There aren’t many country albums where you can hear a John Mayer track, a Dave Mason classic from the ’70’s, and “Man Of Constant Sorrow” all in the same place. Welcome to the world of Home Free.

“Free” is a pretty apropos name for the five-man a cappella group, who took off when they took home the trophy on Season 4 of the NBC competition The Sing-Off and haven’t stopped soaring since. Capitalizing on their initial success and continually building on it by putting their unique spin on everything from Top 40 favorites to timeless classics, members Austin Brown, Rob Lundquist, Adam Rupp, Tim Foust, and Adam Chance have amassed an immense YouTube following of 180 million viewers. That success has translated into sales as well: the group has sold over 250,000 albums and its just-released fourth project on Columbia Records, Timeless, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Country chart.

With a wide open field of favorites to choose from when they record, and some well-crafted originals peppered in for extra flavor, they’ve found the formula that keeps their fans constantly coming back for more: content.

“We are always evolving as artists and we try to capture that for sure on our records,” said bassist Foust about how they determine which songs to cover and record. “And it’s a really democratic process for us to be honest with you. We all have songs we are passionate about we bring to the table, and our producer or management suggest some, too. In the case of our previous album Country Evolution, we actually polled the fans and asked, ‘What do y’all want to hear?’ and we took about half of their suggestions and put those on the record.

“But with this new album we had a list of songs we’ve been wanting to do for awhile like ‘Man Of Constant Sorrow’ and even that Dave Mason song ‘We Just Disagree’ — we all grew up listening to the Billy Dean version of that. But we’ve got this pod of songs that we know, kind of like our wish list, and every album we’ll decide which ones we think are ready. And we’re always keeping our ear to radio both pop and country and then we also do our research too, like we’re big fans of John Mayer and the first time we heard ‘In The Blood’ we thought, “well this is a country song.” So we wanted to put our spin on that.”

The quintet finds an added bonus to being able to constantly mine music across many different genres for their audiences as well, according to Foust. “One of the biggest joys we’ve found in this is being able to expose a new generation of kids to music that meant a lot to us growing up. ‘We Just Disagree’ — that song is maybe not on the forefront of people’s minds these days, but we loved that song growing up and we think kids would enjoy hearing our version.”

“Our set list is always evolving too and typically whatever’s newest is what we’re excited about to sing, but I will say it never gets old singing ‘Ring Of Fire.’ The audience loves it, it’s our most popular cover we’ve ever done, and the audience loses their minds every time we start it in the show.”

Their ability to reinvent classics with a modern spin with just their voices first took shape when they met in college nearly two decades ago, and their melting pot of influences has no doubt contributed over the years to their unique sound.

“We’re kind of all over the map with our influences,” explains Foust. “Austin and Chance and I we were all raised on 80’s and 90’s country as well as classic country, and Rob and Adam are from Minnesota and they didn’t really get too much of that influence until later in life. Rob was raised on more classical stuff, his dad played a lot of Pavarotti and stuff like that, and his mom listened to pop radio when he was growing up.

“And then Adam, our beatboxer, was most influenced by composers for video game music, believe it or not. He’s really studied all the composers who have been doing that and he was a trumpet performance major in college. So whenever he does an arrangement for the group a lot of times it’s outside of the box.”

The group recorded four originals for this latest project, and has recorded songs by Mark Nesler and other Nashville writers for several of their albums. They enjoy arranging and recording originals, though Foust admits it can be a bit different than laying down favorites or standards that are already so familiar.

“I would say arranging an original is maybe a little trickier when you’re covering a song because you’ve got a fully fleshed-out instrumental arrangement to work with already, so you can pull from those elements like a certain guitar riff or something we can pull that off vocally. But whenever you’re starting an original you sort of wonder how in these sessions the Nashville players would play the stuff. So these days what we’ll do is we’ll fully flesh out a demo of an original with instruments too and then arrange based on that.

“We work with a couple of songwriters these days and I think they’re always trying to think about what they’ve written that would fit what we do. And we always tell ’em not to worry about that, we just say give us a good song because at the end of the day it just needs to be a catchy song and we’ll put our spin on it. Nine out 10 country songs too are gonna lend themselves to that standard three-part chorus harmony that you’re just so used to hearing in country music.”

In addition to the albums they record, Home Free caters to its fans by constantly feeding them new tracks via YouTube. In a content-is-king, rabid consumption world, the group has learned just how key it is to keep their fans engaged.

