I already briefly mentioned John Calvin Abney’s new album Far Cries and Close Calls some weeks ago, but a revisit is in order because the album is now out and available. I’ve spent countless amount of hours listening to it during the week and I think it’s magnificent.

John Calvin Abney is an Oklahoma-based songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist. Far Cries and Close Calls is a very impressive collection of songs and his best album so far. Actually I probably should throw John’s denim jacket on that album of the month slot, because I haven’t changed that in ages and I’m really loving this one. There’s a good amount of variety in here as well. I’ll Be Here, Mairead wouldn’t feel out of place on a Pete Molinari album and Way Out is far closer to someone like Elliot Smith (this is far less Elliot-like than his Vice Versa Suite EP though). All that namedropping is rather pointless, because John has found his own voice and is more than ready to present his own unique combination of folk, americana, rock’n’roll and indie pop. I hope this one will get the recognition it deserves. In my books, Far Cries and Close Calls is one of 2016’s finest. Here are a couple of personal favorites from the album that is now out on Horton Records in USA and CRS/Continental Record Services in Europe. Album opener Beauty Seldom Seen and In Such A Strange Town. You can hear/buy the rest on his Bandcamp page.

John Calvin Abney Website

There’s so much good new music out there right now and so little time to write this blog. A lot of great stuff has come out during the past two weeks. There’s new albums from John Calvin Abney, Kirty, M.Lockwood Porter, Tom Brosseau etc. I try to get to those current favourites sometime soon-ish, but this blog entry is mostly about future greatness.

Nashville-based singer-songwriter Jon Latham is currently working on his sophomore album Lifers. Country Fried Rock premiered the wonderful title track Lifers early in the week and Jon has put an indiegogo campaign together in order to finance this future masterpiece. I did my small part, but maybe I should upgrage my perk, because I never bought a physical copy of the excellent debut album when it came out (I couldn’t find them anywhere at the time). It’s possible to grab these both now, if you experienced similar difficulties. This is the gorgeous title track Lifers from the forthcoming album that is estimated to drop into the hearts of the backers in April 2017.

And here’s a little bonus. I’ve shared some Jon Latham songs here over the past year or so, but I don’t think I have posted this one called Kimberly Met Billy that was co-written with another great tunesmith Darrin Bradbury. No idea will you find this beautiful one from the forthcoming album, but it’s definitely worth hearing. Here’s Flour Sack Cape’s live video for the song.

Jon Latham Website
Help Make Jon Latham’s Sophomore Album, Lifers at Indiegogo