'Tourist' brings Oklahoma singer-songwriter John Calvin Abney back home

At a time when travel was restricted for much of the world, John Calvin Abney became a "Tourist" to his own personal history as well as his musical influences.

"I was born in Reno, Nevada, and I grew up in Oklahoma. Going back to the places where I used to spend time as a child in Nevada and California, I don't know anyone really ... so I'm a tourist in the town I was born in — and it's strange," Abney said.

"(Being on) tour does that, too, sometimes. You'll come home from a long tour and be a tourist wherever you live because life doesn't stop when you're gone: People die, people have children, people get married. Places burn down; places are built. ... Sometimes the charm's sucked out of a place while you're gone — or sometimes beautiful things happen while you're gone."

Touring in support of his new album "Tourist," the prolific singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist will return to Oklahoma City Sept. 11 to play a long-awaited engagement at the recently revamped Blue Door listening room.

"I haven't played a Blue Door show in four years. I haven't played Oklahoma City in a damn long time, so it'll be good to get back. No opener, no band. I'm just gonna play my piano and play my guitar and sing and tell stories for 90 minutes," Abney said.

Oklahoma singer-songwriter follows up 'Familiar Ground' with 'Tourist'

Released last month on the Tulsa-based independent label Black Mesa Records, "Tourist" arrives in the midst of a productive era for Abney as a recording artist. It follows his 2021 experimental instrumental album "Wildfire Suite," his contemplative 2020 quarantine song collection "Familiar Ground" and his hopeful 2019 Americana record "Safe Passage."

"The first three months of the pandemic, I recorded 'Familiar Ground' at home ... in Tulsa. That was in 2020, and then my lease was up. I had a series of friends that had empty rooms and places (where) I could kind of isolate," he said.

A former Tulsa and Norman resident, Abney recently set up a new home base in Austin, Texas, after spending time in California's Bay Area. His dad, who was born in Santa Barbara, died suddenly in 2019, on the day Abney announced the release plans for his "Safe Passage."

"'Tourist' was based on the concept of tangling with the idea of a hometown and wanting to be a part of a place without being able to be there as often as you like, due to your own circumstances," the songwriter told The Oklahoman from the road in Alabama.

"I come from Okies, and I come from Californian Okies. So, Oklahoma has always felt like home in one way or another, but I'm Nevadan born. ... But when I moved to Tulsa, it's a different place. It's a different geography, it's a different region, it's different people. But it felt very natural. I love Oklahoma: I carry that pride of 'I'm an Oklahoman' very much, but it's just something I've tangled with for many years."

Oklahoma singer-songwriter continues collaborating with John Moreland

Abney continues to be inspired by his ongoing collaborations with his longtime friend and fellow Oklahoma singer, songwriter and musician John Moreland. Both Abney and Moreland released new albums this year, with the latter's "Birds in the Ceiling" dropping in July via Old Omens/Thirty Tigers.

"It's fun, man. ... For my past two records, they were all completely distanced — Moreland and I didn't spent a second in the same room together," Abney said. "Moreland and I have a good rapport. We work really well together in any case. The technology just allows us to make records without being in the same room."

Moreland contributed drums, bass, harmonies and synthesizers to "Tourist," while Abney played pianos, mellotron, synths and ukulele on the fellow Tulsan's "Birds in the Ceiling."

"I really like movie scores and classical music, and John goes back to hardcore. I played drums in Poolboy, John played guitar in Thirty Called Arson, and we've both produced for hip hop. I played jazz for a long time in a lot of different forms," Abney said. "We're both huge Bill Evans fans; we love Brazilian bossa nova. There's just all sorts of stuff that we listen to that influences us. ... All the music you listen to accidentally leaks into what you create."

Singer-songwriter's mellow sound built on broad musical influences

Although he's not currently based in Oklahoma, Abney still considers himself a fan of many Sooner State bands, including Helen Kelter Skelter, Sisteria and Chat Pile.

"I love loud music. I love metal. I love hardcore. I love punk rock. I love rock and roll. But what I make is just mellow, man. ... Most of my records over the past five years pretty much are — and I didn't do that on purpose," Abney said.

"People say ... 'This is my favorite record to drive to' or 'I really like walking at sunset to this record' or 'I like it to cool off or mellow out at the end of a long day.' Those are the typical scenarios in which I think my record's digested. It makes sense, because those are the times where I really absorb most of my musings, when I'm driving or early, early, early mornings or golden hour at sunset. They're the moments where I'm detaching myself ... from this (expletive) crazy world."

As with his collaborations with Moreland, Abney's mellow sound is built on a wide breadth of musical influences, from Tulsa Sound pioneer JJ Cale to Japanese pop godfather Haruomi Hosono.

"I was listening to a ton of Elton John: Those first few records of his were huge influences on me for this record. ... I wrote most of the songs on the piano, and then I played all the piano and all the guitar on 'Tourist,'" Abney said.

"The goal is to create something new, not to regurgitate. ... If I say I love those artists and then I create something that doesn't sound like them, but there's elements that inspired me to do certain things in the studio or in my performances, I think that's a really good way to go about being inspired in producing new material."

JOHN CALVIN ABNEY

When: 8 p.m. Sept. 11.

Where: Blue Door, 2805 N McKinley.

Tickets: http://www.bluedoorokc.com.

Information: https://www.johncalvinabney.com.

Features Writer Brandy "BAM" McDonnell has covered Oklahoma's arts, entertainment and cultural sectors for The Oklahoman for 20 years. Reach her at bmcdonnell@oklahoman.com, www.facebook.com/brandybammcdonnell and twitter.com/BAMOK. Support her work by signing up for her See & Do Oklahoma newsletter and subscribing to The Oklahoman.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: 'Tourist' brings Oklahoma songwriter John Calvin Abney back home