Episode 224: ID FFWD with Freedy Johnston

Freedy Johnston’s Can You Fly album landed on a number of 1992 best-of lists, with legendary music critic Robert Christgau calling it "a perfect album” and penning the following about the record: “Contained, mature, realistic in philosophy and aesthetic, its every song a model of open-ended lyrical detail and lithe, sly melodicism, it's a flat-out monument of singer-songwriterdom--up there with Randy Newman's 12 Songs, Joni Mitchell's For the Roses, and other such prepunk artifacts.” Not too shabby. But the peak of Johnston’s fame came with the 1995 single “Bad Reputation” from the follow-album, This Perfect World, produced by Butch Vig (Nirvana, Garbage, Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, et al). Johnston has been out there slogging it out ever since, releasing an ongoing career’s worth of albums filled with incisive songs delivered in his trademark reedy tenor voice. Johnston first joined us on Independent’s Day for episode #62 in December of 2012, and he was kind enough to return just in time for the release of his brand-new album, Back On the Road to You (Forty Below Records - 9/9/22). Joe and Freedy had a wide-ranging discussion that ranged from the making his new album, the perils of social media in a divided society, and how eager he is to get back on the road to play shows after being sidelined by the Covid-19 pandemic. He also treated us to three exclusive live performances of “There Goes a Brooklyn Girl,” “Somewhere Love,” and “Tryin’ to Move On” - three new gems from Back On the Road to You.