Home Free - End of the Road

 Home Free is an American country a cappella group of five vocalists: Austin Brown, Rob Lundquist, Adam Rupp, Tim Foust, and Adam Chance. 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' "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, in February 2014. Their most recent album, So Long Dixie, was released in November 2022.

Home Free was originally formed in January 2001 by Chris Rupp 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, Lindquist, Foust and Brown, competed in 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.

An update of Home Free's 2014 album Full of Cheer called Full Of (Even More) Cheer 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.^[12] Home Free was also an early adopter of Patreon, where they crowdfund to raise money to produce their videos.^[13]

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. Since joining, Foust and Brown have also become very active in writing and arranging.

In terms of musical roles, Home Free includes a lead tenor (Lundquist), a high tenor (Brown), a baritone (Chance), a bass (Foust), and a beatboxer (Rupp), who provides percussion sounds. Lundquist and Chance sing traditional tenor and baritone harmony, respectively, and Foust sings bass with the range of a basso profundo. Occasionally, the latter two singers switch roles. All of the singers occasionally sing solos supported by the harmonies of the other singers.

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.”

Home Free has collaborated with many notable artists. In 2015, they were featured on Kenny Rogers' 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" 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.

J.Fla - Heal the World

 Kim Jung Hwa (born June 10, 1987), better known by her stage name J.Fla, is a South Korean singer, music artist, songwriter, and YouTuber. She signed with GoodSen Entertainment, and THE UNIT LABEL

On August 22, 2011, J.Fla created her YouTube channel, JFlaMusic, and uploaded her first song, a cover of Beyonce's "Halo". Over the next five months she uploaded 15 more cover songs.

Subsequently, on February 17, 2012, a collection of 8 tracks entitled "JFla's Cover 1" was released on the internet.

In mid-2013, she released her official debut album, an original EP titled Babo Kateun Story (바보 같은 Story).

Then, from late 2014 to mid-2016, she released at least six additional EPs (mostly covers of songs in English, but also some original, Korean language songs).

Early in 2017, she released her first full-length covers album, Blossom.^[6] By November of the same year, she had released five additional EPs and her YouTube channel had surpassed 5 million subscribers.

80 tracks from more than 10 of her EPs were then re-released in April 2018 as Rose: The J.Fla Collection. Also during 2018, J.Fla released two all-new full-length albums, covering a diverse array of artists, including Taylor Swift, ABBA, The Chainsmokers, Ariana Grande, and Queen.

On November 16, 2018, J.Fla became the first independent South Korean YouTuber to achieve more than 10 million subscribers. As of March 2021, she has more than 17 million subscribers.

In late 2019, J.Fla released several new original songs with accompanying music videos, starting with "Good Vibe" on September 6.

In September of 2022, J.Fla announced the formation of her own record company, GOODSEN ENTERTAINMENT, based in South Korea. An original 10-track album was announced, with the lead single "Bedroom Singer" having its international debut on October 7 at 12:00 KST.

Ed Kuepper - The Man Who Sold the World

 Ed Kuepper ( Bremen, Alemania del Oeste el 20 de diciembre de 1955) es un guitarrista, compositor y cantante australiano. Cofundó con el cantante Chris Bailey la pionera banda de punk The Saints (1974). Además, es el principal artífice de la también pionera banda experimental post-punk Laughing Clowns (que incorporó el saxofón, la psicodelia e influencias de diversos estilos al género) así como de la banda grunge/metal alternativo The Aints (nombre "parodia" al de su banda previa).

En 1976, Kuepper se convirtió con The Saints en uno de los primeros músicos australianos con su propio sello, Fatal Records, con el cual, tras un largo camino intentando ser publicados (desde 1974), pudieron realizar su primer sencillo (I'm) Stranded. Lamentablemente, la mala suerte hizo que tuvieran que pasar dos años desde que grabaron el sencillo para poder publicarlo, lo que lleva a controversia el hecho de si The Saints debería ser considerada como la primera banda punk, por delante de Sex Pistols o The Ramones. Sea o no, sus dos primeros álbumes con The Saints, así como el álbum Radios Appear de Radio Birdman están considerados unas joyas fundamentales del punk, desconocidas para el gran público debido a la poca repercusión mediática que ha tenido históricamente el rock australiano. Su segundo álbum, Eternally Yours, introdujo novedades vanguardistas en los ritmos punk (canciones totalmente orquestadas, ritmos intermitentes y saxofón) por parte de la inquietud experimental de Ed Kuepper, inquietud que llevó a la desaparición de la banda como tal (quedando a cargo únicamente de Chris Bailey) por diferencias musicales.

