How Country Got Its Group Of A Cappella Singers
In December 2013, a bunch of a cappella groups gathered on the stage of the show The Sing-Off to find out who would be named the winner of that season. After much anticipation, the big reveal was finally made.
The winners? Country a cappella group Home Free.
Week after week, the five fellas had impressed the judges and viewers with their unique arrangements of hit country songs. One of their biggest fans was judge Shawn Stockman, a member of the famous R&B vocal group, Boyz II Men.
If anything, that just goes to show how much of a hit Home Free was from the start. Someone like Stockman didn’t even have to come from a country music background to be able to recognize they had talent.
Trying New Things
Fast forward to today, and Home Free is still crushing it. They regularly release music videos on their popular YouTube channel, with some being covers and others being originals.
To kick off the new year, the guys wanted to try their hands at something a little different than usual. While they have ventured away from covering country songs in the past (they’ve performed songs by Ed Sheeran, Meghan Trainor, and John Mayer, to name a few), most of their covers are country.
So you can imagine how excited fans were when the fellas started teasing a new cover video “a little different than what we’ve done in the past,” as tenor harmony singer Rob Lundquist wrote on Instagram.
Embracing That R&B Vibe
Lundquist didn’t name the song they covered, leaving it up to fans to imagine. They didn’t have to wonder for long, as lead tenor Austin Brown revealed they recorded “End of the Road,” by none other than Boyz II Men.
“This might be my favorite @homefreeguys cover, ever,” Austin wrote, also giving fans fair warning that the track has Lundquist “SLAYING” his vocals.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Br_GLiKHPQ0/
“End of the Road” was released by Boyz II Men in 1992 as part of the soundtrack to the film, Boomerang. The song was a smash success, and topped the charts in Australia, the Netherlands, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK, and the U.S.
By the end of the year, the song ranked as the number one song of the year in the U.S. It also held a strong spot on the end of the decade chart issued in 1999, placing seventh on it.
As if all of that wasn’t impressive enough, the song’s success led to two wins at the Grammy Awards in 1993.
Finally, fans got the chance to hear Home Free’s take on the global hit when they debuted its music video to the public on January 10, 2019.
A Whole New Side To Rob
Their arrangement places Lundquist in lead for most of the time, with Brown trading off with him here and there, and bass singer Tim Foust having a solo mid-song. Just as Brown said before the video’s release, Lundquist crushes his vocal performance in this one, especially toward the end.
The last section of the video has Lundquist fully embracing his R&B side, as he belts out the notes with passion and throws in a wild amount of runs. Fans were blown away by his performance, with many asking where this side of him has been for all of these years!
To top it all off, the fellas’ harmonies in this one are even smoother than usual. They knew they had a lot to live up to in covering this song, and we’d say they succeeded.
Get ready to be enchanted by what country’s favorite a cappella group has done with this massive hit. If Stockman from Boyz II Men ends up seeing this, we’re sure he’d be even more proud of them than he was on The Sing-Off!