Can You Fly

{{Infobox album|

| name = Can You Fly

| type = studio

| artist = Freedy Johnston

| cover = FJ CYF.jpg

| alt =

| released = April 14, 1992

| recorded = January–December 1991

| venue =

| studio =

| genre =

• Alternative rock
• alternative country{{cite magazine |last= Blender Staff |first= |date= May 2003 |title= 500 CDs You Must Own Before You Die! |url= https://archive.org/details/blender-2003-04-15-eminem-c/page/n59/mode/2up |magazine= Blender |location= New York |publisher= Dennis Publishing Ltd |access-date= April 1, 2023}}

| length = 49:42

| label = Bar/None

| producer = Graham Maby, Knut Bohn

| prev_title = The Trouble Tree

| prev_year = 1990

| next_title = This Perfect World

| next_year = 1994

}}

{{Album ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1Score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}{{cite web |url={{AllMusic |class=album |id=mw0000091600 |pure_url=yes}} |title=Can You Fly – Freedy Johnston |publisher=AllMusic |accessdate=August 3, 2015 |last=Coulter |first=Kristi}}

| rev2 = Chicago Tribune

| rev2Score = {{Rating|3.5|4}}{{cite news |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1992/04/30/freedy-johnstoncan-you-fly-barnone-starstarstar-12johnstons/ |title=Freedy Johnston: Can You Fly (Bar/None) |work=Chicago Tribune |date=April 30, 1992 |access-date=May 19, 2017 |last=Kot |first=Greg |author-link=Greg Kot}}

| rev3 = Christgau's Consumer Guide

| rev3Score = A+{{cite book |chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_album.php?id=1296 |chapter=Freedy Johnston: Can You Fly |accessdate=August 3, 2015 |title=Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s |last=Christgau |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Christgau |publisher=St. Martin's Press |year=2000 |isbn=0-312-24560-2}}

| rev4 = Q

| rev4Score = {{Rating|3|5}}{{cite journal |title=Freedy Johnston: Can You Fly |work=Q |issue=85 |date=October 1993 |page=120}}

| rev5 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev5Score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite book |chapter=Freedy Johnston |last=Randall |first=Mac |title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |editor1-last=Brackett |editor1-first=Nathan |editor2-last=Hoard |editor2-first=Christian |publisher=Simon & Schuster |edition=4th |year=2004 |isbn=0-7432-0169-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/437 437] }}

| rev6 = Spin Alternative Record Guide

| rev6score = 10/10{{cite book |title=Spin Alternative Record Guide |editor1-last=Weisbard |editor1-first=Eric |editor2-last=Marks |editor2-first=Craig |publisher=Vintage Books |year=1995 |isbn=0-679-75574-8}}

}}

Can You Fly is the second album by singer-songwriter Freedy Johnston. It was released in 1992 on Bar/None Records. Can You Fly appeared on Fast Folk{{'}}s year-end list of the ten best albums of 1992,Allen, Jim, [http://media.smithsonianfolkways.org/liner_notes/fast_folk/FFFF609.pdf "The Ten Best Albums of 1992"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120216104507/http://media.smithsonianfolkways.org/liner_notes/fast_folk/FFFF609.pdf |date=2012-02-16 }}, Fast Folk Musical Magazine, 6:9-10, (February 1993) p.12-13 and The Village Voice{{'}}s Robert Christgau later dubbed it "a perfect album".{{cite book |chapter=Selling Dirt to Pay the Band: Freedy Johnston |title=Grown Up All Wrong: 75 Great Rock and Pop Artists from Vaudeville to Techno |last=Christgau |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Christgau |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1998 |isbn=0-674-44318-7}}

In order to finance the recording of the album, Johnston sold some farmland that he inherited from his grandfather. This decision is mentioned in the opening lines of the first track, "Trying to Tell You I Don't Know".{{cite journal |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/artists/freedyjohnston/albums/album/261913/review/5940643/this_perfect_world |title=Freedy Johnston: This Perfect World |work=Rolling Stone |date=July 14, 1994 |accessdate=May 19, 2017 |last=O'Dair |first=Barbara |page=102 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081007214436/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/freedyjohnston/albums/album/261913/review/5940643/this_perfect_world |archivedate=October 7, 2008}}

The song "California Thing" appeared on the soundtrack of the film Heavy, starring Liv Tyler and Deborah Harry.

"The Lucky One" was covered by Mary Lou Lord on her 1998 album Got No Shadow.