If you grow up as a music fan and have aspirations to become a musician – life is treating you a little unfairly if the only place you can buy records back in the seventies was 45 miles away. But that’s what Frederic John Fatzer – or Freedy Johnston as we now know him – had to endure growing up in Kinsley, Kansas. It’s been famously reported that he travelled that lengthy 90 mile round trip to buy Elvis Costello’s album “My Aim Is True” he’d heard about through ‘Rolling Stone‘ magazine. He was fascinated by the slightly unusual lyrics and it precipitated a career as a musician.
He bought his first guitar via mail order as he was jealous of his brother getting and playing a guitar – and his early musical influences were new wave. In 1985 he moved to New York and changed his name to Freedy as it was a nickname his mother had given him – and Johnston was his mother’s maiden name. After jobs in architecture and being a chef in a restaurant – he managed to get a record deal with Bar/None Records who released his debut album “The Trouble Tree” in 1990.
Johnston then went on to release thirteen brilliant albums – the latest of which – “Back On The Road To You” in 2022 is as good as anything he’s ever recorded. He’s also recorded an album with Jon Dee Graham and Susan Cowsill as The Hobart Brothers & Lil’ Sis Hobart called “At Least We Have Each Other”. I so love his knack for writing tuneful yet interesting songs and there’s been a solid consistency in all his albums. It’s sad that we haven’t seen him play live much here in the UK but hopefully this may change with the positive publicity given to his most recent release.
Having been based in New York for decades – he now lives with fellow musician Victoria Williams in the Mojave Desert.
Can’t Live With It “Right Between The Promises” (2001)
Johnston’s previous album proper, “Blue Days Black Nights”, was a strong but slightly bleak album – so his seventh release was on a stronger footing with a tone that was generally lighter in spirit. But something was array – the album was a little uneven and some of that may have been down to the slightly erratic production by Cameron Greider – who also plays on the album. There are a mighty sixteen other musicians on this album, including Butch Vig on drums and Graham Maby on bass – he’s Joe Jackson’s main bass player. Things get off to a good start with ‘Broken Mirror’ and ‘Waste Your Time’ but things start trailing off a little soon after.
A lovely track ‘Radio For Heartache’ is strangely given an acoustic take, making it sound like a demo – and there’s a slightly out of place cover of Edison Lighthouse’s ‘Love Grows’ early in the album. There’s a lovely laid-back tune ‘That’s Alright With Me’ in the mix and the remaining songs are all good – it’s Freedy Johnston album after all, but it’s not a classic.
Can’t Live Without It “Can You Fly” (1992)
Johnston’s debut album in 1990 “The Trouble Tree” was well received but sadly didn’t do well commercially. So with typical Johnston determination and professionalism he spent two years writing a bunch of exceptional songs that would become the barnstormer that was “Can You Fly”. He assembled in the studio fifteen other musicians including regular bass player Graham Maby; the brilliant Marshall Crenshaw on guitar and bass; Chris Stamey on electric guitar; Syd Straw on vocals; Dave Schramm on lap steel and Jane Scarpantoni on cello.
And this album really took off with the critics. ‘People’ magazine said –“Johnston has produced an extraordinary album, one of the most tuneful, propulsive and penetrating of this or any year”. ‘Musician’ said of the track ‘Can You Fly’ – “I like it so much I’m almost afraid to write about it”.
This was a really important album for Johnston – he’d yet to get a major label deal – this was released on Bar/None Records – and financially he could barely afford to record it – he had to sell some farmland he’d inherited from his grandfather to finance it. Promoting the album – the 32 year old musician supported the likes of Uncle Tupelo, They Might Be Giants, Soul Asylum and the Lemonheads. The album opener is ‘Trying To Tell You I Don’t Know’ and after a false start – a glorious, raunchy tune develops – catchy and instantly memorable. Johnston even mentions in the song about his grandfather’s land helping him finance the album – “well I sold the dirt to feed the band”. ‘In The New Sunshine’ has a glorious opening guitar riff for a highly personal song about being a musician – catchy as hell, brief but an instant classic.
‘The Lucky One’ is as near a perfect Johnston tune – superb melody and lyrics – a mid-tempo corker that’s the album highlight. ‘Responsible’ and ‘The Mortician’s Daughter’ are further highlights and demonstrates Johnston’s fantastic ability to share utter enthusiasm while admitting he’s not quite getting his act together.
Johnston’s albums are all worth checking out – especially “Never Home” (1994) , “This Perfect World” (1997) and “Rain In The City” (2009)– and he’s still delivering in spades – his latest “Back On The Road To You” is a sterling album. He really is a titan of americana – a superb musician and songwriter – definitely one of the best. Let’s hope the Mojave Desert continues to inspire him to make more superlative music. Here’s Johnson back in 1997 performing ‘On The Way Out’ from his “Never Home” album on Conan O’Brien, to show how powerful a live performer he is.