Freakwater is an American alternative country band from Louisville, Kentucky, with one co-founding member living in Chicago.

[1] Freakwater is known for the lead vocals of Janet Bean and Catherine Irwin, who mix harmony and melody in idiosyncratic dissonant country-folk that is reminiscent of the Carter Family.

In advance of the full-length record—-the duo's first record since 2005-—Freakwater released a single called "The Asp And The Albatross".

[8] In 2013, and again in September 2017 and July 2021, Janet Bean and Catherine Irwin of Freakwater joined with Jon Langford and Sally Timms of the Mekons to be the Freakons, performing original and cover songs about coal mining in Appalachia, England, and Wales, to support the non-profit organization Kentuckians for the Commonwealth.

In 2017, they were accompanied by violinists Jean Cook of New York City and Anna Krippenstapel of Louisville (The Other Years, Joan Shelley, etc.