Review: HOME FREE: ROAD SWEET ROAD at Robinson Center

After leaving Templelive in Fort Smith, the sounds of vocal harmonic perfection vibrated through the concert hall at Robinson Center in Little Rock Thursday night, March 2, when the first all vocal country band HOME FREE blessed our ears with sensations, permeating feelings of exhilaration that cradled our souls which still can be felt even now. How is this kind of power even possible? Well, of course, it lies within the talent of the group: Adam Rupp-Founding member and the best beatboxer I've ever heard; Austin Brown-upper tenor & lead who glistens over the high ornamental notes; Rob Lundquist- lead tenor/tenor harmony and "Home Free's Sexiest Singer" according to his Instagram; Tim Foust-super bass singer: he's the Mariah Carey of low notes; and Adam Chance-sultry baritone who did a lot of leads during the concert.

As the room gets dark, you see the blue lights flashing and hear the musical blending right before they hit you with the intro to Fishin' In The Dark/Down in the Boondocks Medley from the Country Evolution album. From there they go into Road Sweet Road, off of their newest album So Long Dixie, which debut at #1 on the country charts. Then funny man MC Tim chats it up with the audience, asking us what song we want to hear, in which the whole group of us yell randomly. So, he responds with "Home Free doesn't give you what you want. We give you what you need." They proceed with my favorite (ok, I have a lot of Home Free favorites) Elvira. This type of banter is weaved in and out through the whole "party" as they serenade us hit after hit.

Other songs in the first half were: Stargazer Lilies, written by the super talented Austin Brown; Man of Constant Sorrow, which grew out of the looper demonstration crafted by the skillful Adam Rupp; the choreographed Folsom Prison Blues with those tight polyphonic train-whistles; and then after a little encouraging to buy some merchandise, we got Rick-rolled with what we thought would be Ring of Fire, but no, it was Never Gonna Give You Up. These guys crack me up!

Second half had songs I Won't Give Up, Everybody Walkin' This Land (another one of my favorites), and Some Girls Do. After that, Adam Rupp's mind-blowing, pulsating-lips vocal solo transcends the crowd to the nightclub, an experience that sends the Home Fries (fans) to their feet to give praise for his all-mighty rhythmic oral performance. Then it's 'Story Time with Tim' as he proceeds to tell us that Robinson Center has metered lights, and he wound up in the dark while taking a shower. He blamed Rob, and then had to stumble around to get the lights turned back on. How did the story end? With a mental image.........moving on. After giving away backstage passes, they crooned John Denver's Country Road, talked about dreams coming true, which led to the song Dreamer, and ended with Ain't Going Down (til the Sun Comes Up). For the encore, they performed the Sea Shanty Medley and Ring of Fire (for real this time).

The audience consensus was that we wished there were more songs, of course, but all in all, the show was loved by everyone. This makes my third time seeing a HOME FREE Concert, and this was, by far, the most complex. Even Tim says "You may have noticed that we travel with a lot of s**t these days." The stage is layered with lighted levels and Adam Rupp perches at the top with his looper machine for a big chunk of the show. The light show was amazing. I loved how it bounced with the beat, sometimes blinding us, but mostly highlighting the throbbing pulses of the driven rhythm.

Next up, HOME FREE is headed to Australia, before resuming their US tour. For more information visit their website at https://homefreemusic.com.

Now I wait until show #4.