How I Became a Fry
Sunday, 2 January 2022 16:40![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aletheiafelineaTwo things (you don’t get this reference yet :P)
1. Read this on something with a good sound system and if possible, boost the subwoofer. Headphones will make a difference as well.
2. Since it’s a long entry containing a lot of vids, I have no delusions (or hard feelings if not) that everyone’s going to feel like playing all. Thus, a quick cheat for anyone wishing just to check what is this about and whether the others are worth bothering: the vid that presents and sells the most effectively what I want to present and sell is marked red in the text. The caveat regarding good sound still applies, though.
More than a year ago I needed a decent performance of “Greensleeves” for the Music Themes Meme. This one was okay.
Turned out Peter Hollens has more good stuff.
(original)
(original)
As a matter of principle I dislike covers and my dislike boils down to a short "what for”. The answer for this is a cover better than the original. Janusz Radek takes care of this in Poland (you don’t know him, don’t worry about it right now). USA are larger, hence it has a whole community that in the unspecified meantime partially has grown up on YouTube and partially came there having grown up earlier outside of it. It stands on two legs – one are covers and the other is a cappella. The latter seems to be currently undergoing a revival based on showing what a cappella can do while pretending not being it. Maybe we’re just a generation that can’t afford instruments, while all – artists and audience – having computers... That’s why Peter works by layering of sound tracks, that is, he records them one by one and puts them together. The technical process of singing in choir with self looks like this. Meanwhile, YT makes it possible to gain an audience and sell it to them on one’s own and YT’s conditions instead of the radio and TV’s conditions (and limits).
The YT scene joins competition (how many fans can afford pouring cash down more than one or two Patreons?) and friendship in equal measures. Cooperations and side flings happen on a daily basis. Peter invites friends all the time. As you can see, some of them more often than others...
(original)
This is Tim Foust. Peter uses him for countering/complementing his own higher voice, but Tim has a five octaves range and usually makes use of it as a fifth part of Home Free. They call themselves the only all-vocal country group. Unlike Peter and other lone riders, having five voices at their disposal they’re able of layering in real time. Which means the ability of repeating a piece live, at any moment. Which means the possibility of outernet events. For the same reason they rarely use any digital filters – you can’t put a special effect in a pocket and take it to the stage.
Some time ago some random dude sang a shanty on TikTok (same one as Peter up there). Unpredictable stochasticity of the Internet fame did its thing and other randoms began jumping aboard. Soon the thing spread everywhere beyond TikTok and suddenly everyone and their parrot was covering “Wellerman” (including Peter up there). Which is why now I shall present Home Free by a stuff that is not representative for them and where they do not look like themselves. Because I can. :P
# opening and later the blue shirt with a whale – Chance (actually Adam Chance, but they already had one Adam, so);
- geek squared, fans fanartists back;
- it’s him who sold the others on the shanties, at least for this occasion;
- half of his Instagram drown in cats, not like I’m complaining;
- extra skill: can play jaw harp with no jaw harp;
# white(ish) shirt – Adam they already had;
- responsible for beatboxing and once in a while a shock of fans when he actually says something;
- the others say he’s the most tired of the whole team after concerts;
- extra skill: singing normal;
# outlet Jack Sparrow* – Tim;
- guilty of blowing out an unknown number of speakers, writing most of the HF original pieces (yes, they have original pieces) and arranging some of the covers;
- a regular supplier of fluffy content as much as Chance;
- extra skill: spiel powers when it’s useful to have spiel powers;
# red shirt + plastic(?) sword-like item (and – as some suspect in the comments – undies on his head) – Austin;
- together with Tim holding the duties of being pretty, particularly since he got shaggier and no longer looks like a high school dropout;
- responsible for majority of the remaining HF original pieces;
- extra skills, two in price of one: rapping no one asked for but everybody will get anyway and a tendency to unplanned fuckups improving live events brilliantly;
# glasses and The MoustacheTM, for once outshining The BeardTM – Rob;
- teddy bear as much in personality as in the looks;
- Dad of TwoTM;
- cause of numerous shocks of people saying he doesn’t look like his voice;
- extra skill: can whistle.
* As some also notice in the comments, imagine how this must have looked from aside: there’s a (borrowed) boat in front of the house, a Halloween-Came-Earlier-This-Year is standing in the boat and singing to someone’s phone camera. Nothing and never surprises Tim’s neighbors anymore. Besides, considering the usual quality of their vids, we should appreciate the effort put in selling the effect of “we filmed it with a squashed potato on a budget collected from a guitar case after two hours ofsinging being silent** on the street.
