Home Free

Biography

Home Free is an American country a cappella group of five vocalists: Adam Bell-Bastien, Adam Chance, Rob Lundquist, Adam Rupp, and Tim Foust. Starting as a show group, they toured with approximately 200 shows a year across the United States. The group won the fourth season of The Sing-Off on NBC in 2013. They sang an arrangement of Hunter Hayes's "I Want Crazy" as their final competitive song, earning the group $100,000 and a recording contract with Sony.
The band released their first major label album, Crazy Life×Crazy Life13 January 2014 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Any Way the Wind Blows3:132Your Man2:573Everything Will Be Okay3:544Jump Right In3:175I’ve Seen3:166Wake Me Up3:167Ring of Fire2:238Hunter Hayes Medley4:209A Little Bit of Everything3:1210Champagne Taste (on a Beer Budget)2:3811Crazy Life3:42, in February 2014. Their latest album, Challenge the Sea×Challenge the Sea19 September 2025 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 16 tracks1Bon Voyage1:132Bonnie Ship the Diamond3:453Leave Her Johnny2:584Block Island Sound0:185The Downeaster 'Alexa'4:156Northwest Passage5:247Skull and Bones (2025)3:378Hoist the Colours1:419Challenge the Sea3:0910The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald6:0711Bon Secour0:5812Santiana3:3413Nantucket3:4214Mingulay Boat Song3:3015The Parting Glass4:2116Fair Winds1:20 (Deluxe), was released in June 2026.

History

Home Free was originally formed in January 2001 by Chris Rupp, Adam Rupp and Matt Atwood in Mankato, Minnesota, when some of its members were still in their teens. The five founding members were brothers Chris and Adam Rupp, Matt Atwood, Darren Scruggs, and Dan Lemke. They took their name from a boat owned by Atwood's grandfather who helped support the group financially in their early years. The group began as a hobby for the singers, but they gradually grew in experience and popularity. By 2007 they had enough of a following to pursue music full-time. During this period, the Rupp brothers and Atwood formed the core of the group, with Atwood singing lead tenor. Other members of the group came and went. Current member Rob Lundquist, another Minnesotan, joined in 2008.
For much of the group's history they worked with many talented bass singers, but did not have a full-time committed bass voice. In 2007 Chris Foss sang with them. Elliott Robinson was added as bass in September 2008, and was replaced in June 2009 by Troy Horne. Later that year, Horne left to rejoin the House Jacks. To replace Horne they turned to Tim Foust, who first sang with them as a guest on their 2010 tour. A Texas native, Foust was then pursuing a career as a singer/songwriter of country music and had recently released a solo album, but was not ready to sign on full-time. Matthew Tuey sang with the group in the interim of 2011, until Foust joined them full-time in January 2012.
In 2012, Austin Brown was working on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship as a featured singer in their production shows. When Home Free joined the cruise as a guest performing group, they met and became close. Brown, who was born in Tifton, Georgia, let Home Free know that he would be interested in joining the group if they ever had an opening. At the end of 2012 lead singer Matt Atwood and his wife, who had married the previous year, were expecting their first child. Finding the group's touring schedule incompatible with family life, and having an opportunity to take over his family's real estate business in Mankato, Atwood made the decision to retire from the group. Home Free then invited Brown to join as lead tenor. He sang his first show with the group in October 2012, and became full-time in January 2013.
The group, made up of Chris and Adam Rupp, Lundquist, Foust and Brown, competed in and won the fourth season of The Sing-Off, recording their performances in September 2013. During that time, the group arranged for substitute performers to fulfill their previously scheduled concert commitments. The series was televised in December 2013, and the group headlined the Sing-Off tour across 32 cities in 2014.

On March 18, 2016, it was announced that, after sixteen years of performing with the group, co-founder Chris Rupp would be leaving to pursue a solo career. He would be replaced after May 8 by Adam Chance, formerly of Street Corner Symphony. On February 15, 2024, Home Free announced that Brown would leave the band later in the year, the first lineup change in eight years. This announcement also included the release date of their next album—Crazy(er) Life×Crazy(er) Life29 March 2024 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Any Way the Wind Blows (Home Free's version)3:102Your Man (Home Free's version)3:023Everything Will Be Okay (Home Free's version)3:504Jump Right In (Home Free's version)3:155I've Seen (Home Free's version)3:256Wake Me Up (Home Free's version)3:157Ring of Fire (Home Free's version)2:218Hunter Hayes Medley (Home Free's version)4:169A Little Bit of Everything (Home Free's version)3:1110Champagne Taste (On a Beer Budget) (Home Free's version)2:3511Crazy Life (Home Free's version)3:43, featuring re-recordings of songs from Crazy Life×Crazy Life13 January 2014 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Any Way the Wind Blows3:132Your Man2:573Everything Will Be Okay3:544Jump Right In3:175I’ve Seen3:166Wake Me Up3:167Ring of Fire2:238Hunter Hayes Medley4:209A Little Bit of Everything3:1210Champagne Taste (on a Beer Budget)2:3811Crazy Life3:42—to be their last album with Brown. Brown was replaced by Adam Bell-Bastien, who had performed as a member of the group several years earlier, in June. Brown subsequently competed on the twentieth season of America's Got Talent in 2025 advancing as far as the quarterfinals.

