By Henry Lipput
Although it’s been seven years since Freedy Johnston’s Neon
Repairman, from the opening notes of his great new album Back on the Road to
You (Forty Below Records) it’s clear he hasn’t missed a beat.
My favorite songs on Back on the Road to You recall the things
I’ve liked in his past work. For instance, my first listen to the glorious pop
of “There Goes a Brooklyn Girl” made me think of Never Home’s “I’m Not
Hypnotized.” The five-minute long instant classic “Somewhere Love” has the same
melancholy vibe of his masterpiece Blue Days, Black Nights.
The back-to-basics rock and roll delight that is “Tryin’ to Move On,” about a man
on the run, sounds like the inspiration for an early Jonathan Demme film with a theme song written by Chuck Berry. The
album’s title song is a return to form as he’s helped by a crack roots music
team that adds nifty touches like a pedal steel and organ fills. But it’s the banjo
that begins the song that can make you want to run to your CD collection and give
his break-out release Can You Fly yet another listen (but listen the new album
first).
Johnston gets some help along the way from friends who happen
to be major-talent singer/songwriters. Aimee Mann provides lovely backing
vocals to “Darlin.” Long-time collaborator Susan Cowsills matches him note for
note on the rave-up “The Power of Love” (NOT the Huey Lewis song). And Susanna
Hoffs brings a twang to her backing vocals on “That’s Life.”
The first song, “Back on the Road to You,” and the last, “The
I Really Miss Ya Blues,” bookend the album. In addition to what the lyrics
tell us about a man trying to get back to someone who means a lot to him, they work as well for long-time Johnston fans who, for nearly a decade, have had the really miss him blues.
Welcome back, Freedy.
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