Kansas
Can a storied Kansas rocker put his ‘Bad Reputation’ in the past and find a future in folk music?
Freedy Johnston was almost certainly the only musician at Kansas City’s 2024 Folk Alliance International Conference who once had a video in rotation on MTV. Yet the acclaimed indie-rocker of the 1990s didn’t feel out of place among the 3,000 attendees.
Instead, Johnston viewed the music industry’s most important convention for folk artists as “a job fair,” he said.
In his first time at the annual conference, Johnston hoped to impress domestic and international folk music presenters capable of sustaining his already lengthy career, and overcome bias from people who only associate him with his 1995 rock hit, “Bad Reputation.”
“It would be hard to tell the difference between me and someone else with an acoustic guitar, no matter what their appearance or their lyric content,” Johnston said from the lobby of the Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center. “I think I fit in.”
Bill Brownlee
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KCUR 89.3
Johnston’s style and presentation have certainly evolved in the intervening decades, and changing tastes dictate he now often performs in solo acoustic settings.
But while ambitious acts meticulously rehearsed for the occasion, Johnston took a curiously casual approach.
During his 30-minute showcase performance in a hotel ballroom, Johnston worked without a setlist. And rather than featuring his best-known material, he opted for unlikely selections like “Sparky the Heroic Dog,” a novelty song he wrote in high school.
Only a delicate reading of “Darlin’,” a highlight of his 2022 album “Back on the Road to You,” demonstrated the profundity of his talent.
The song features background vocals from one of Johnston’s friends, Aimee Mann, the singer-songwriter who rose to fame in the 1980s with the band Til Tuesday.
Mann also created sketches used in an animated video of the song, about grieving parents.
The online publication Americana UK called the album “a gorgeous collection of guitar jangling summery pop music.” Appearances by Susan Cowsill, of the Cowsills, and Susannah Hoffs, of the Bangles, accentuate the breezy sound.
“If you’re judged by your friends, I hope I’m judged well,” Johnston told KCUR.
Craig Grossman, a booking agent based in Minneapolis with Black Oak Artists, counts himself among Johnston’s friends.
“A lot of people have called Freedy a songwriters’ songwriter,” said Grossman, who has seen plenty of musicians receive big breaks at the conference.
“In the folk world, you could do one or two good size festivals and that can honestly set up your career for many, many years,” Grossman said. “Admittedly, it’s not the same thing as when you’re the new, hot thing and you come in and then everybody wants to be a part of it.”
Johnston was that new hot thing in 1992 when his second album, “Can You Fly,” was rapturously received by critics. The influential music writer Robert Christgau gave the album a rare A+ review in The Village Voice, and NPR contributor Tom Moon included it in his 2008 survey, “1,000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die.”
Marla Norton
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Freedy Johnston
Johnston added to the album’s appeal by including his own backstory in the opening track, “Trying to Tell You I Don’t Know.”
“I inherited farmland from my grandfather and I decided to sell it right away,” Johnston said. “It was the land, the first house I lived in … (and) the house where I learned to walk.”
The sale bankrolled Johnston’s then-fledgling music career, and financed his move from Lawrence, Kansas, to New York City.
“I sold everything, you know… just to do this,” he said. “Just about the stupidest thing that anybody could ever do. It worked out in my case.”
In spite of critical adulation and guidance over the years from elite producers like T Bone Burnett and Butch Vig, Johnston, now 62 and based in Portland, Oregon, operates on the fringes of the music industry.
Even so, he isn’t bitter.
“My mother got to see me on MTV for a minute, you know? And I flew her to see me open up for Sheryl Crow — huge deal. The first time she’d ever been on a jet plane, all that stuff,” Johnston said. “So I backed it up, you know?”
Johnston backed up his legacy at the Folk Alliance International Conference this year with flashes of his unique talent. And whether or not he caught a break in Kansas City, he intends to persevere.
“I have to keep doing it, it’s not really a choice. There’s not an exit strategy,” Johnston confessed. “I’m a songwriter, you know? That’s all I can do.”
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Boeing is making a billion-dollar investment in its Wichita location over the next three years, the company announced Monday.
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said the investment will be used to upgrade facilities, expand employee training and strengthen the production system.
