‘I Looked Out’ is the debut album from Vermont’s finest, Greg Freeman. Having recently signed with Canvasback / Transgressive Records, his critically acclaimed debut album is being re-released today, complete with two bonus tracks. On 17th January 2025, the album will also be released for the first ever on vinyl. This reissue features a new rendition of “Long Distance Driver (Acoustic),” which includes a special collaboration with Merce Lemon.
Speaking about the track, Greg says “I wrote this song a few years ago, when the world was entering a scary and uncertain time, and hope seemed fleeting and very far in the distance. The song is about wanting to find connection in such a world. In a way, it feels like an old song to me at this point, but that place of uncertainty feels even more pronounced than when I wrote it. The acoustic version is just more sparse. There’s a harmonica instead of a saxophone. There’s no drums either. Merce does the high part and I do the low part. I also play the concertina in the recording. Our friend Nate Campisi recorded the song at Mr. Smalls studio in Pittsburgh (where we also recorded the video). It used to be an old church.”
Additionally, the final bonus track, exclusive to the vinyl release, is a captivating musical collage, titled “Sound Tests, Scraps, Lists,” which weaves together sounds, songs, and snippets collected during the creation of this masterful debut.
Originally released in 2022, ‘I Looked Out’ has been garnering praise from notable critics, with Steven Hyden of UPROXX calling it “my favorite album of 2022 that I discovered in 2023,” and Paste Magazine naming it among the 25 Best Debut Albums of the 2020s. Freeman will bring his noisy art-rock Americana to the UK for the first time on January 15th, having been selected by The Line of Best Fit to play their annual Five Day Forecast shows, surely the first of many tips to come in the UK. Citing Richard Thompson and Elvis Costello as key influences and with a fascination of folk traditions and stories, both from the US and UK, Freeman’s music manages to traverse Americana and quintessentially British songwriting traditions.
Greg Freeman is currently working on his second album, due for release in 2025.
Greg Freeman live in the UK:
January 2025
15th – The Lexington, London (The Line Of Best Fit Five Day Forecast)
16h – Rough Trade West, London @ 5pm tickets here