Estas experimentaciones tuvieron su recipiente en la siguiente banda de Kuepper, Laughing Clowns, formada en 1979. Kuepper, con Laughing Clowns fue de los primeros que empezaron a experimentar con el género emergente en aquel momento del post-punk, convirtiendo a su banda en un híbrido vanguardista de post-punk, jazz libre y rock alternativo. Sus álbumes Mr Uddich-Schmuddich Goes to Town y, sobre todo, Ghosts of an Ideal Wife dan buena cuenta de ello. Como ocurrió con la paradójica relación de la importancia de The Saints en el desarrollo del movimiento punk, con Laughing Clowns y el post-punk pasó algo parecido. Al ser un movimiento principalmente británico, coronado por los epígonos de Joy Division y Bauhaus (y en ámbitos más underground, por The Sound y The Chameleons), la escena australiana fue asimismo ignorada. Además, al ser el post-punk un movimiento de por sí más underground y específico que el propio punk, Laughing Clowns se ha convertido en una banda absolutamente desconocida incluso para la mayoría de los entendidos del género.

De su carrera en solitario, variada y muy prolífica, cabe destacar que Kuepper fue premiado por los ARIA Music Awards por su disco Black Ticket Day como el mejor disco independiente australiano del 1993, galardón que también obtuvo en 1994 con su disco Serene Machine. También ha sido nominado en diversas ocasiones en premios similares. Está considerado como el músico más prolífico de Australia en los años noventa.

En los últimos años Kuepper está trabajando en las bandas sonoras de diversos radio dramas y films experimentales. Ha recorrido Australia y Europa con recitales de música semi improvisada bajo el nombre de MFLL. Actuó en el Instituto de Arte Moderno de Brisbane, así como en la Ópera de Sídney, el Museo del Cine Austríaco (Viena) y la Fundación Cartier (París). Como curiosidad puede decirse que Kuepper ha sido el único músico de Rock invitado a tocar en la Fundación Cartier desde Velvet Underground

En 2007 salió el, para muchos, su mejor disco en solitario, Jean Lee and the Yellow Dog, disco inspirado por la historia de Jean Lee, una asesina recordada por ser la última persona condenada a muerte a la horca en Australia. Este álbum cuenta con las colaboraciones de Jeffrey Wegener (Laughing Clowns), Peter Oxley (Sunnyboys), Warren Ellis (Dirty Three y Grinderman) y Chris Bailey, su amigo y compañero de The Saints.

Después de un largo tour en 2008 abriendo para Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Kuepper se unió a ellos como guitarrista de soporte debido a la partida de Mick Harvey de la banda, a principios del 2009. Este año Kuepper relanzó su sello discográfico Prince Melon, con el que lanzó algunas de sus referencias en los 80.

Ed Kuepper, además, ha realizado distintas covers otorgándoles un toque extremadamente personal. La más destacable es la que hizo del famoso Highway to hell de AC/DC, pero también ha versionado el tema Finding You de The Go-Betweens como tributo a la muerte de Grant McLennan así como distintos temas de Eric Burdon & The Animals.

Some Velvet Morning - Enjoy the Silence

Some Velvet Morning are a British indie / alternative rock band consisting of Desmond Lambert (vocals, guitar), Rob Flanagan (drums) and Gavin Lambert (bass, vocals). Formed in 2000, they have released four albums: Silence Will Kill You, Allies, Musical Chairs and Rough Seas. Across these four album releases, they have continued to build a series of film and TV placements for their music with brands including Renault, Volkswagen, Haig Club, Pull & Bear and The Grand Tour.

The band, named after the song Some Velvet Morning by Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood, was formed as a result of a chance meeting between Rob Flanagan (formerly part of an early lineup for the 22-20s) and Desmond Lambert in Denmark Street – London’s historic equivalent of Tin Pan Alley. The pair agreed to meet for a jam in Harrow, where coincidentally they both lived at the time. Lambert brought in his brother Gavin on bass, whilst Flanagan later asked a recent acquaintance, Yann McCullough to join on keyboards.

The band’s debut appearance took place at The Rock Garden, London in 2001, followed by a series of shows at the famous Cavern Club in Liverpool, a city where Flanagan had previously resided as a student at Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. During this time, Yann McCullough worked as a runner at Air-Edel studios in London. This led to the band cutting their first demos out of hours, whilst building a following on the London club circuit.

In 2003, McCullough left the band to pursue a career as a film music composer and editor. The band decided to continue as a trio, with a brief foray into material inspired by the then current crop of modern R 'n' B artists. Combining this genre with their older soul/rock based originals, the band came to the attention of manager Vicki Wickham and Nona Hendryx, formerly of Labelle. The duo were in London looking for artists to sign to their new label, Rhythmbank Entertainment. After an audition by the band (fresh from a residency season in Cannes), Some Velvet Morning were signed to the label in 2004.