“I think the record industry has sort of been turned on its ear anyway and the old model of an album every 18 months or something that just doesn’t really work anymore because of the nature of the way people consume music,” said Foust. “They’re always ready for the next thing, so we’ve sort of just gone along with it and tried to commit to releasing two fully-produced videos per month. And a lot of the songs end up being songs that aren’t even on our album — we’ll just go in and cut a full track that will only ever live on YouTube. That’s just a way for us to keep cranking content out and we’ve got some pretty rabid fans, so it keeps them happy.”

The original content not only bridges the gap between albums for the group but also serves as a major way to introduce them to new fans who may not be familiar with them.

“Every show we meet quite a few people who have just discovered us shortly before the show on our YouTube channel, so it’s driving our business right now. And we have complete control over it. We get to do what we want to do and it’s a direct line of communication with us and the fans,” explains Foust.

That fan connection is so strong that the group decided to tap into it recently and partner together to help raise funds following the devastation of Hurricane Harvey. Since Foust hails from Nederland, TX, which is near Houston, the tragedy hit close to home for him, and the group quickly formed their campaign at YouCaring.com/HomeFreeHelps to help. Challenging fans to match their initial donation, they have since raised almost $100,000 to aid those affected by both Harvey and Irma.

“We started with a 20,000 donation and challenged our fans to match it, but our fans reached that in like twelve hours,” recalls Foust. “So we have upped the goal to $100,000 and we are at $87,000 right now. And during that whole campaign Irma hit Florida as well so we decided to donate $20,000 of it to Irma relief as well. The coolest thing about the Harvey relief is we’re working with an organization in Southeast Texas that my mother and sister are spearheading to make sure that every single penny is going to go to the people who need it.”

Though Home Free’s continued success may seem surprising to some not familiar with the group who might scoff at the idea of an a cappella group breaking into the mainstream, bassist Tim Foust explains it usually doesn’t take much to win the skeptics over.

“There’s still a little bit of an archaic school of thought about it, admits Foust. “It doesn’t matter how far the genre progresses, there’s still just some people out there who hear the word a cappella and they immediately think barbershop quartet, and they just don’t understand how that would possibly fit in popular programming — until they see the show, and then they go ‘OH.’ It’s a country rock show that just happens to be a cappella. So we have a little bit of a hurdle here and there, but it’s pretty easy to turn people into believers if you can get them to a show.”

 

Country Radio Seminar Adds Featured Speaker

Country Radio Seminar 2018 will welcome Miles Adcox, owner/CEO for emotional wellness lifestyle brand Onsite, as a featured speaker. He will discuss intentional thinking and centering one’s self during a presentation on Tuesday, Feb. 6, following the Programming Mentoring and Sales Breakfast.

 

BMI, Nashville Music Industry Supports New Music Therapy Program

Nashville’s music industry and regional supporters of The Center for Courageous Kids (CCK), a not-for-profit medical camping facility for children located in Scottsville, KY, converged at BMI on Saturday night to benefit CCK’s new music therapy program.

 

MTSU Partners With VeVa Sound

MTSU has partnered with Nashville-headquartered audio preservation company VeVa Sound to give students in the audio production, music business and commercial songwriting programs new tools and training to manage their musical projects’ digital data. Through VeVa Sound’s Studio Collect software suite, students will have a cloud-based environment that mirrors the workflow and functionality VeVa Sound uses with major record labels and other industry clients.

“There’s a wide range of technical, creative and legal information that needs to be captured and preserved over the lifespan of a professional project,” said MTSU Professor Michael Fleming, whose courses include digital audio technology, studio recording, mastering and others. “More than ever, this is now essential knowledge and a skill that students need to learn and practice. Through our partnership with VeVa Sound, our students will be able to generate track lists, credits, song reports and studio documentation using correctly formatted metadata that’s linked to their projects from the moment of creation through evaluation, licensing or commercial release.”

“We are proud to have created a meaningful partnership with a university that has fully collaborated with us and embraced the relevance of VeVa’s platforms with the goal of providing these opportunities to MTSU students,” said VeVa Sound Vice President Deborah Fairchild. “Preparing the next generation of digital media students with these skills makes for more enriched experiences for artists, performers, engineers, producers and labels.”

BOBBY KARL WORKS THE ROOM

Chapter 575

It might not rank as the party of the year, but the 2017 Medallion Ceremony inducting the new Country Music Hall of Fame members was tops in both musical and emotional quality.

Staged at the CMA Theater in the museum on Sunday evening (Oct. 22), the event saluted inductees Don Schlitz, Alan Jackson and the late Jerry Reed. The show had so many highlights that the audience rose for standing ovations more than 15 times.

