Hudson Freeman just announced his new album, Doom Country, and dropped the lead single "Fell Ass Backwards." It's a moment.
If you missed him last year, you weren't paying attention. Freeman broke through on the back of "If You Know Me," a lo-fi gem shot in a Southern Indiana cornfield, his guitar hiked up high, the bottom three strings visibly buzzing against some esoteric tuning. Nick Sylvester called it the track he shared most all year. That cornfield clip wasn't a demo so much as a belter caught live, hillbilly vibe fully intact.
Now comes the full statement. Doom Country takes that same raw intimacy and stretches it wider, trading the single-take spontaneity for something built to last. "Fell Ass Backwards" is a ripper: scrappy, lived-in, honest to the bone.
Freeman's whole appeal is that he sounds like a guy who means it. No gloss, no filler, just a songwriter with dirt under his nails.
Doom Country could be the record that puts him over the top.