“It doesn’t feel like a lot of legacy artists go out of their way to do that”: Hudson Freeman on the praise he’s received from John Mayer
If you’ve ever wondered what a lo-fi country Kurt Cobain might sound like, look no further than Hudson Freeman. Last November, the grunge-folk guitarist’s If You Know Me riff went viral, with some branding his nylon-stringed sound as a home-grown ‘country Nirvana’. In fact, it got so much attention that even John Mayer covered the track.
That’s right – after hearing Freeman’s riff, Mayer picked up his PRS Collection Series 2014 Nylon Acoustic and recorded a cover for his Instagram. Nearly a year on, Freeman has signed to a new label, Mom + Pop (who also represent Beach Bunny, Courtney Barnett, and Tom Morello), and has a new record, Doom Country on the way – but he admits that support from a respected, mainstream guitarist came as a massive boost.
READ MORE: Hudson Freeman wants to soundtrack the end of America. All he needs is a nylon-string guitar
In a new cover interview with Guitar.com, Freeman praises Mayer for his endless support of up-and-coming artists. “I have a lot of respect for him being a major artist who co-signs younger, unknown artists,” he says. “It doesn’t feel like a lot of legacy artists go out of their way to do that.”
For years, Mayer has constantly gone out of his way to uplift new artists. In 2024, he brought Madison Cunningham, a then-27-year-old folk artist, out on the road with him. At the time, Mayer publicly praised her at every opportunity; in an Instagram post, he said that, if he were to see her show and had never played guitar before, he would “race out and buy one the next day”.
Elsewhere in his Guitar.com interview, Freeman also praises Mayer for his enduring public appeal. “Most people know who John Mayer is,” he notes. “He’s probably the last seriously palatable guitarist on a mainstream scale, so for him to co-sign If You Know Me was cool.”
However, Freeman isn’t in any rush to collaborate with Mayer. He believes that the pair exist in their own lanes of music, and he “wouldn’t make a song with him”. In a way, it’s Freeman’s way of braving things out on his own; while Mayer’s support was a blessing, he’s keen to retain that attention through his own grit, style and merit.
With that in mind, Doom Country is set to be a deeply “personal” record, boasting his usual shoegazey, grunge-folk, lo-fi flavour alongside a peek into his own upbringing. “Growing up as an Evangelical Christian, the idea of the apocalypse, the Rapture, the idea of being left behind is pervasive,” he tells us. “When Jesus takes all of the Christians to heaven, I had this fear that my parents would be taken, and I’d be left behind.”
“Everything feels kind of apocalyptic now,” he adds. “Political institutions are falling apart, all these various ways where society is collapsing. I really did imagine that I’d be left behind. There’s this quality to living in America right now, where it’s not just bad. It’s stupid. It’s a tragedy… I really want to make an album about the fallout of the Rapture, but it’s farcical.”
Doom Country is out 6 November on Mom + Pop Records. Hudson Freeman will tour Europe and the UK from February 2027.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
