Many years ago, I shared a post on instagram about how to find really wack genres of music & bands that are associated with them using a website called everynoiseatonce. Sadly, it’s broken now thanks to *gestures at everything* so you have to do some manual digging to find some obscure stuff. I’ve been lucky to find one thanks to youtube comments on James Taylor videos (don’t ask), and it’s brought me to Vermont’s Greg Freeman.

I Looked Out was released in 2022. From what I can scour on our broken internet, it was reviewed nowhere and the only mention of it was a thread found on r/listentothis. In the three years since, we’ve gotten a reissue review from post-trash.com, a reissue notice from stereogum, an interview from Paste, a few music festival write-ups, and a *checks notes* uploaded pdf from Penny Magazine with an interview from 2024. Penny Magazine’s is the closest thing to getting underneath the hood of this album, with Freeman detailing his process and thoughts around a now 3 year old album’s reissued edition. It appears the album’s gotten way more buzz in the past 3 months than in the 2+ years since the release. Looking at Freeman’s past tour dates, he’s been in a whole bunch of venues I’ve never heard of (and also Union Pool and Elsewhere?????) and the few notes I’ve seen about his performances have people foaming at the mouth to see him again. He has since signed to Canvasback Records, who has been pumping his content on IG.

I’m not going to waste your time: I Looked Out is a pinnacle of country songwriting. It is one of the best country albums I have ever heard, and certainly falls in the “alt-country” bucket so many other artists are landing in these days. Each of the songs weaves between classical storytelling with standard instrumentation while bending the norm and shapeshifting into new sounds. Distorted acoustic guitars, screeching electric ones, and jam sessions litter this bad boy. Each song turns left when you expect it to go right, turns right when you want it to turn left, and will smack you across the face with a new sound when you least expect it.

Instrumentally, the gang’s all here. If you enjoy your country more stripped down, you’ll have a tune or two — like Palms, the second to last song on the record, which veers so far away from tradition one could argue it’s an emo tune. If you want something more traditional, Long Distance Driver will captivate you with absolutely sensational strings as you float through Freeman’s dream space. Want to embrace yesteryear with harmonicas and 90s nostalgia? Come and Change My Body. The range across each of these songs is so eclectic you will find a sound or three you’ll truly embrace. If you want something more gritting or raw, don’t worry Come and Change My Body does that too! Connect to Host is practically a grunge song. Souvenir Heart riffs and screeches and roars in between every verse.

If you do find yourself embracing the general sound or vibe, you might also dip your toes into the lyrics. I don’t think there’s a single traditional ‘chorus’ on this bad boy. If you enjoy gritty & tailored voices, you’ll be in heaven. So many of these songs tell grandiose stories in 3-4 verses, or are vague enough your own imagination can wander to fill in the gaps. Here’s a few of my favorite bars:

• Tower: Clenched fists find god in rough landings || and tonight it’s gonna snow
• I’ll See You In My Mind: Sometimes I think it’s the far away-ness || That keeps me chasing my own shadow
• Come and Change My Body: Come and drink my heartache || Draw a knife across that scarlet seal || Take a sip now || Break the cup you drank from

These tunes feel like they’re singing directly to or about someone, and also to or directly nobody at all. It really feels like so many of these songs were written in or by dreams, across landscapes you can only imagine, on a road trip to a destination you already forgot.

I continually find myself bored in the country/Americana space. Many of the projects that fall in this world really heavily rely on the appeal or charisma of the individual artist. If you overdose on aura, you end up with lyrics like ‘I’ve got a houseboat docked at the Himbo Dome’, but if you just don’t have the juice it ends up as 40 minute snoozer with production sounds like a frat living room (derogatory) was the studio. I Looked Out manages to hit the magic sweet spot, where the lyrics are both absurd and familiar, the production is both raw and refined, and the sound is both vintage and progressive.

It’d be hard not to talk about the influences of the great Jason Molina, Neil Young, lo-fi movements of the 90s, or how adding shoegaze & noise to country practically moves it into a new genre entirely. Instead of thinking about it, you should listen to The Magnolia Electric Co. or spin your favorite Neil Young tune to rehash those glory days. In that Paste Magazine article, he mentions never listening to shoegaze… ever, and didn’t look to chase a trend. All of those things melded together has made what will end up being one of the best country albums of the decade.

Greg Freeman re-released I Looked Out earlier this year. From the slim publications that reported on it, you can pick up there’s another album coming. I’ll be sat. In the slim view into Freeman’s songwriting ability, there’s hope and reason to believe future projects will be a testament to Burlington’s arts scene, the grand beauty of Vermont’s heritage, and find new ways to combine country, folk, and blues with modern sounds pushing the genres forward.

Buy I Looked Out
Greg Freeman’s Linktree
@oldgraig

editor’s note: the end of Long Distance Driver is begging to be flipped and sampled, someone’s gotta do it