The musical thunderbolt. Partly inspired by an episode of The Golden Girls, this is what I've taken to calling those times when you basically love a singer or band from the very first time you hear them. I don't know about the rest of you, but it generally takes me a while to love an artist. Even if I like them from the beginning. The love usually comes in later. Usually. My assumption is that it's like this for most people most of the time. Which makes getting hit by the musical thunderbolt so powerful. It's like the stars have perfectly aligned themselves to bring you the perfect act at the perfect time.
To date I have had this happen six times. Rascal Flatts was the first. Little Big Town, Eric Church and Chris Young were the next three. Then there was Parmalee and now? Now there's Home Free. I've always said I was a sucker for harmony and I think this kind of proves it. It's been about a month since I first found out about Home Free, but they've already made a pretty significant impact on me. I'm loving music in a way I haven't in a long time thanks to these five guys. So let's talk about them.
First the basics. Home Free is an a cappella country group. You know what that means, right? No instruments. The exception to this being a song on their Christmas album that features a guest violinist. But everything else you hear? Just their five voices and the occasional hand clap. These guys were not only featured on NBC's fourth season of The Sing Off; they won it.
The line up. I find it slightly ironic that the last time I was hit by the musical thunderbolt was with Parmalee. Why? Because both they and Home Free include a pair of brothers, one of whom is responsible for the drums and percussion. Parmalee has the brothers Thomas and Home Free has the brothers Rupp. Chris and Adam Rupp to be exact. So what are their roles in the group, you ask? Find out after the break.
Next up, Adam Rupp. The "drums" you hear when you listen to Home Free? That would be him. He is, in a word, ridiculous. Ridiculously talented, that is. The sounds that he can make with nothing but his mouth and vocal chords kind of blow my mind. Correction: they do blow my mind. I can't wrap my head around how he can possibly make the sounds he does. Here's some clips of a drum solo of his. Trust me. You want to watch these.
It just doesn't seem possible, does it? Told you he was talented. Special thanks to Danute P. who was kind enough to let me use her clips! She has some more on her YouTube channel which you can find here.
Chris and Adam started Home Free about 12 years ago with different guys. They would pick up the rest of the current group along the way. The first they'd find is second tenor Rob Lundquist. His voice is the definition of sweet to me. It has such a great texture to it that provides a very nice contrast to the others. He reminds me of Vince Gill in that respect. Also, I must give Rob a lot of credit. Some of you are aware of my weird aversion to whistling. It can grate my nerves. It can grate them a lot. Like nails on a chalkboard level grating. I know, I know: weird. You know when it does not grate? When the whistler in question is Rob Lundquist, that's when. I genuinely enjoy his whistling. It's so musical, it's like he's part bird. I dig it. I dig it a lot in fact. It's a musical miracle, y'all! So Rob, if you happen to read this, kudos to you, sir. Kudos. Whistle on.
Want an example of his fine whistling skills? Here's a Home Free original, written by Tim Foust. This also gives you a feel for their personalities.
I've already mentioned him a couple of times, so maybe we should talk about Tim some, yeah? Quick way to sum him up? Holy vocal range, Batman! We're talking a five octave range here, people. You know how common that is? It isn't. Not at all. So how low can he go? Very. His lower register laughs at your puny little speakers. Headphones and bass boosters are required if you wish to get the full Foust experience. And believe me, you want to be properly Fousted. Seriously, watch one of the videos I've included twice: first without headphones and then with them. You'll be surprised by how many notes you missed the first time. Be forewarned: this experience could very well change your life. You think I'm kidding. I'm not.
Actually this is a good way to learn more about bass lines in general. I genuinely feel like I understand bass lines more after focusing on his. What's impressive about Tim is less than he is able to hit so many notes and more the control he exerts in doing so. A talented songwriter as well, three of his originals are featured on Home Free's Crazy Life album, which was released last year. His songwriting has rekindled my own interest in songwriting, if that tells you anything. We need more songs like the ones he writes. We just do.
In fact, Home Free just put out a new video for one of his originals, "Everything Will Be Okay", and it's wonderful. I love the treatment they went with, so major props to their video production team, FifGen films, for that. If you'd like to learn more about them and what they do, you can do so here: http://www.fifgenfilms.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/FifGenFilms. They do great work, so check 'em out. This video is so sweet and heartwarming and watching is surefire way to brighten your day up some.
Last, but certainly not least, we come to high tenor Austin Brown. Both the newest member of the group and the youngest. There are some voices that sound as if they have been dipped in gold and Austin's voice fits into that category. His voice is classically trained and he has a musical theater background. So the guy can sing, is what I'm saying. I've come across videos of him on YouTube singing "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables which is not an easy song to sing and he does a beautiful job with it. Completely nails it. As a long time lover of Les Mis, if you can do justice to it than I automatically think you rock. Austin is generally identified as the primary vocalist, though all but Adam take turns singing lead. They are very much like Little Big Town in that respect.