He said this will prepare the facility for a higher production rate, especially as Boeing tries to keep up with a record-high demand. The company is currently sitting on a backlog of 6,100 commercial planes, valued at $695 billion.
“It’s going to take the skills and capabilities of all of you to help us deliver on our record backlogs and meet the growing demand in aerospace,” Ortberg said. “And I know the 13,000 Wichita teammates are ready to deliver on that promise.”
There could be even more work coming to the facility. Reuters reported that Ortberg will be going to China with President Donald Trump and a few other leaders in the tech industry to talk about trade and investment opportunities.
Lt. Gov. David Toland said that more work at the company will help the Wichita economy and that it is up to the city to build up the workforce.
“We’ve got a company that’s put its money where its mouth is,” Toland said. “And as Kansans, as Wichitans, it’s on us now that we’re continuing to skill up our workforce, that we’re creating the talent pipeline that’s essential to allowing companies like Boeing to continue growing.”
Over the past several years, Wichita has invested in the aviation workforce. This includes expanding aviation education at WSU Tech and tapping students in WSU’s National Institute for Aviation Research to help with federal projects like the “Golden Dome” missile defense shield.
Last week, Boeing and WSU Tech announced a new partnership to build a workforce training center that will be a hub for Boeing’s Wichita workforce.
Sen. Jerry Moran hopes Boeing’s investments will ease concerns or caution surrounding the company’s return to Wichita and build on the city’s reputation in the aviation industry.
“You’ve heard me say that people come here and we convince them that this is the Air Capital of the World,” Moran said. “I don’t think we need any more convincing. This is now known. We are the Air Capital of the World.”
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Gage Workman came off the bench and hit his first major league homer, a two-run shot that sent the Detroit Tigers past the Kansas City Royals 6-3 on Sunday night to snap a five-game losing streak.
Matt Vierling had a two-run double and Riley Greene reached safely four times as the Tigers prevented a three-game sweep.
Called up hours earlier from Triple-A Toledo when Kerry Carpenter was placed on the 10-day injured list with a left shoulder sprain, Workman entered as a pinch hitter in the sixth inning.
Workman drove a 1-1 slider from Nick Mears (2-2) to right field to give Detroit a 5-3 lead.
Wenceel Pérez added an RBI single in the seventh.
Enmanuel De Jesus (2-0), the fourth of six Tigers pitchers, retired all seven batters he faced. Kenley Jansen struck out two in a perfect ninth for his 483rd career save and seventh this season.
Kansas City lost for only the third time in 10 games.
Hao-Yu Lee’s two-out RBI triple off the outstretched glove of Royals right fielder Jac Caglianone opened the scoring in the second. Zack Short walked and Vierling delivered a two-run double off the left-field wall to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead.
In the third, Kansas City greeted reliever Drew Anderson with three straight hits, scoring their first run on a hit-and-run, opposite-field single by Vinnie Pasquantino, and another on Carter Jensen’s sacrifice fly.
In the fourth, Caglianone doubled to left-center and scored the tying run on Maikel Garcia’s third hit, a two-out single to center.
Royals starter Noah Cameron exited after allowing a leadoff hit in the fifth on his 95th pitch. He allowed three runs and five hits with three walks and four strikeouts.
The top three Kansas City batters combined for seven of the team’s eight hits.
Greene has reached base safely in a career-best 21 consecutive games. In 27 games since April 11, he is batting .384 with 13 extra-base hits.
Up next
Tigers RHP Jack Flaherty (0-3, 5.56 ERA) faces Mets RHP Freddy Peralta (2-3, 3.12) on Tuesday night in New York.
Royals RHP Stephen Kolek (1-0, 4.50 ERA) pitches Tuesday in Chicago against White Sox RHP Erick Fedde (0-4, 3.79).
Four teens hurt in southeast Kansas rollover
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Four teenagers are hurt after being in a rollover crash on Sunday.
The Kansas Highway Patrol said a 16-year-old girl was behind the wheel of a Jeep. She went off the road, hit a culvert and rolled.
The crash happened just after midnight near the intersection of North 150th and North streets, northeast of Girard.
Man dead after downtown Wichita shooting
Two 15-year-olds and a 13-year-old were passengers in the Jeep. All four teens were hurt and taken to the hospital after the crash.
The driver received suspected serious injuries, and the rest received suspected minor injuries.
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