“This is the most perfect night in the country-music year,” said the Hall of Fame’s Kyle Young. “These men believed in the enduring power of country music.”

Board chairman Steve Turner also offered greetings. The CMA’s Sarah Trahern eulogized the late Jo Walker-Meador and noted the passings of Jo’s fellow Hall of Famers Don Williams and Glen Campbell during the past year.

Each of the inductions began with a video bio, followed by remarks from Kyle. Here’s the fun part: We are not told in advance which stars will salute the inductees with music, so each performance is a surprise.

What is never a surprise to me is the excellence of the accompaniment. The annual Medallion All-Star Band features such titanic talents as Paul Franklin, Eddie Bayers Jr., Jeff White, Glenn Worf, Brent Mason, Deanie Richardson, Gary Prim, Thom Flora, Tania Hancheroff and Carmella Ramsey, guided by bandleader Biff Watson.

“From the beginning, music was Jerry Reed’s waking dream,” said Kyle in discussing the night’s first inductee. “He was a delight and a treasure.”

Steve Wariner, Tommy Emmanuel and John Knowles teamed up to execute Reed’s challenging instrumental “The Claw.” Ray Stevens did Reed’s 1971 Grammy-winning hit “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot.” Jamey Johnson romped through 1977’s “East Bound and Down,” backed by Jimmy Melton on banjo and Reed acolyte Brent Mason doing the guitar honors, plus the rest of the Medallion All-Star Band.

Each honoree is officially inducted into the Hall by an existing Hall of Fame member. Bobby Bare did the honors for his long-time fishing buddy.

“Jerry Reed was and still is a true American icon,” said Bobby. “He wasn’t the wild man you saw on stage and TV. Jerry Reed was serious about everything he did.”

Daughter Seidina Hubbard tearfully accepted, saying, “We all want to thank you so much for honoring our father. He said, ‘If my life isn’t proof of the Good Lord at work, I don’t know what is….Every dream I had has come true.’

“Daddy, I wish you could have seen what the world sees in you – an incomparable talent who inspired so many. It’s an honor to stand here for you tonight.”

“For the first time in his life, he would be truly speechless,” added Jerry’s daughter Lottie Zavala.

Kyle related that Don Schlitz has, to date, written 50 top-10 hit singles and 24 No. 1’s. In 1985, Don created the now-standard “in the round” songwriter performance format when he and Medallion Ceremony attendees Paul Overstreet, Thom Schuyler and Fred Knobloch joined forces at The Bluebird Café.

Mary Chapin Carpenter, with whom Schlitz wrote such hits as “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her” and “I Feel Lucky,” presented a lovely, reverent alto reading of “When You Say Nothing at All.” Charlie Worsham, joined by Schuyler, Knobloch and Jelly Roll Johnson gave us the moving “Oscar the Angel.”

International pop star Aloe Blacc (Egbert Nathanial Dawkins III) was up next. Noted for such pop hits as “The Man,” “I Need a Dollar” and “Wake Me Up” Blacc was a revelation on “The Gambler” in a duet with Vince Gill.

Vince then inducted his old friend Don: “This is a big thrill to get to do this for you, Don,” he began. “I’m just so proud that we’re friends. At the end of the day, if we don’t have each other, we don’t have very much of all.”

On a lighter note, Vince referred to the notoriously ugly bronze “portraits” on the Hall of Fame plaques. “The scariest part of being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame is not your speech; it’s not who’s going to sing your songs. It’s your plaque!”

“We celebrate each other,” reflected Don during his acceptance remarks. “Look around: This is what we call an unbroken circle. This honor is for all of us. No one does this alone. In your life, be part of something bigger than yourself.

“I’ve lived for 40 years within parentheses,” he added, referring to the way songwriter credits are written on records. “This is an honor beyond my comprehension.”

By the way, the plaque’s bronze portrait looks nothing like him. They never do. Vince says that his looks like Lon Chaney.

Moving on, Kyle cited Alan Jackson’s 60 million in sales as placing him among the top-10 solo record sellers, regardless of genre. Alan, he added, has 50 top-10 hits and 35 No. 1’s.

“He was able to reflect on the ways that real people live their lives. Alan’s songs are marvels of distinctiveness and individuality. He is one for the Ages.”

Lee Ann Womack performed Alan’s career-launching 1990 chart topper “Here in the Real World.” Alison Krauss offered a pristine performance of 1991’s “Someday,” backed by Emmanuel on guitar and featuring her own fiddle coda. George Strait’s resonant rendition of 2003’s “Remember When” was superb.

