John Calvin Abney returns with Transparent Towns
John Calvin Abney’s seventh studio album, Transparent Towns, which is set for release on September 19th via Tin Canyon Records and Well Kept Secret/Secretly Distribution, is a hauntingly beautiful meditation on time, memory, and of the impermanence of place.
Transparent Towns‘ songs were written during a period of enforced silence following vocal cord surgery that Abney required back in 2023. After a brief convalesce, but with the vow of silence still (mostly) in effect, Abney, always in demand as a sideman, stayed busy heading out on the road lending his musical chops to other songwriters and bands, all while absorbing his travels here and abroad with new perception and perspective. The result is an album that feels both deeply personal and universally resonant, capturing that ache of nostalgia and the weight of change that we all eventually carry as a burden. Abney’s introspective journey yields ten tracks that weave a tapestry of dreamy folk-rock, blending Laurel Canyon vibes, Beatles-esque hooks and layers with Brian Wilson-inspired sonic landscapes.
The album’s lead single, “Last Chance,” sets the tone for Transparent Towns with its shimmering electric guitar and pedal steel, evoking the bittersweet pull of fleeting moments. Abney’s Oklahoma roots ground the record, with small-town imagery of old cafes, forgotten voices, and transformed landscapes serving as a backdrop for his reflections on identity and loss. The title track, inspired by Italo Calvino’s “Invisible Cities,” a 13th century travelogue, explores how memories are reshaped by time. Abney likens them to forests, ocean floors, and derelict warehouses. When Abney sings, “The venues and houses you stayed up late in are now paid parking lots” those lyrics cut deep, painting a vivid scene of progress swallowing up the past indiscriminately. That ability to lyrically paint a picture is one of my favorite qualities of Abney as a songwriter. But here, it’s absolutely what elevates the album to a next level obsession. One that almost demands the repeated listens that have surreptitiously led to considering different interpretations here and there, and even provoked similar personal reflection. It’s a sneaky and subtle gem of an album.
The album was self-produced at Cardinal Song near Oklahoma City, with mixing and engineering by Michael Trepagnier. Transparent Towns features a talented cast of mostly Oklahoma-based musicians, alongside guest vocal harmonies from Lydia Loveless and long time collaborator John Moreland. Abney’s songwriting shines in its ability to trace the invisible markers of time, those fleeting, intangible moments that define us. He grapples with the unreliability of memory in a digital age, where “copies of copies” stored in our phones blur the lines between truth and story. Seemingly well recovered from his vocal cord surgery, his voice sounds rejuvenated, matured and resonant, full of warmth and clarity that ground these existential musings. From the sweltering Texas summers spent on a landscape crew that inspired “Last Chance” to the contemplative nature of his recent convalesce, Abney transforms personal hardship into universal truths. Transparent Towns feels like a proper companion to his 2022 release Tourist, a natural progression of sorts. Abney’s work as a sideman for artists like John Moreland, Ben Kweller, Wild Child, Margo Cilker and S.G. Goodman certainly help to hon his craft, but he’s no sideman here. This album is distinctly and peerlessly his, and I think it’s his finest yet. Transparent Towns is a beautiful and rewarding album musically and lyrically, an absolute, compelling sum of all it’s parts. It’s an album that feels like a heartfelt ode to the places he’s been throughout his travels, a love letter to Oklahoma with it’s a fair shake of good and bad times, and brimming with sage advice on the fleeting moments that shape us past, present and future. It’s an album that encourages listeners to venture forth and find some transparent towns on their own, whenever and wherever they can.
Abney’s new album is one of my favorites of the year.
You can visit Transparent Towns and everything John Calvin Abney here: https://www.johncalvinabney.com
Enjoy our previous coverage here: REVIEW: John Calvin Abney “Tourist”
