{"id":23406,"date":"2022-07-26T05:30:26","date_gmt":"2022-07-26T09:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=23406"},"modified":"2022-07-26T13:00:26","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T17:00:26","slug":"album-review-freedy-johnston-back-on-the-road-to-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/07\/26\/album-review-freedy-johnston-back-on-the-road-to-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Freedy Johnston &#8212; Back on the Road to You"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-23407\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/freedy_johnston.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/freedy_johnston.jpg 350w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/freedy_johnston-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/freedy_johnston-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>Freedy Johnston is one of those artists whose name has long been familiar to me, but whose music I had somehow never encountered. Odd, that, as he\u2019s somewhat difficult to miss: Johnston released his debut, <em>The Trouble Tree<\/em> in 1990 and has followed that up with more than a dozen albums since. As a songwriter, he\u2019s held in high regard among his peers and critics alike. He even scored a minor hit single (\u201cBad Reputation\u201d) for his major- label debut, 1994\u2019s <i>This Perfect World<\/i>. That\u2019s the record that gained Johnston the most exposure to that point, and he\u2019s been a reliable and compelling purveyor of fine original music ever since.<\/p>\n<p>After 2015\u2019s <em>Neon Repairman<\/em>, Johnston seemed to go quiet for a bit; he\u2019s only now returned, with <em>Back on the Road to You<\/em>. A Kickstarter-financed project, it features Johnston backed by a four-piece band with added vocal support in key places from pals like Susan Cowsill, Aimee Mann and Susanna Hoffs. Fine singers and songwriters all, and artists who know a good song (and songwriter) when they encounter one.<\/p>\n<p>As is his standard practice, Johnston wrote all ten of the tunes on his latest. His wry wordplay is as sharp as ever. And the warm, friendly melodicisim of the title track sets the tone for the album. It\u2019s subtly countrified, but other tunes like \u201cThere Goes a Brooklyn Girl\u201d have a breezy character that transcends genre. Imagine Gin Blossoms crossed with Marshall Crenshaw and you\u2019ll have a bit of a sense of the music\u2019s character.<\/p>\n<p>The soaring, impassioned \u201cThe Power of Love\u201d ranks among the finest moments on the album, but any search for weak tracks will leave you frustrated; this is one solid set. The track sequence keeps listeners on their toes, endlessly switching up between contemplative and finely-wrought tunes like \u201cSomewhere Love\u201d and more upbeat cuts.<\/p>\n<p>And hey, now that I\u2019ve told you about this record, seems you\u2019ll have to wait a bit. The street date for <i>Back on the Road to You<\/i> is September 9. In the meantime, you can check out \u201cMadeline&#8217;s Eye,\u201d a lovely and representative track from the record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Freedy Johnston is one of those artists whose name has long been familiar to me, but whose music I had somehow never encountered. Odd, that, as he\u2019s somewhat difficult to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23407,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,51,65],"tags":[4890],"class_list":["post-23406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-pop","category-review","tag-freedy-johnston","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23406"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23419,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23406\/revisions\/23419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}