Freedy Johnston
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Freedy Johnston (born 1961) is a New York City-based singer-songwriter originally from Kinsley, Kansas.
Having scored several minor hits since the early 1990s, Johnston's songs are often about troubled loners, and cover topics like heartbreak, alienation and disappointment. Known for the craftsmanship of his songs, he has been described as a "songwriter's songwriter."[1]
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[edit] Biography
Johnston's first album, The Trouble Tree, was released in 1990. Johnston sold some of his family's farmland to finance the recording of his second album, Can You Fly (an event he wrote about in a song on that album, "Trying to Tell You I Don't Know"). [2] Johnston followed up with his 1994 major label debut, This Perfect World, which received rave reviews and led to Rolling Stone naming him "songwriter of the year". It featured the single "Bad Reputation", which reached 54 on the Billboard Hot 100 and is one of his best-known songs.
He has contributed songs to the soundtracks for movies including Kingpin, Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead, and Kicking and Screaming. Johnston and fellow musicians Jay Moran, James "Pie" Cowan, Duke Erikson, and Butch Vig perform occasional shows as a covers band called "The Know-it-All Boyfriends". Vig put the ensemble together for his brother's Christmas party, and it proved to be so much fun that they decided to keep going.[3]
Johnston's latest release is a covers album titled My Favorite Waste of Time. It includes selections from Tom Petty, Paul McCartney, Matthew Sweet and The Hollies. He is working on a new CD, called Rain on the City, that is slated to come out in late 2008 or early 2009.
[edit] Style
Of his This Perfect World album, CD Universe writes that his music marries "perfectly realized power-pop sensibility to skilled, literary writing chops."[4]
[edit] Discography
- The Trouble Tree (1990)
- Can You Fly (1992)
- Unlucky (1993)
- This Perfect World (1994)
- Never Home (1997)
- Blue Days Black Nights (1999)
- Live at 33 1/3 (2000)
- Right Between the Promises (2001)
- The Way I Were: 4-Track Demos 1986-1992 (2004)
- Live at McCabe's Guitar Shop (2006)
- My Favorite Waste of Time (2007)
[edit] Contributions
- Song of America (2007) - "Peg & Awl"
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Fan website
- Biography at VH1
- Freedy Johnston discography at MusicBrainz
- "Bad Reputation" at YouTube
[edit] References
- ^ Pulse of the Twin Cities - Freedy Johnston: Ready for Round Two
- ^ vh1.com Freedy Johnston Bio
- ^ vh1.com Freedy Johnston Bio
- ^ cduniverse.com - This Perfect World CD
