When pop-rocker Freedy Johnston released The Trouble Tree [1990], his debut album, on Bar/None Records, it felt like a natural fit. The Hoboken label was (and still remains) a home for idiosyncratic and ambitious songwriters with unusual approaches, and Johnston was just that: literate, tuneful, rooted in rock history but plainly walking his own path.
Hoboken embraced him enthusiastically. Johnston went on to work with some of the most imaginative artists associated with the Mile Square scene, including Dave Schramm, Chris Stamey, Chris Butler, and Jane Scarpantoni. By the mid-Nineties, he’d earned national recognition for his writing and scored a chart hit with the stinging “Bad Reputation.” After spending the worst of the pandemic years in his native Great Plains, Johnston is back in town, living in the Heights, and doing regular Tuesday night gigs at area clubs. His ongoing reunion with Hudson County brings him to Monty Hall (43 Montgomery St.), WFMU’s dedicated stage, on Tuesday night. Karyn Kuhl, another local favorite, will be his special guest and interview subject. The two artists will take turns playing songs.
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Tris McCall has written about art, architecture, performance, politics, and public culture for many publications, including the Newark Star-Ledger, the Bergen Record, Jersey Beat, the Jersey City Reporter,…
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