Thursday 19 February 2015

All About That Band

So, I love Home Free. I mean, I really, really love them. What's not to love? They are a bunch of good looking, funny guys with incredible talents, all around. They make me swoon, laugh, smile and sing. And I have made a whole lot of new friends through their music.

Home Free is a country a cappella group who won my heart about 6 months ago when I first stumbled upon the video of their rendition of Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire. The mix of the smooth tenors, the reggae beat, the deep bass and the fantastic arrangement got to me from the first listen. I spent that whole night looking at their videos, and other's videos of them (their Sing-Off performances and fan videos), and the following day, week, month  as well. I'm not kidding. I hardly slept at all that first month. They are completely, and totally addictive. I'm not alone in it, I know this much after speaking to my new found friends. I turned into a fangirl, at the age of 44. Maybe even more than I ever was in my teens.

Home Free is five guys, using only their mouths, making awesome music. The group was founded in 2000 by the brothers Chris and Adam Rupp, and 3 other guys. Over the years the other three guys have left and been replaced by bass singer Tim Foust and tenors Rob Lundquist and Austin Brown. Chris Rupp is the band baritone and Adam Rupp is the vocal percussionist, the beatboxer. The blend of them is out of this world, in my opinion, and so are the individuals. 

I will, over the next few weeks, introduce them each in individual posts, so I'm keeping this post dedicated to the whole band. 

Home Free used to sing at Fairs, Colleges and Cruise Ships, before they won the Sing-Off, season 4 in fall of 2013, on national television in USA. By doing so they were discovered by a broader audience, and they started to find their way into people's hearts all over America (now spreading to the rest of the world). They released their Crazy Life album about a year ago, an album that is still selling very well. After the Sing-Off tour they kept entertaining at Fairs and Colleges, with the difference that the audience now came out to see them, they didn't have to pull the people in anymore. During the fall of 2014 they went on their very first headlining tour, Crazy Life (although they actually didn't perform the title song, go figure), almost immediately followed by their second headlining tour, Full of Cheer; a Christmas tour named after their second album, Full of Cheer (and, yes, they did perform the title song on this tour). They were now singing in sold-out venues and even a sold-out arena in their home town of Mankato, Minnesota.

Even though they are an a cappella band, singing country style songs, people who have never before liked country or a cappella find themselves loving their music. There's just something about them!

Home Free have just finished recording their up-coming album, and a whole bunch of new videos, and are now on tour again. There doesn't seem to be an official name for this tour yet, so it unofficially goes under the popular name of the Spring Tour Tour by the fans (Home Fries). 

Speaking of videos, you can find a whole bunch of them on their YouTube channel as they have been releasing 1-2 new videos per month since the summer. They just released one a couple of days ago, but I am not going to share that one today. Instead I will share my favourite video. It is the amazing cover song/video of Meghan Trainor's All About That Bass. This video just won the 2015 Popcrush Fan Choice Awards for the Best Cover Song Performance, crushing their competition of big names like One Direction, Meghan Trainor, Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran. This hilarious video is directed, filmed, edited and developed by the talented Kristine Slipson, keep an eye out for her name as well.

After, or before, you watch this funny video, check out the original here. You see, it's not only a countrified cover of the song, but also a countrified cover of the video itself. And after you have watched them both, head over to Rachel Cheng's blog post where she compares the two videos side by side. It is really, very clever. And fun! Did I mention these guys have a great sense of humour?

I hope you enjoy it!

Love//
Home Fry Carina, a fangirl



3 comments:

  1. Extremely well written as well as informative, this pretty much sums up Home Free, their music and the guys. It is extremely worth the effort to watch the videos.

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  2. Great job! You summed them up so well!

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  3. Very nice post!!! I love these guys and can't wait to see them in Lexington!

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