2005 was a period of development for the band, with the label assembling a team, including A&R man Tris Penna to work with Wickham and Hendryx. Heavily influenced by The White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand and other emerging indie acts, Some Velvet Morning’s new material began to take on a heavier rock feel, with two songs Losing My Mindand Godless emerging as the blueprint for material to come. Under the direction of producer Rik Simpson, the band cut masters of these two songs at Mayfair Studios in 2006, followed by the album Silence Will Kill You at The Fish Factory Studios in London, where they also worked with producer Mike Pelanconi (aka Prince Fatty).

Some Velvet Morning continued to perform live around the UK supporting the radio success of Losing My Mind. A tour of the east coast of America followed with the release of Silence Will Kill You in October 2007, supported by a TV debut appearance on Fox 5’s Fearless Music show. Due to BBC Radio 2’s support for the album in the UK, the band also made their live radio debut on Janice Long's show later that year.

Shortly after the release of Silence Will Kill You, Rhythmbank Entertainmemt went into liquidation, leaving the band without a label at the start of 2008. During this period, Some Velvet Morning began writing new material which would attract the attention of music manager, James Wilkinson (the band had two previous managers for short periods - Jo Beckett & Natalie Plessis). Wilkinson had met Rob Flanagan at an Ivor Novello Awards party and the two struck up an immediate friendship. He had been impressed by the band’s new demos and their recent successful trip to Bangkok as part of a Heineken Green Space festival.

The first publicity stunt of the Wilkinson-Some Velvet Morning partnership was a rooftop concert tribute to The Beatles, played on the top of the PRS For Music building in London, 40 years after the Fab Four had played their farewell show in Saville Row at the Apple headquarters. Although performing a set of original material, the band did end with a coda of the Lennon-McCartney song Don't Let Me Down. Like the original show, the local authorities investigated the performance due to concerns of excessive noise levels.

With his background in film and TV music, Wilkinson scooped the band a key music placement in 2010 - the international trailer for Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass film. The exposure led to further interest from Jimmy Mikaoui & Paul Rene Albertini at a new Anglo-French crowdfunding label called My Major Company. In 2010, the band joined the roster of a number of hopeful acts, aiming to raise money on the new platform to make an album. In just six weeks, Some Velvet Morning raised £100,000 and signed to My Major Company for the production of their second album, Allies.

With Desmond Lambert’s rising experience as a producer, the band spent 2011 working on material and recording in London and Brighton for the Allies album, in between UK festival appearances. A second trip to Bangkok that summer found the band performing at the ‘Heavyweight Rock The Ring’ festival and retaining the boxing ring theme to shoot the video for the first single from Allies, Don’t Think. 2012 saw the international release of Allies, which the band extensively toured into 2013, with live performances across Europe and particularly in France, where My Major Company secured healthy radio exposure for the single How To Start A Revolution. The 2013 tour culminated with a second headline appearance at Masillia Rock in Marseille.

Parting ways with My Major Company, who had closed their UK operation, another chapter also closed with James Wilkinson standing down as the band manager in late 2013, yet a partnership with Wilkinson on film and TV placements has continued. 2014 saw the band perform regular shows at the Roundhouse in London including a collaboration with choreographer Andy Turner for the Wella Trendvision Awards, where the band performed re-worked versions of Losing My Mind, How To Start A Revolution and Stone Cold for the fashion show. They also teamed up with veteran UK rock band, The Yardbirds, for a one-off show at London’s Bush Hall venue.

Towards the end of 2015, Some Velvet Morning began thinking about a new way to release their new material. The result was the idea of writing, recording and issuing one song a month digitally for 2016. A physical EP Musical Chairs (with the first three singles plus a bonus track) was released to coincide with the band’s London Roundhouse appearance in March. Eventually the 12 songs were compiled as an album, Musical Chairs at the end of 2016.

Due to the band’s success with How To Start A Revolution being placed in a pan European advertisement for Renault, Some Velvet Morning were booked by the Transformation Trust to appear at Wembley Arena in the summer of 2017 with The Vamps.

Several songs from Musical Chairs plus others from the band’s catalogue provided the basis for the soundtrack to Boudica Entertainment’s Kat And The Band feature film, starring Ella Hunt and Dougie Poynter from McFly, which went into production in 2018, but would finally be released in 2020.

2020 presented the band with a unique challenge of completing their album, Rough Seas separately during the Coronavirus lockdown. With the basic tracks already recorded in London, the album was completed in Westport, Eire and saw a reunion with Rik Simpson as Executive Producer. The album Rough Seas was released in March 2021. Good To See You became a regular fixture on broadcasts for Sky Sports and the BBC 2020 Euro Highlights, as fans returned to the sports stadiums after the coronavirus pandemic.