Black Mesa Records. The folk-leaning country crooner has toured with artists like John Moreland, Samantha Crain, and Lee Bains III + The Glory Fires over the last decade, but he more than holds his own as a solo artist. Safe Passage will carry you to straight to country/folk bliss. “Safe Passage is a collection of songs sewn together with familiar musical motifs, nostalgic reminders of tunes within tunes and a thread of hope,” Abney said in a statement. “I wrote most of this album with an optimistic message in mind, relating to internal forces and struggles, but in the end, the songs took on new meanings that were more global, more cosmic, more human.”—Ellen Johnson