Photo by Chris Carroll

This week singer-songwriter Freedy Johnston will be taking over the XPN blog. He recently released a new collection of original songs (his first collection of originals in 7 years) called Rain On The City. He’s currently on tour and will be playing in Philly on Thursday February 18th at World Cafe Live.

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Richard, of Richard’s Music in Lawrence, Kansas sold me my first electric guitar. He’s passed on since, but I remember him as a big,gentle guy who never minded that I’d hang around gawking at all the gear and playing all the guitars, then buy three picks. I’d had an acoustic guitar for years. But today I would graduate to the rock. I was a 21 year-old, barely employed restaurant worker, but he let me walk out with a Japanese tele knock-off for $40 and the same per month. It was natural finish with black pick guard, just likeBruce. I don’t remember the brand. I cut the headstock myself with a jigsaw to the proper tele shape and painted the top with a wide-eyed cartoon face. I didn’t even think of getting an amp then. I would play it through other guys’ amps, or plug it into my recording Walkman with a complicated Radio Shack adapter configuration. That guitar made it to New York, but was stolen in Hoboken in 1991, and while I got every one of my other guitars back, thanks to the efforts of a crafty duo of Hoboken Police detectives, that one is still out there.I imagine its in a nearby New Jersey landfill, body and neck far apart.