Reception

An update of Home Free's 2014 album Full of Cheer×Full of Cheer30 September 2014 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 13 tracks1Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer3:282White Christmas2:593O’ Holy Night3:474Full of Cheer2:455I’ll Be Home for Christmas3:356Baby, It’s Cold Outside2:427Hairy Christmas3:108Angels We Have Heard on High2:529Do You Hear What I Hear?4:3310Silent Night3:4011Away in a Manger3:1312Christmas Medley3:2013Colder Weather (live from The Sing‐Off Tour)3:20 called Full Of (Even More) Cheer×Full of (Even More) Cheer11 November 2016 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1O Holy Night3:452White Christmas2:563Colder Weather3:134I’ll Be Home for Christmas3:345Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer3:256Angels We Have Heard On High2:507How Great Thou Art4:138Do You Hear What I Hear?4:319Full of Cheer2:4310Silent Night3:40 was released in November 2016 and debuted at number two on the Top Country Albums Chart with 13,000 sold - the band's best performance on the chart at the time.
The band has been actively posting videos to their YouTube channel since 2009. In May 2020, they announced that they had reached 1 million subscribers to their channel. Home Free was also an early adopter of Patreon, where they crowdfund to raise money to produce their videos.
The band cultivates a fan base, known as Home Fries.

Musical background and style

All five of Home Free's singers have formal musical training. Lundquist and the Rupp brothers all have bachelor's degrees in music. Adam Rupp's primary instrument is trumpet, but he also plays drums, keyboard, and bass guitar. After joining, Foust and Brown became active in writing and arranging.
In terms of musical roles, Home Free includes a lead tenor (Lundquist), a high tenor (Bell-Bastien), a baritone (Chance), a bass (Foust), and a beatboxer (Rupp), who provides percussive sounds. Lundquist and Chance sing traditional tenor and baritone harmony, respectively, and Foust sings bass with the range of a basso profundo. Former high tenor Austin Brown is commonly known by his ability to sing most of his high notes in chest or mixed voice. Foust is known for his extensive five-octave vocal range and his usage of the growl technique. Occasionally, Foust and Chance switch roles, as Chance was the former bass of Street Corner Symphony. All of the singers occasionally sing solos supported by the harmonies of the other singers. Rupp also sings third tenor in some songs.
Home Free's styling as a country group is relatively recent. Before Foust joined the group, Home Free was an all-purpose a cappella group, singing in a wide variety of styles, of which country was only a minor one. With the additions of Foust and Brown, the group moved more in the direction of country and found that audiences responded well to it. Home Free had auditioned three times for The Sing-Off (without Foust and Brown) and not been accepted. When auditioning for the fourth season, they made a conscious decision to style themselves as a country group. In an interview Brown said this identity is what grabbed the attention of The Sing-Off’s casting director, who said, “You guys really fit something we don’t have.”

Collaborations

Home Free has collaborated with many notable artists. In 2015, based on a recommendation from his children's elementary school music teacher, they were featured on Kenny Rogers's final album Once Again It's Christmas, performing "Children, Go Where I Send Thee" with Rogers. Also in 2015, the Oak Ridge Boys collaborated with Home Free in a fully a capella version of their song "Elvira".
Don McLean invited them to collaborate on a 50th anniversary recording of his 1971 hit "American Pie". The music video for this performance went on to win three Telly awards in 2021.
Home Free has collaborated on several occasions with fellow a capella artist Peter Hollens on "19 You + Me×19 You + Me16 September 2014 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track119 You + Me4:01" in 2014 and the hymn "Amazing Grace" in 2016. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, Hollens and Home Free collaborated on a cover of the U2 song "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", incorporating a choir made up of over 200 members of their respective Patreon patrons; each performer or family group recorded their audio and video remotely.
Also in 2020, Home Free collaborated with Lee Greenwood and the Singing Sergeants of the United States Air Force Band in a recording of Greenwood's hit song "God Bless the U.S.A.". The song was released on June 30, 2020, and reached #1 in digital song sales as of July 18, 2020. Home Free created a song for the video game Skull and Bones (2024), which they performed at Summer Game Fest in June 2023. Other notable collaborations include Billy Gilman, Texas Hill (Casey James, Adam Wakefield, and formerly Craig Wayne Boyd), Mark Wills, Brooke Eden, Travis Collins, Amy Sheppard, Rachel Wammack, Lisa Cimorelli, Alabama, Taylor Davis, Jimmy Fortune, The Longest Johns, Chapel Hart, and Avi Kaplan.
In April 2024, Don McLean again invited Home Free to collaborate with him on a new version of his song, "Vincent". It was also announced that Home Free would be featured on the title track of McLean's next album, American Boys, released in May 2024.
Home Free released a cover of Beyoncé's "Texas Hold 'Em" with Chapel Hart in May 2025.