** They could actually earn something for singing.
This said, that’s the current team. Home Free is like the Dwarven king’s axe: lasting for the specified value of “lasting”. After circa twenty years the last remaining from the original founding team is Adam, with Chance being the most recent recruit.
Home Free has no leader. It’s their norm that the frontman of one piece makes the background in another. And most often they hand over the leading between each other within one song.* They like this system, consider it a value on its own and take care to keep it. They also say they extend it to the entirety of the teamwork – the balance of voices musical and decisional. And that on stage and in recording they love moments of joining the all five voices; apparently the harmony of contrasting tones feels as good as it sounds.
* All except Adam who never leads and says he doesn’t want to.
I used the shanty vid because it’s easy to name and point them out in it, but as far as “representative” goes, ”Ring of Fire” is the one. It’s by far their most popular piece (in 2013 they won The Sing-Off, a sort of talent show, with it) and it has all their trademarks:
✓ a cover;
✓ a country classic;
✓ the pitch elevator;
✓ leading handed around;
✓ an arrangement turning a relatively simple, repetitive original into a collection of surprises;
✓ conscious and precise control of every sound* – they leave very little room to randomness (you can’t hide any mess in the music if you are the whole music);
✓ a defined start & finish, they rarely go for the fading out end;
✓ the “full” impression with the background built by those not leading at the moment (there really is no single instrument, not even off-screen, they’re singing as you can see them, empty handed**).
* Some say they learned at last what lyrics actually is there from HF covers. Indeed, crystal-clear enunciation seems to be a side effect of treating every sound like it’s a clockwork cog.
** Empty doesn’t mean not busy. It’s noticeable they all more or less need hands to watching tempo. Somewhat semiconsciously that is, which at times makes for hilarious results – here everyone just made use of their pockets, except Tim who’s trying to hold down his right hand having a mind of its own with the left one... until he gets carried on and forgets. XD
(original)
Here it’s actually six voices, because while Tim starts, the next line gets taken over by Avi Kaplan (in a beanie swapped for a hat in the end) borrowed from the (arguably) main rivals. Besides that, instead of Chance there’s Chris, also of the original team. It was one of their oldest vids, hence the night lighting leaves room for improvement somewhat. They had no drone, so a large excavator’s arm made a camera crane. The whole thing was realized (in 2014) by the “cousin has a piece of land with dry shrubs and he knows a dude owning a construction company” method, which they haven’t really changed much till this day, even if in the meantime they gained friends, experience and budget (the last one’s status: it’s complicated). They work on the permanent “how & where to make some extra bucks” mode, which can be seen in the end of majority of vids, except “Thank God I’m A Country Boy” (being also one of the best narrative ones) where you have no idea what are they saying because the screen got stolen by a chicken and a horse. Especially when Tim, trying to protect the chicken, kisses the horse who backs off, disgusted. “Ew, come on, human...”
(original)
As you can already say between “Ring of Fire” and “Thank God I’m A Country Boy”, they soon began to aim for not just sound, but also vid’s quality. However, details of said quality often aren’t immediately obvious. “What We Ain’t Got” doesn’t really draw the viewer’s attention to gradually disappearing furniture, small items and clothing elements... until the last word that Tim says instead of singing – even the music itself is lost.
(original)
“Honey, I’m Good” is a groundhog evening that starts anew every time Rob forgets himself and drinks anything. So pay attention to what he does to avoid that. :) Finally he succeeds in getting to the end and breaking the loop, but at the expense of Tim who on the way out barely stays vertical and finds the direction only thanks to Austin.
(original)
“Everything Will Be Okay” (HF original) has a clear narration, but only the final frame reveals what everybody looking at the bear see.
In “Folsom Prison Blues” Adam, who’s the only adding a 100% non-verbal layer, wears the uniform that seems to imply a psych ward, unlike the others’ “normal” uniforms. Intended or not? The backgrounds, though, were deliberately hanged on random heights. (The fandom debate on what they’re convicted of – except Tim* – stays open. :)
* And even if he didn’t tel it, this smirk alone is life-sentence-worthy.
(original)
As far as they’re concerned, Christmas is half year long. That’s because if it was all year round, they couldn’t make pieces about summer fun. Death, taxes and the rain on vacations are less certain than the annual supply of Christmas stuff from HF.
