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Batterers’ intervention for Kingston man who beat ex

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Old fashioned farm-to-table event to be held at The Lands at Hillside Farms

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Home Free wasn&#8217;t unsuccessful before they bested nine other a capella groups to win the fourth season of NBC&#8217;s &#8220;The Sing-Off.&#8221; They recorded albums and went on tours, but they felt more like the entertainment than the attraction. That all changed once the group won a grand prize that included a recording contract with Sony Music Entertainment.</p><p>&#8220;Before the show, we were touring and it was fairs and concerts associated with other events; crowds didn&#8217;t know who we were,&#8221; Home Free tenor singer Rob Lundquist said. &#8220;They came to the associated concert just to see whoever came in, so the biggest difference is people are actually coming to see us, which is really cool.&#8221;</p><p>When people go to the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts to see Home Free on Sept. 21, Lundquist said they can expect a fun-filled, family-friendly night featuring the five-piece&#8217;s unique renditions of popular songs, plus a few originals. The group is touring in support of &#8220;Country Evolution,&#8221; the third album they&#8217;ve released since becoming &#8220;Sing-Off&#8221; champions.</p><p>&#8220;We worked on this album for six weeks over the summer,&#8221; Lundquist said. &#8220;Austin (Brown, lead tenor) has an original on there called &#8216;California Country,&#8217; Tim (Foust, bass) has several songs on there and there are a bunch of covers as well. We do stuff from way back in the day to Sam Hunt&#8217;s &#8216;House Party,&#8217; so we&#8217;re kind of all over but we dig each song. We&#8217;re really happy with how it turned out.&#8221;</p><p>Home Free&#8217;s song selection process is democratic. When a member finds a song they&#8217;d like the group to cover they bring it to the others and, if enough of them are excited about the track, they record it. The aforementioned &#8220;House Party&#8221; was a last-minute inclusion on &#8220;Country Evolution&#8221; that every member agreed had to make the final cut, but the group&#8217;s rendition of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band&#8217;s &#8220;Fishin&#8217; In The Dark&#8221; took a few detours before finding its way onto the album.</p><p>&#8220;Chris (Rupp, baritone) felt like it should be mashed into something else, so he decided to go with Little Big Town&#8217;s &#8216;Boondocks,&#8217;&#8221; Lundquist said. &#8220;It was crazy&#8212;&#8216;Boondocks&#8217; is in minor and &#8220;Fishin&#8217; In The Dark&#8221; is in major. It was really hard to keep that a cool arrangement, but he brought it to the group and we loved a lot of it. That was the most that the entire group did to make a song work. Everybody put in their own opinions on it.&#8221;</p><p>According to Lundquist, the group planned or recorded more tracks than the 14 that made it onto &#8220;Country Evolution,&#8221; but just because they didn&#8217;t see the light of day doesn&#8217;t mean they won&#8217;t be heard.</p><p>&#8220;One thing that we really wanted to do was get a duet with a woman, but we couldn&#8217;t find anybody to make it work with their schedule,&#8221; Lundquist said. &#8220;The song is an original ballad that Tim wrote and it&#8217;s beautiful, so we&#8217;re just going to wait until someone comes along that wants to sing it with us. So, yeah, I think we&#8217;ll definitely release some of those other tunes.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Summer in the Country,&#8221; a Home Free original, was recorded during the &#8220;Crazy Life&#8221; sessions but didn&#8217;t fit the album. The track found a home on &#8220;Country Evolution&#8221; though, making it one of the many songs the group can pull from its repertoire for Kirby Center concertgoers on Sept. 21. Home Free&#8217;s &#8220;Sing-Off&#8221; win and soon-to-be-released third major-label record may have elevated them from auxiliary entertainment to headlining attraction, but the five-piece a capella group continues to plot their own evolutionary track through the country genre, one harmony at a time.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Home Free will play the F.M. Kirby Center in downtown Wilkes-Barre in support of their upcoming release, &#8220;Country Evolution.&#8221; The five-piece a capella group originally culled song selections from a variety of genres, but found their audience when they focused on a country-centric sound. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_Home-Free-Photo-Credit-LeAnn-Mueller1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Home Free will play the F.M. Kirby Center in downtown Wilkes-Barre in support of their upcoming release, &#8220;Country Evolution.&#8221; The five-piece a capella group originally culled song selections from a variety of genres, but found their audience when they focused on a country-centric sound. </caption0><photoCredit0>LeAnn Mueller | for Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Gene Axton</p><p>gaxton@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p>IF YOU GO:</p><p>What: NBC&#8217;s &#8220;The Sing-Off&#8221; champion and national recording act Home Free&#8217;s Don&#8217;t It Feel Good Tour</p><p>Where: The F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre</p><p>When: Monday, Sept. 21 at 7:30 p.m. Doors open at 6 p.m.</p><p>How Much: Tickets are $26 or $37 plus fees. VIP meet and greet tickets can be purchased for $125 plus fees</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Gene Axton at 570-991-6121 or on Twitter @TLArts</p></shirttailMeta></div>

NBC’s “The Sing-Off” champions Home Free to play Wilkes-Barre’s F.M. Kirby Center in support of new album “Country Evolution”