{"id":23795,"date":"2015-05-05T12:13:29","date_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:13:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/?p=23795"},"modified":"2015-05-05T12:13:29","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:13:29","slug":"listen-to-the-superb-title-track-of-freedy-johnstons-new-neon-repairman-album","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/2015-05\/listen-to-the-superb-title-track-of-freedy-johnstons-new-neon-repairman-album\/","title":{"rendered":"Listen to the Superb Title-Track of Freedy Johnston’s New “Neon Repairman” Album"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Neon-Repairman-cover\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Put simply, Freedy Johnston<\/a><\/strong> is one of our most gifted living songwriters.\u00a0 We previously spilled a couple thousand words to that effect HERE<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 In his songs, Johnston evokes whole worlds and stories with bare-necessity lines delivered in powerful melodies. Johnston’s albums Can You Fly<\/strong><\/em> and This Perfect World<\/em><\/strong> remain amongst the best albums ever delivered, and there have been gems ever since from Freedy<\/strong>.\u00a0 Johnston<\/strong> has now announced his imminent new, Kickstarter-financed album Neon Repairman.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong> Based on the powerful title track alone, we can’t wait for its arrival.<\/p>\n

Neon Repairman<\/em><\/strong> is an obvious tribute to Jimmy Webb’s<\/strong> winsome Wichita Lineman<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (which Johnston<\/strong> has previously covered well<\/a>).\u00a0 About the song, Johnston<\/strong> recently told The Journal News<\/a>: “All that was done purposefully.\u00a0 It was like, sorry Jimmy Webb<\/strong>, I needed to use your song as a template. I sort of traced over it.\u00a0 We were outside The Saxon Pub … and I said [to a friend], man, there must be a lot of neon repairmen in this town, and [the friend] says ‘That’s cool, you ought to write a song about a neon repairman.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I gotta do that.’<\/span>\u00a0 But I didn’t know how to finish it. \u2026 Then I realized it was kind of Wichita Lineman<\/strong><\/em>-like.\u00a0 So I wrote out Wichita Lineman<\/em> on one side of a piece of paper, on a legal pad. \u2026 I put in the lines I had next to the corresponding lines of Wichita Lineman<\/em>.\u00a0 It was sort of a device to finish the song.\u00a0 I emailed [Jimmy Webb about the song].\u00a0 [Webb] was a total Oklahoma gentleman [and called it] ‘a great song.'”\u00a0 You can the homage clearly in one of the new song\u2019s lines lifted from Wichita Lineman<\/strong><\/em>: \u201cAnd I need you more than want you, as the story goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Check the song out below.\u00a0 It’s an evocative beauty that bodes incredibly well for the impending album (the songlist of which is at bottom).\u00a0 You can pre-order Neon Repairman<\/strong><\/em> HERE<\/a>.\u00a0 In addition, Johnston will play the Lobero Theater in Santa Barbara on August 15th<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n