Back on the Road to You

In his strongest work, Freedy Johnston sounds like an enlightened amateur in the best possible ways -- as meticulous as the production was on albums like This Perfect World (1994), Never Home (1997), and Blue Days, Black Night (1999), there was just enough looseness in his foggy Midwestern voice and the crannies of his songwriting to suggest he was alive to the possibilities of his eccentric, heartfelt world view without being reined in.