* En anglais uniquement
Home Free is an a cappella country group that found international success in 2013 after being crowned the season four winners on the popular television vocal competition The Sing-Off.
Home Free released their Billboard-charting major-label debut
Crazy Life in 2014. The group continued to find favor on both the country and mainstream charts with subsequent efforts like
Country Evolution (2015),
Dive Bar Saints (2019), and Land of the Free (2021).
Formed in 2000 in Mankato, Minnesota by brothers
Chris and
Adam Rupp, Matt Atwood, Darren Scruggs, and Dan Lemke, most of whom were still in their teens, the group went from a hobby to a full-time gig in 2007 with the release of their debut album, From the Top. During this time, the group was led by the Rupp brothers and Atwood, with a rotating cast of members cycling through. They issued four more albums -- 2009's Kickin' It Old School, 2010's Christmas, Vol. 1 and
Vol. 2, and 2012's Live from the Road -- before joining season four of The Sing-Off in 2013. After winning with their arrangement of
Hunter Hayes' "I Want Crazy," they inked a deal with Sony.
Home Free's success on The Sing-Off helped their 2014 major-label debut
Crazy Life rise to number eight on the Country Albums chart, and before the year was out, they issued an album of songs for the holidays,
Full of Cheer.
Home Free's third album for
Columbia,
Country Evolution, was released in September 2015 and included guest appearances by
Charlie Daniels, the
Oak Ridge Boys, and Taylor Davis. A fourth album,
Timeless, appeared in September 2017, debuting at three on the Country charts. Two years later,
Dive Bar Saints found
Home Free primarily concentrating on original material. In 2020, the group issued a new holiday collection,
Warmest Winter, which featured a set of yuletide favorites and a handful of self-penned songs. In 2021 the group released Land of the Free, a collection of patriotic songs that included "America (My Country 'Tis of Thee)," "Travelin Soldier," and "God Bless the U.S.A," the latter of which featured
Lee Greenwood and the
United States Air Force Band. ~ James Christopher Monger