Troubadour with a Bad Rep.

By: Michael N. Jordan

Freedy Johnston takes Beachland stage Saturday night

At the dawn of the 1990s, Freedy Johnston sold off part of his family’s Kansas farm in order to finance his music career. Fortunately, the singer/songwriter’s gamble paid off as he spent much of the next decade crafting songs about literary portraits of heartland citizens. Some of these tunes reached high on the charts after Elektra signed him on in 1994.

When the major label put out Johnston’s third album, This Perfect World, it scored an unlikely hit single “Bad Reputation,” a passionate and infectious song that takes an introspective look at how vulnerable and insecure people can feel when something, or someone, is left behind. The song seemed out of place against the backdrop of bombast and winking irony that cluttered the ‘90s pop landscape, and today it seems even more striking in its poignant emotional honesty.

Like so many other artists who flirted with ‘90s music fame, it seemed like Johnston had fallen off the map. Indeed, after releasing three more critically lauded albums, which failed to achieve the same level of commercial success of This Perfect World, Johnston lost his label deal. He ended a long-term relationship, had troubles with the IRS, stopped touring and moved from city to city. But just like a character he sings about, the troubadour persevered, and on January 12 Rain on the City will be released on the folk pop label Bar/None Records, home to 10,000 Maniacs, Dj Spooky, Trembling Blue Stars and Yo La Tengo. It’s Johnston’s first album of new material in eight years.

Recorded in his new home base of Nashville at House of David studios run by multi-instrumentalist Richard McLaurin and owned by David Briggs, Elvis Presley’s last keyboardist, the album deftly blends styles ranging from the pop inflected “Don’t Fall in Love With a Lonely Girl,” to roots rock, folk and country inflections on songs like “Venus” and “Rio Grande.” His voice has the same nasal, yet tuneful quality of someone like Marshall Crenshaw or Matthew Sweet that works well with his guitar-centered songs.

His sound is perfectly suited to the unflinchingly honest stories he tells.

On tour, Johnston’s material from Rain on the City as well as selections from his vast catalog, as part of a double bill featuring Pat DiNizio of the Smithereens.

Sat. Nov. 7 at 9 p.m. (8 p.m. door). An Evening with
Pat DiNizio
of the Smithereens
Freedy Johnston
$20.00 adv / $23.00 dos
Ballroom | All Ages