Home Free is also like Little Big Town in that they favor more intricate harmonies over basic ones and said harmonies are rock solid. Neither of these groups would work anywhere near as well if anyone was missing. Each person is great on their own, but their true strength lies in the combined sum of their parts. I truly believe that if you like one of these groups, you'd probably like the other as well. Especially if you enjoy any of the LBT albums that Wayne Kirkpatrick produced. Just because Home Free sounds closer to how LBT did then. I also believe that Home Free needs to cover at least one Little Big Town song at one point. I'm just saying.
Another video break here, because why not? This one probably sums them up better than the rest do.
Using nothing other than the human voice and yet they still manage to be more musical than a lot of the other stuff out there. I'm going to go so far to say that right now, at this moment in country music's history, the genre seriously needs to embrace these guys. I don't know what it is, but lately I've been feeling like the genre has lost some of its heart. You know who has heart? These guys do. They have an abundance of heart, in fact. What you have with Home Free are five men who genuinely love making music and love making it together. That creates a wonderful positive energy that I really appreciate. One that's been missing in country music lately. I don't think it's possible to be in a bad mood while listening to or watching these guys. I just don't.
So yeah. Saying that this is a group I believe in would be a vast understatement. I've already listened to their Crazy Life album more than I listened to any other album that was released in 2014. Keeping in mind that I've had some of those albums for almost a year and Crazy Life for a little over a month. Yeah. Do yourself a favor and check them out for yourself. I promise that you won't be sorry. Listen to them, like them, follow them - give them a chance to impress you.
http://homefreemusic.com/
https://www.facebook.com/homefreevocalband
https://www.youtube.com/user/HomeFreeVocalBand
https://twitter.com/homefreeguys
http://instagram.com/homefreeguys/
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/crazy-life/id791354354
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/full-of-cheer-deluxe-version/id922564767
This winter hasn't been very kind to a lot of people. So much of the country is currently buried in snow or coated in ice. If you're like me, you've had enough of this cold nonsense and are ready for warmer temperatures already. So it only felt appropriate to end with Home Free's summery video of Scotty McCreery's "Feelin' It" to remind everyone that warmer days are coming. Plus this way you'll have gotten to hear a solo from all five guys. Seems only fair. Enjoy!
To date I have had this happen six times. Rascal Flatts was the first. Little Big Town, Eric Church and Chris Young were the next three. Then there was Parmalee and now? Now there's Home Free. I've always said I was a sucker for harmony and I think this kind of proves it. It's been about a month since I first found out about Home Free, but they've already made a pretty significant impact on me. I'm loving music in a way I haven't in a long time thanks to these five guys. So let's talk about them.
First the basics. Home Free is an a cappella country group. You know what that means, right? No instruments. The exception to this being a song on their Christmas album that features a guest violinist. But everything else you hear? Just their five voices and the occasional hand clap. These guys were not only featured on NBC's fourth season of The Sing Off; they won it.
The line up. I find it slightly ironic that the last time I was hit by the musical thunderbolt was with Parmalee. Why? Because both they and Home Free include a pair of brothers, one of whom is responsible for the drums and percussion. Parmalee has the brothers Thomas and Home Free has the brothers Rupp. Chris and Adam Rupp to be exact. So what are their roles in the group, you ask? Find out after the break.
Chris Rupp is the baritone singer of the group. His vocals in a word? Smooth. According to their website, does the bulk of the arranging, him and bass singer Tim Foust. We'll get to him later. He was evidently a piano performance major in college and even taught piano for years. So this is a man who understands music and how it works. The Home Free arrangements are so good and so wonderfully musical. Both for their originals and for their covers. Perhaps especially their covers because the originals are so well known. There's a fine line between coming up with a new, interesting take on a song and messing up what was special about the original. Home Free's covers are consistently as good as the original and in most cases even better. Much better in a couple cases. Some of these covers are included on their debut album,Crazy Life, and there's a few more featured on their YouTube channel (the link to which will be included below). It all starts with the arrangements. It's worth mentioning that all five members of the group contribute and so they all deserve credit.
You know what? I think it's time for a video break. There'll be quite a few of those. This one here is their version of "Ring of Fire" by the great Johnny Cash. This features Avi Kaplan, the bass singer for the a cappella group Pentatonix and a very talented guy in his own right. He'd be the one wearing the beanie.
Next up, Adam Rupp. The "drums" you hear when you listen to Home Free? That would be him. He is, in a word, ridiculous. Ridiculously talented, that is. The sounds that he can make with nothing but his mouth and vocal chords kind of blow my mind. Correction: they do blow my mind. I can't wrap my head around how he can possibly make the sounds he does. Here's some clips of a drum solo of his. Trust me. You want to watch these.
