Chris Hawkins (BBC 6 Music) Awesome Friends: Presents « Hudson Freeman »

Chris Hawkins (BBC 6 Music) brings his Awesome Friends series to The Deaf Institute in Manchester on 2 September 2026, with Hudson Freeman joined by Little Grandad.

Raised between Dallas suburbs and Eswatini in a missionary family, Hudson Freeman turned to songwriting early as a way to draw his own map. Later in Springfield, Missouri, he self-released the 2016 EP “A Man, One Day”, shaping a lo-fi folk approach that leans into hushed indie rock and the tactile feel of home recordings. Echoes of Sufjan Stevens, Bon Iver and Pedro the Lion surface in his melodies, but the heart lies in his plainspoken voice and close-cut acoustic writing. The 2021 album “I AM All the Ages I’ve Ever Been” widened the frame to faith, doubt and fragile friendships; “is a folk artist” (spring 2025) carries those threads forward, alongside the single “if you know Me” and a take on “Wild Horses.”

On stage, he keeps the focus on songs that build from small details and a raw, homely grain. Little Grandad joins the bill, a fitting companion for an evening curated by Hawkins around careful, slow-burn songwriting.