Freedy Johnston S/D, C/D?

Plus, one time at an outdoor show in Mpls, he beat up some frat guys that were heckling him!

I listen to Never Home most, it's got a nice mix of tempos. "Western Sky" is pretty lovely. He's great live, and has always been supercool to deal with personally when I've had the opportunity.

I dunno--I love "Bad Reputation" but "Responsible" is just so structurally canny, perfect song in my opinion. Plus, that album evokes a midwestern experience I know absolutely nothing about, makes me actually want to go there.

Plus, one time at an outdoor show in Mpls, he beat up some frat guys that were heckling him!

This sounds tremendous! Tell me more!

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/news/00-07/13.shtml

(forgive me for the pfork)

http://www.citypages.com/databank/21/1023/article8807.asp

Freedy Johnston gave as good as he got at Taste of Minnesota
by G.R. Anderson Jr.
July 12, 2000

The rock 'n' roll pantheon has its share of famous public meltdowns. The more flagrant episodes--from Jerry Lee Lewis lighting his piano on fire to Courtney Love inciting a crowd to strip her naked--become iconic abstractions, but still they highlight the tension inherent in the relationship between performer and audience. The less high-profile incidents, meanwhile, though they go mostly unnoticed, may actually be far more tangible and complex for crowd and musician alike. Passion becomes abandon, love turns to hatred. The performer/audience dynamic slips away. The show suddenly belongs to no one.

At a little after half past eight on June 30, with the sun fading over the first day of the 18th annual Taste of Minnesota festival, the humidity gave way to a slight breeze and Freedy Johnston, known for his genteel (if somewhat dark) songcraft and self-deprecating manner, took the Zone 105 stage to play. The crowd--folks in their 30s, mostly, some of them accompanied by their young children--had settled down in the grass in the relatively quiet southwestern corner of the capitol grounds.

Before the set was over, what had promised to be a laid-back family affair turned into an unpleasant fracas. According to several people who were in attendance, about five members of the audience commenced to heckle the singer and his band, and continued to do so. For nearly an hour, the witnesses say, Johnston alternated between brushing off the hecklers, appeasing the families, and holding fast to his muse. And then, finally, his frustration boiled over. The diminutive performer put down his guitar, jumped the four-foot-high temporary fence that bordered the stage, and went after one of his antagonists. Other members of the crowd pulled them apart, whereupon Johnston retreated and the hecklers were doused with jeers and beers.

"There were two guys in general, and maybe two or three others, who were doing karate chops and wrestling and yelling at Freedy while the rest of us were just sitting," says Sharon Her, who saw the debacle unfold. "It was sort of a mellow older crowd, and the scene was just really weird."

The 26-year-old Johnston fan says that despite one half-hearted warning from a Burns Security guard, the disruption escalated. "It was extremely mishandled," she says. "[The hecklers] should have been kicked out a long time ago."

Her and others say tension escalated as Johnston sang Elton John's "Rocket Man," during which the rowdy group, who appeared to be in their teens or early 20s, clapped out of time and sang the wrong lyrics loudly enough to stop the song entirely. Later, when the hecklers disrupted a solo performance of Johnston's song "Emily," the singer backed away from his microphone, singled out one of them and announced, "I'm coming for you, motherfucker."

Ron Maddox, who has served as the Taste of Minnesota's general manager for every one of its 18 years, initially told City Pages that the situation was "mishandled" by Burns, as well as by St. Paul police and state troopers, all of whom are hired to patrol the event. Maddox subsequently revised his assessment, saying that law enforcement officers had arrived on the scene within four minutes, in time to break it up and escort the disruptive attendees away. (No one was arrested.) "It was handled properly," he concluded.

Many witnesses, however, dispute that characterization of the events, insisting that it took closer to ten minutes for officers to arrive on the scene, and that they showed up only after the audience had taken care of business.

Others tend to point the finger at Johnston. "It seemed like harmless kids having too much fun," says 33-year-old music writer Henry Hormann, asserting that initially security had no real reason to react. "I've seen this once in a while and nothing happens, so I was surprised when Freedy jumped."

According to Ron Maddox, June 30 marked the largest crowd in Taste of Minnesota history; he estimates anywhere from 85,000 to 105,000 people attended. (Maddox says the Johnston show drew more than 3,000; attendees peg the number closer to 1,000.) And as any one of those tens of thousands of revelers well knows, festival organizers don't skimp on security. The question is: Why weren't any officers present at the Zone 105 stage? "We have security everywhere. It was a large crowd," Maddox responds. "We have five stages going of entertainment."

Maddox declines to say how many security officers were hired, allowing only that "it's a lot." He calls the scuffle an isolated incident in an otherwise trouble-free weekend. "What should have happened is that Freedy should have quit playing, gone to the side of the stage, and called for security. That's the professional thing to do."

"Nobody there felt he was unjustified in what he did," counters Sharon Her, adding that Johnston was mindful of the presence of children and took pains to defuse the situation away from his microphone. After the chaos unfolded, she says, she ended up behind the stage along with several audience members who chatted with the backing band while the singer composed himself. "Backstage he said he was really embarrassed and talked about how he had his last fight in high school and got his ass kicked," Her says. "He's a small guy."

Through his manager, Johnston declined to comment for this story. According to those who were present, when he retook the stage after a 15-minute hiatus, he apologized to the heckler he'd gone after, saying he was "a real peaceful guy." He wondered aloud where the police were, half-joking that he ought to have been arrested for what he'd done. Then he launched into his signature song: "Bad Reputation."

