When he first moved to New York City from his home state of Kansas, songwriter Freedy Johnston landed a job as a truck driver, delivering Italian ice. But his eyesight is poor, and he’s a lousy driver. He quickly perpetrated a series of traffic accidents and was soon fired. “I’m much better off in my new job,” he says. “No danger of running someone over with my guitar.”
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Themes of longing and reverie drift through most of Johnston’s songs, even those that rock hard with crunchy chords and crashing cymbals. A prime example is the album’s first single and opening track, “Trying to Tell You I Don’t Know.” The song is built around a muscular electric guitar riff and gruff vocals, but its edgy chorus is layered with delicate, ethereal harmonies. The construction suggests a cinematic split-screen image: on one half we see him standing on the ground, mired in frustration, yelling lines like “Tryin’ to sing what I can’t say,” while on the other side he’s floating into the security of his imagination, singing the harmony, “Tryin’, tryin’ . . .”
He eventually accumulated enough material to fill out a demo tape, which he sent to Bar/None, a small indie label in Hoboken with a keen eye for fresh talent. (The bands they’ve signed–then lost to the majors–include They Might Be Giants and Yo La Tengo.) In 1990 Bar/None put out a version of Johnston’s demo as The Trouble Tree. Nobody really noticed (though oddly enough the record was a hit in the Netherlands), but Johnston continued to write new material. Before long he had enough for a second release but none of the necessary funds. To get that record out, he committed what would become for him a defining act: he sold the farm he’d inherited from his grandfather. The proceeds enabled him to record Can You Fly.
When Johnston packed Schuba’s on two successive nights in December, the shows personalized some of the dreamy mystery of his recorded songs. But even live–amid jokes and patter–the mood remained laced with longing and celestial suggestion, right down to the angel painted on his guitar.
