Press — John Calvin Abney

Familiar Ground Black Mesa, 2020 8/10 Listen to Familiar Ground John Calvin Abney’s 5th album, Familiar Ground, comes at a very unique time in history, where many artists are sequestered and penning records during the country’s lockdown. In continuing with the theme of the pandemic and its repercussions, the Oklahoma resident examines mortality, and strength, especially when it comes to battling the often difficult tides of life, and his pensive and yet optimistic atmosphere sure sounds like it should soundtrack 2020. Abney starts the album with the appropriately titled “When This Blows Over”, where folk and twang meet with Abney’s...

Oklahoma Rock Show's Top 25 Songs of 2020 Last week, we counted down the top 25 Oklahoma songs of 2020. In total, we played 740 new songs on The Oklahoma Rock Show this year, so our final list was wildly competitive. Check out our picks below. 2. John Calvin Abney - When This Blows Over  

Whatever the reason, Familiar Ground is a beautiful, near-gentle collection of nine tracks that find Abney exploring his new normal of 2020.

The thought of connecting the recognizable with the emergence of complete change sounds ridiculous at first. However, in terms of Abney’s realizations of both, it’s more a matter of re-prioritizing aspects of his own self that had always been there, rather than change being defined by entirely novel ideas.