One of the event’s emotional highlights was the surprise appearance of Loretta Lynn to induct Alan. She has been recovering from a debilitating stroke she suffered on May 5, and this was her first appearance in Nashville since then. Needless to say, she received the longest and loudest of all of the evening’s many standing ovations as she was helped to the podium by George and her daughter Patsy Lynn.

“This is the first time I’ve been out,” said Loretta to the honoree. “You’re the only thing that could’ve brought me out.

“Alan, I love you. I said you’re gonna be one of the greatest singers in country music. He hasn’t let me down….Hey, you should be here.”

“Loretta Lynn said I should be in here – that’s all I needed to hear,” said Alan. “Nashville’s a really special place for music. I’ve been so blessed.

“I write what I know about. I write stuff for my fans. I just write and sing from the heart. Like I wrote in the song [2001’s “Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning”], ‘I’m just a singer of simple songs.’ That’s all that I am. I’m just so humbled by this.”

Connie Smith and George Strait came out of the wings, supporting Loretta between them, with Alan close behind. Connie led everyone in singing the traditional Medallion Ceremony finale, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”

The warblers included such illustrious names as Randy Owen, Randy Travis, Jimmy Capps, Jimmy Fortune, Jim Horn, Charlie Daniels, Charlie McCoy, Charlie Cook, Suzy Bogguss & Doug Crider, Marty Stuart, Donna Stoneman, Gary Burr & Georgia Middleman, Lee Thomas Miller, Tony Brown, Kyle Lehning, Lane Brody, Jan Howard, Dickey Lee, The Whites, William Lee Golden and Buddy Cannon.

We retired to the event space upstairs for the second part of the celebration, a gracious cocktail supper. Fare included super-tender roast beef, mac & cheese, romaine salad, prosciutto, salami, cheeses, pasta salad, wilted kale, crostini, flat breads and desserts.

This, of course, also featured massive schmoozing by such industry fabulons as Mike Dungan, Michael Martin, Mike Sistad, Mike Milom, John Huie, John Marks, John Lomax III, David & Karen Conrad, David & Susana Ross, Bill Mayne, Billy Paul, Bill & Janine Walker, Gerry House, Jerry Crutchfield, Jerry & Ernie Williams, Jody Williams and Scott Borchetta.

Not to mention such lovely divinities as Mary Ann McCready, Erin Enderlin, Shannon Hatch, Diane Pearson, Amy Kurland, Denise Stiff, Martha Sharp, Suzi Ragsdale, Sherry Bond, Melanie Howard and Eria Wollam Nichols, plus her equally lovely husband Roger Nichols, sporting a stylish new silver forelock.

Which leaves us to conclude our story with representatives of the hairy-legged contingent – Buck Ford, Les Kerr, Ron Cox, George Gruhn, Rod Essig, Tony Conway, Horton Frank, Pat Higdon, Ed Benson, Gary Overton, Chris Horsnell, Bobby Rymer, Lon Helton, Bruce Hinton and Keith Bilbrey.

Many judged it to be the best Medallion Ceremony to date.

With Nashville’s star-studded Country Rising benefit concert, set for Nov. 12 at Bridgestone Arena, having already sold out, a second event has been set for the same evening. Country Rising: Downtown Jam will be held Nov. 12 at Nashville’s Ascend Amphitheater.

Hosted by SiriusXM’s Storme Warren, Country Rising: Downtown Jam will include performances from Tucker Beathard, Bobby Bones & The Raging Idiots, Bailey Bryan, Lindsay Ell, Chris Janson, Jon Pardi, Eric Paslay, Carly Pearce, and Drake White, with more performers to be announced.

Both concerts will benefit The Country Rising Fund of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, which was established to support charitable initiatives aiding victims of the September 2017 hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Jose and Maria. The fund will also include aid for those affected by the recent shooting in Las Vegas.

Bridgestone Arena’s sold-out show will feature Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Sam Hunt, Lady Antebellum, Little Big Town, Martina McBride, Reba McEntire, Chris Stapleton, George Strait, Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban, and will be hosted by iHeartMedia’s Bobby Bones.

Tickets for Country Rising: Downtown Jam go on sale Thursday, Oct. 26 at 10 a.m. CT on ticketmaster.com. Citi cardmembers will have access to purchase pre-sale tickets beginning Tuesday, Oct. 24 at 10 a.m. CT.