Kenny Freeman is an Americana and blues artist living in Olympia, Washington — a long way from his hometown of Flint, Texas. A third-generation musician, he was raised in a house filled with music but gravitated to the songwriters and blues players of the Texas scene: Stevie Ray Vaughan, ZZ Top, and Freddie King, but also Lyle Lovett, Townes Van Zandt, and Willis Alan Ramsey.
In his twenties he made the jump to Nashville to finish up school at Belmont University. What was initially just a way to get a degree turned into 200+ nights a year playing writers' rounds, solo gigs, and fronting the Smokey Gringos. His first record, Ain't Broken Down, came out of that stretch, along with a live album, Live at Soulshine.
After Nashville things got less linear. He spent a year teaching English in South Korea, then landed in Austin for a bit. At the end of 2018, he and his wife had gotten tired of the daily work grind, sold most of what they owned, and moved into an RV to travel North America.
An initial gig at Stellar Coffee in Roswell, New Mexico turned into a year and a half crossing the continent, playing over 150 shows. Along the way he opened for folks like Flatland Cavalry, William Clark Green, Jaime Wyatt, and Them Coulee Boys, and played rooms like the Tractor Tavern, Sinclair, Terminal West, and the Crazy Horse Saloon.
When COVID shut down touring, they parked the RV for good. His wife started grad school in Mississippi and he took a day job to cover the bills. The touring went quiet; the music didn't. He kept playing every day and self produced two more records during those years, released without a tour or much fanfare.
In 2022 they left the South for the South Sound — a place that hadn't left their minds since the RV. His fourth studio album is nearly done, and he's stepping back onto stages to play it.