Trent Freeman is a fiddler and violist from British Columbia and a founding member of the Fretless, the Canadian quartet of two fiddles, viola, and cello that plays fiddle tunes as string quartet music. The band has released six albums since 2012 and won the Juno Award for Instrumental Album of the Year in 2017 for Bird’s Nest. Freeman also works as a producer, session fiddler, and composer for video, and he describes himself as a multimedia artist working in music and film.
Why Freeman matters
The Fretless showed that fiddle tunes can carry full arrangements, with the two fiddles, viola, and cello trading melody, harmony, and percussive rhythm parts the way a bluegrass band trades breaks. Freeman is one of the arrangers behind that sound. He also came up through the Canadian contest circuit, placing at the Canadian Grand Masters and the Grand North American championship before the band existed, so his playing carries the clean contest fundamentals under the new arrangements.
Life and career
Freeman’s roots are on Vancouver Island, where the Victoria fiddle community filmed him playing Hangman’s Reel at a 2008 music festival. He competed on the Canadian circuit in those years. He placed third at the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Championship in 2006, behind Chuck Joyce and Matthew Johnson, and second at the Grand North American Old Time Fiddle Championship in 2008, behind James Steele.
In 2011 he helped form the Fretless. The lineup today is Freeman, Karrnnel Sawitsky, and Ben Plotnick on fiddles and violas, with Eric Wright on cello. Ivonne Hernandez was an earlier member. The band’s debut Waterbound came out in 2012 and won Instrumental Group of the Year and Ensemble of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards, along with a Western Canadian Music Award. The self-titled second album in 2014 won the CFMA for Ensemble of the Year again. Bird’s Nest followed in 2016 and won the 2017 Juno Award for Instrumental Album of the Year.
Live from the Art Farm came out in 2018 and earned another Juno nomination. Open House in 2021 added guest singers, including Dan Mangan, Ruth Moody, and the Bros. Landreth, and was a Juno nominee for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year in 2022. Glasswing, the sixth album, came out on September 13, 2024, with three songs sung by Madeleine Roger. The band has toured Canada, the United States, South America, Australia, and Europe, and has shared a National Arts Centre bill with Natalie MacMaster.
Outside the band, Freeman released Tunes EP vol. 1 in 2022, five original fiddle tunes recorded live on Vancouver Island with banjo player Allison de Groot. He produced and played fiddle on Miles Zurawell’s 2024 album Far Afield. In Vancouver he plays with mandolinist John Reischman in Stringband Sundae alongside Patrick M’Gonigle, Allison de Groot, Mark Kilianski, and Joseph Lubinsky-Mast, and he fiddled with the Big MonDay Allstars at Vancouver Co-op Radio’s 50th anniversary benefit in May 2025.
Playing style
Freeman plays fiddle and viola in the Fretless, and the band’s arrangements ask him to switch roles inside one tune: melody, a harmony line, a chop or percussive rhythm part, then back to melody. His tone is clean and his intonation is contest-grade, which the four-part harmony writing depends on. On his own tunes he writes in the Canadian fiddle tradition, with reels and jigs built for a string band.
Influences and legacy
Freeman came up in the British Columbia fiddle world and placed in the same contest finals as Ivonne Hernandez, James Steele, and Ben Plotnick before playing beside Hernandez and Plotnick in the Fretless. In the Fretless he works with Karrnnel Sawitsky and Plotnick. In Vancouver he plays with John Reischman, Patrick M’Gonigle, and Allison de Groot. Darol Anger interviewed him about the band’s approach.
Signature tunes and songs
Catala As We Pray Lost Lake (with the Fretless) Hangman’s Reel.
Essential recordings
Waterbound, the Fretless (2012) Bird’s Nest, the Fretless (2016) Live from the Art Farm, the Fretless (2018) Glasswing, the Fretless (Birthday Cake Records, 2024) Tunes EP vol. 1, Trent Freeman with Allison de Groot (2022)
Awards and honors
Third place, Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Championship (2006) Second place, Grand North American Old Time Fiddle Championship (2008) Western Canadian Music Award, Instrumental Album of the Year, with the Fretless (2012) Canadian Folk Music Awards, Instrumental Group of the Year and Ensemble of the Year, with the Fretless (2012) Canadian Folk Music Award, Ensemble of the Year, with the Fretless (2014) Juno Award, Instrumental Album of the Year, with the Fretless for Bird’s Nest (2017) Juno nomination, Instrumental Album of the Year, with the Fretless for Live from the Art Farm (2019) Juno nomination, Contemporary Roots Album of the Year, with the Fretless for Open House (2022)
Watch and listen
Freeman plays Catala solo at the Tiny Lights Festival. Listen for how he keeps rhythm and melody going at once.
Freeman plays Hangman’s Reel at a 2008 festival, filmed by the Victoria fiddle community.
What to learn from Freeman
Learn Hangman’s Reel from the 2008 video. It is a Canadian contest standard, and Freeman plays it straight, so it is a good model before you try the harder variations. The technique to steal is his rhythm role. Put on a Fretless record and play along with only the chop and rhythm parts under the melody, the way he does when another fiddle has the lead. A fiddler who can hold a groove without the melody is worth more in a jam than one who can only play breaks.
Sources
The Fretless, Wikipedia Bio, The Fretless Trent Freeman, official site Tunes EP vol. 1, Trent Freeman, Bandcamp Canadian Grand Masters, Wikipedia Grand North American Old Time Fiddle Championship, Wikipedia Far Afield, Miles Zurawell, Bluegrass Today California Report: Mandolinist John Reischman, Bluegrass Today Vancouver Co-op Radio’s In the Pines benefit celebrates 50 years, Bluegrass Today The Fretless, Discogs
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the fiddle guide for more Canadian fiddlers. Freeman’s bandmates Karrnnel Sawitsky and Ben Plotnick have their own pages, as does his Vancouver bandmate Patrick M’Gonigle. Daniel Gervais came up on the same contest circuit.