It makes sense that one of the biggest influences on Greg Freeman’s “Burnover” was a photobook, particularly Nancy Rexroth’s IOWA, an early ’70s snapshot of rural America. Like Rexroth’s photography, Greg Freeman’s songwriting is vivid and full of stories that reveal themselves with closer looks. “Burnover” is fuelled by snapshots of frozen-over lakes, open roads, pastures of cows, and specified plant life, and it’s within those scenes that Greg pulls the songs startlingly into focus with plainspoken human emotion and memorably metaphoric one-liners.
Throughout this record, Greg’s Americana-tinged indie rock songs contain a range of echoes, from Songs: Ohia to Pavement to The Replacements to Wilco to Greg’s contemporary MJ Lenderman, and Greg truly adds something new to that particular canon. These songs are subtly experimental, not-so-subtly catchy, and full of staying power. If I were making a list of the most enduring rock songs of 2025, at least half of this album would be on it.
Like the band Florry, Greg Freeman hails from Vermont, and his 2022 debut album “I Looked Out” (released on the small DIY label Bud Tapes) gained him a lot of comparisons to Songs: Ohia’s Jason Molina, who MJ Lenderman was also frequently compared to early on in his career. The Songs: Ohia influence is still noticeable on his Transgressive/Canvasback debut “Burnover”, but even more noticeable is how much Greg has developed a voice of his own. The album could just as easily be compared to anything from Pavement’s shaggy indie rock to the alt-country of A.M.-era Wilco, and its wide musical range spans from revved-up rockers to blissed-out ballads with plenty else in between.
The album features contributions from a bunch of friends from the Burlington, VT scene, which Greg tells Stereogum “seems a little more low-key than Asheville” but “definitely [has] a similar vibe,” and it includes such alt-country signifiers as pedal steel, fiddle, and group harmony vocals.
Greg’s also a natural-born songwriter; a vivid, observant lyricist with an ability to capture little snapshots of life and turn them into hummable refrains. There’s substance to his songs, layers of depth that go beyond the twangy embellishments on the surface.
the new record “Burnover” out August 22nd on Transgressive Records / Canvasback Music
The Fat Angel Sings 