Chris and Adam started Home Free about 12 years ago with different guys. They would pick up the rest of the current group along the way. The first they'd find is second tenor Rob Lundquist. His voice is the definition of sweet to me. It has such a great texture to it that provides a very nice contrast to the others. He reminds me of Vince Gill in that respect. Also, I must give Rob a lot of credit. Some of you are aware of my weird aversion to whistling. It can grate my nerves. It can grate them a lot. Like nails on a chalkboard level grating. I know, I know: weird. You know when it does not grate? When the whistler in question is Rob Lundquist, that's when. I genuinely enjoy his whistling. It's so musical, it's like he's part bird. I dig it. I dig it a lot in fact. It's a musical miracle, y'all! So Rob, if you happen to read this, kudos to you, sir. Kudos. Whistle on.
Want an example of his fine whistling skills? Here's a Home Free original, written by Tim Foust. This also gives you a feel for their personalities.
I've already mentioned him a couple of times, so maybe we should talk about Tim some, yeah? Quick way to sum him up? Holy vocal range, Batman! We're talking a five octave range here, people. You know how common that is? It isn't. Not at all. So how low can he go? Very. His lower register laughs at your puny little speakers. Headphones and bass boosters are required if you wish to get the full Foust experience. And believe me, you want to be properly Fousted. Seriously, watch one of the videos I've included twice: first without headphones and then with them. You'll be surprised by how many notes you missed the first time. Be forewarned: this experience could very well change your life. You think I'm kidding. I'm not.
Actually this is a good way to learn more about bass lines in general. I genuinely feel like I understand bass lines more after focusing on his. What's impressive about Tim is less than he is able to hit so many notes and more the control he exerts in doing so. A talented songwriter as well, three of his originals are featured on Home Free's Crazy Life album, which was released last year. His songwriting has rekindled my own interest in songwriting, if that tells you anything. We need more songs like the ones he writes. We just do.
In fact, Home Free just put out a new video for one of his originals, "Everything Will Be Okay", and it's wonderful. I love the treatment they went with, so major props to their video production team, FifGen films, for that. If you'd like to learn more about them and what they do, you can do so here: http://www.fifgenfilms.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/FifGenFilms. They do great work, so check 'em out. This video is so sweet and heartwarming and watching is surefire way to brighten your day up some.
Last, but certainly not least, we come to high tenor Austin Brown. Both the newest member of the group and the youngest. There are some voices that sound as if they have been dipped in gold and Austin's voice fits into that category. His voice is classically trained and he has a musical theater background. So the guy can sing, is what I'm saying. I've come across videos of him on YouTube singing "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables which is not an easy song to sing and he does a beautiful job with it. Completely nails it. As a long time lover of Les Mis, if you can do justice to it than I automatically think you rock. Austin is generally identified as the primary vocalist, though all but Adam take turns singing lead. They are very much like Little Big Town in that respect.
Home Free is also like Little Big Town in that they favor more intricate harmonies over basic ones and said harmonies are rock solid. Neither of these groups would work anywhere near as well if anyone was missing. Each person is great on their own, but their true strength lies in the combined sum of their parts. I truly believe that if you like one of these groups, you'd probably like the other as well. Especially if you enjoy any of the LBT albums that Wayne Kirkpatrick produced. Just because Home Free sounds closer to how LBT did then. I also believe that Home Free needs to cover at least one Little Big Town song at one point. I'm just saying.
Another video break here, because why not? This one probably sums them up better than the rest do.
Using nothing other than the human voice and yet they still manage to be more musical than a lot of the other stuff out there. I'm going to go so far to say that right now, at this moment in country music's history, the genre seriously needs to embrace these guys. I don't know what it is, but lately I've been feeling like the genre has lost some of its heart. You know who has heart? These guys do. They have an abundance of heart, in fact. What you have with Home Free are five men who genuinely love making music and love making it together. That creates a wonderful positive energy that I really appreciate. One that's been missing in country music lately. I don't think it's possible to be in a bad mood while listening to or watching these guys. I just don't.
So yeah. Saying that this is a group I believe in would be a vast understatement. I've already listened to their Crazy Life album more than I listened to any other album that was released in 2014. Keeping in mind that I've had some of those albums for almost a year and Crazy Life for a little over a month. Yeah. Do yourself a favor and check them out for yourself. I promise that you won't be sorry. Listen to them, like them, follow them - give them a chance to impress you.
http://homefreemusic.com/
https://www.facebook.com/homefreevocalband
https://www.youtube.com/user/HomeFreeVocalBand
https://twitter.com/homefreeguys
http://instagram.com/homefreeguys/
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/crazy-life/id791354354
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/full-of-cheer-deluxe-version/id922564767
This winter hasn't been very kind to a lot of people. So much of the country is currently buried in snow or coated in ice. If you're like me, you've had enough of this cold nonsense and are ready for warmer temperatures already. So it only felt appropriate to end with Home Free's summery video of Scotty McCreery's "Feelin' It" to remind everyone that warmer days are coming. Plus this way you'll have gotten to hear a solo from all five guys. Seems only fair. Enjoy!
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