Press — bmr013

Carried on a lovely country sway, the song is held together by Abney’s voice. Dimmed and somewhat withdrawn, there’s an ache in his weathered vocals that makes the whole thing to feel beautifully compelling; a subtle and stirring accompaniment for the current season.

On his fifth full-length record, the Tulsa-based writer bucks the prevailing sentiment that it takes more work to make noise than it does to exercise restraint. 

In Abney’s case, his post-pandemic plan is reuniting with the people he loves and going places. “There was a time in my life when I could be anywhere,” he sings, a note of sadness in his voice that makes him sound a little bit like Elliott Smith if he’d founded a scruffy alt-country band and moved to Oklahoma.

On album standout “When This Blows Over” — out today alongside a music video directed by fellow Oklahoman Samantha Crain — Abney paraphrases the beloved Irish poet Seamus Heaney, reminding us over a twangy, bedroom pop soundscape that “We can summer together / if we can winter this.”