So what's the Can You Fly of the Aughties?

So, do go on.

Maybe we'll know in 2011.

So ... anyone hear his new one rain on the city? - i think it's really very good - or maybe after an eight year layoff any freedy would sound good to my ears - nonetheless, much better than right between the promises

I admit I haven't kept up with the guy, but I love Can You Fly and "I'm Not Hypnotized." Wrote this over on Rolling Country last month:

Also ungood, though still listenable, is Freedy Johnston's Rain On the City. I'll say he counts here since he recorded it in Nashville and "It's Gonna Come Back To You" sounds country. (And the guitar sound on "Livin' Too Close to the Rio Grande" is what I imagine Uncle Tupelo sound like.) I'm sad it's not good because I really like some of his songs, but he seems to have smoothed a lot of the interest out of his voice. There's a point in the second song where he sings "tried and tried and tried and tried" etc., and if you can imagine Freedy Johnston singing that, you can maybe picture the unusual way he used to shape vowels--very round and throaty. Unfortunately, that's almost all gone. Some of the tunes are pleasant, but nothing compelling. So all you've got left is the least interesting part of his arsenal--the Evocative Lyrics. On about half the songs, he tries to amp up the evocativeness by playing slowly, bleh. I may listen again in case I missed anything. Got an alarmingly high score from Ann Powers.

― dr. phil, Thursday, January 14, 2010 2:44 AM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

OK, Freedy Johnston sounds better today. It's still not setting the world on fire and I still miss his idiosyncrasies, but the tunes have grown on me. He's rhythmically competent enough that most of the songs hit some sort of relaxed groove, and his drummer knows how to work with his melodies. Best song probably "The Other Side of Love," which has a BeMyBaby beat. "Don't Fall In Love With a Lonely Girl" (the "tried and tried and..." song) is also good. Worst may be the bossa nova exercise "The Kind of Love We're In." Still borderline overall.

(I don't really feel compelled to listen to it any more at this point.)

Perspective understood, but to my ears he's one of the few out there that still just write songs - which to me is very welcome these days - i put him right there with grant lee phillips and damien jurado who although very different in their results mimic a similar approach --

Might watch his streaming thingie on FB tonight.

Will have to queue up Can You Fly. Haven’t heard it in ages.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuXiRxcZXGQ

Didn't know about the FB stream! Glad he's still at it.
This is worth looking for---from my Nashville Scene ballot comments re 2012 releases(I had this pegged as Related, not Country per se):

The Hobart Brothers & Lil Sis Hobart, At Least We Have Each Other:
Jon Dee Graham, Freedy Johnston, and Susan Cowsill pool their songs about buildings, food, dirt, jobs, women, men, spare tires of several kinds, jobs, pavement, waking up, jobs, dreams (maybe), jobs, spare sounds, fuller ones too (I prefer the former here, for the coffee break vibe, but both work), and jobs. Not really so many (or so remarkable) jobs, but more than we usually hear songs about; songs that beat plain ol' complaints, anyway. Susan Cowsill was the youngest member of her brothers'/mother's/manager dad's group The Cowsills, real life basis of the Partridge Family. She does not sound waify here: fairly tough and flexible voice, something of a potentially upsetting, born-for/to-trouble spark. Freedy Johnston's reedy, and observant enough to bend with the ornery wind; Graham's one gravelly, articulate Austin cracker. Johnston, whose stoically idiosyncratic practicality has so far led to at least one great solo album, Can You Fly (not even a rhetorical question), sometimes breaks out a bit of power pop here. It's in the soda pop pulled from a rusty icebed by a gas station, probably in Texas and/or the Great Plains, while the sun keeps the beat---they keep enough shade, enough cool to try and work out "the difference between beaten and beat," also Beat. This album is rec'd to these individual artists' fans, ditto those who enjoy the community-minded best of James McMurtry, Warren Zevon, John Doe, Dave Alvin, Eliza Gilkyson, like that y'all.

Bought a couple of sale-bin CDs today, This Perfect World and Never Home. (Can You Fly is all I had previously.) Loved this immediately:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1QXchSivyo

From The Cowsills vs The Partridge Family

I like Rhythm of The World, though the guys sing all the leads. Glad to have Susan in strong duet w xpost Freedy Johnston (see upthread for their album w Jon Dee Graham)---from his fine 2022 janglefest, Back On The Road To You, this is "The Power of Love," brothers and sisters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN0O8AhAY5c

xpost Can't Sink This Town. I have This Perfect World and Can You Fly on CD ... both great but haven't pulled them out in ages. Good to hear his distinctive singing voice again.

lol looking back i made a similar comment 3 years ago about Can You Fly but i guess i never got around to re-listening

This 2022 song (Trick of the Light) is really good IMO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peQ_X2ZoFBc

I've always loved "Trying to Tell You," but I kind of forgot about him. Favourite after one listen of Never Home:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVg4aCIn8Ps

Christgau gave him an A+--did he ever have a moment? I see he was on a soundtrack or two in the late '90s. I never see him mentioned any more when people comb over the '90s.

he probably still rakes in ok money from Bad Reputation being in a handful of movies.

I saw him live on the Perfect World tour but unfortunately got so drunk I blacked out and do not recall any of it.