REVIEW: Freedy Johnston, Blue Days, Black Nights (Elektra)
- Michael Van Gorden
With the opening line of "I sail alone in a homemade boat," Freedy Johnston perfectly sets the mood for his latest and most emotionally moving album to date. Ever the master storyteller, on Blue Days, Black Nights, Freedy uses his simple melodies, well-chosen words and a very spare sounding record to tug at our heart strings, bring up old, long forgotten memories and just plain get under our emotional skin.
"Underwater Life" opens the CD with the above line, and proceeds to paint a picture of a lonely man who uses his homemade boat to haul trash, all the while enduring the jeers and jokes of his peers, until one night he realizes that he would be willing to "trade his own today, for the underwater life." The characters in Freedy's songs have always been fleshed out by the well chosen words and the haunting, rolling melodies that are so subtle, yet seem to ingrain themselves in your mind.
Freedy again takes the simple approach to these songs, much like he did on "Western Sky" from his previous CD Never Home. In fact, if songs like "Western Sky" and "Evie's Tears" are some of your favorites, then this CD is tailor made for you. There are no loud crunching guitar sounds (ala On the Way Out), but Freedy has constructed a very intimate setting for his stories of loneliness hurt, alienation and emotional pain.
For those that already think moving can be a sad, somber experience, try "Moving on a Holiday," with lines like "old address book in my hand/How'd I lose my place again/The only thing not packed away/moving on a holiday," which evoke memories of the finality of moving away from something dear. In another sad tale, "The Farthest Lights," an astronomer wonders whether all the time he spent gazing at the stars has caused the light to go out in his wife's eyes. Again using imagery so vivid and alive, the astronomer asks himself "I will ask but you won't say/Do I watch the sky too much/familiar and so far away." The central character of "Pretend It's Summer" remembers when he met the love of his life, and how "a summer storm wasn't over yet / We discovered our initials matched." When things don't work out he longs for the old days so much he begins to pretend it's summer, going out in the winter and "picks flowers in the snow all day." As the story comes to an end, the music also begins to fade, and you hope that the pain and the memory fade along with it.
As sad as this CD may sound, the melodies and Freedy's singing seem to give the character's hope. No matter how bad off they may sound, you find yourself pulling for them, buoyed by the melodies and the exceptional playing of Freedy's band. With Cameron Grieder on guitar, Jim Keltner on drums, and Andy Hess on bass, the music is subdued yet powerful. This album is perfect for those "3 a.m." moments, when you're trying to sort through the cobwebs in your mind. This album ranks right up there with Jules Shear's Between Us, on which Freedy guests. With the growth this CD shows, I look forward to Freedy's next album, while I wallow in the beauty of this one.