A classic carol “What Child Is This”, that is “Greensleeves” again, this time arranged like a monastic choir. Six voices again, since the cover officially belongs to their ex, Chris, and HF are there as an invited support. Tim in a dozen seconds goes through some 80% of his scale, then comes back to the basement floor and directly from there trades off with Austin who starts from the attic and getsdown up to the action in a way turning the end result from monastic into an angelic host.
Just a little less (by age) classic “Do You Hear What I Hear” arranged by Adam (which is signed by putting him on the front). He should do it more often, arranging, that is. One of the best clips visually and musically. Austin and Tim look and sound like an angel and demon on someone’s shoulder.
(original)
A little bit younger yet “Grandma Got Runover By A Reindeer” or the worst carolers you never answered the door to. I don’t know who even expects a video on top of such a lyrics, but HF always pass the expectations.
(original)
And one pretty new, the year before last, “Snow Globe” (HF original). By the way we also get the winner of The Most Bedroom Eyes Of The Year On YT. One blown out speaker is no enough for Tim, now he also set upon burning some screen. Do let know if yours survived. That is, assuming you have anything left to write it on...
From the same year, Austin has a proposition as well. “Cold Hard Cash” (HF original) or five very capitalistic elves in a very red place. Oh, and did I mention that each of those two songs is lead by its author? (It’s not a rule, though.)
Here an initial explanation is needed: I’m allergic to the “oh why you left me, oh you gonna regret, oh reconsider” type of hits (pfft). The name of the wailer that gets on my nerves the worst is unworthy of putting in this company, but there is a non-zero probability that upon hearing him one more time I might get off the bus in the middle of the road. So now it’s obvious why I welcomed “Full of Cheer” (another HF original) with a lot of cheer. :))) Especially that judging by the intro their inspiration seems to have come from the same direction. And then there are extra merits, like the wtf on the cat’s face and the outfits that also made a live career (HD and full screen recommended, seriously ^^).
And “Auld Lang Syne” for the year’s end. When live, they sing it off the mics. I think that’s called making a point. “Yes, we can.”
Once in a while a Legend makes them an offer, “Hey, will you do me a choir?” They do. They sound better than the Legend yet make sure to keep the Legend in the spotlight. It has a passing the torch vibe all over it, usually. Kenny Rogers recorded with them (you’ll never guess) a carol, a gospel one this time. “Children Go Where I Send Thee” is also a cumulative song – you can trust HF to make every repetition unique in spite of that.
“American Pie” is a jubilee cover for 50 years of the song, made with the original’s author, Don McLean. The vid went online on the day of the 62nd anniversary of the incident that inspired the lyrics. By the way it presents all four (without Adam) voices in turn.
They like playing with styles. The line between cover (defined by Tim as “Really great music that just about everybody loves. Until now.”) and parody is quite vague for them.
“Crazy” or Austin proving it’s possible to weep dreamily. Some commenters are fussy about the general amount of shagginess allegedly too high for the mid-20th century, but it ought to be honestly admitted that it’s balanced by the mass of gel in Chance’s bangs, generating enough of gravitational pull to bend the spacetime.
(original)
“Man of Constant Sorrow” is seemingly very serious too, but some suspicions start crawling up. Besides all the mosquitoes and leeches, that is. (By the way it’s also one of the songs where you can see why they like – and how they may feel – harmonic moments.)
Suspicions get stronger at “Blue Ain’t Your Color”…
(original)
At “I Swear” all suspicions go out the window, replaced by a certainty that this Very Serious Valentine Product in not really that serious. Behind-the-scenes is 30$ monthly, but loaded fans report the production was made in a very economic budget class. Unavoidable losses included one suit, a gallon of liquid bubbles, candles, one full bottle of wine and about four roses; on the other hand, the plates stay empty all the time and Chance is outta-home-presentable only above the frame’s edge.
(original; a more popular almost original)
This was an April Fool’s Day. It was foreshadowed extensively, but teasers included “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “My Heart Will Go On”, and then... When normal people rickroll someone, they send a link. When HF rickroll the fandom, they don’t take shortcuts. A fuzzy cherry on the top is Austin’s cat puzzled about his human’s newest weird shit and why he fastened himself with office clamps.
(you seriously want the original?)
And finally “All About That Bass” that also is a citation? parody? of the original vid. Here the director was Kristin Denehy, HF’s choreographer, also “visible” up there in “Blue Ain’t Your Color”. Herding cats, as they say about her job in the fandom...
And as we’re at this clip right now… Tim’s five octaves mentioned earlier overlaps the majority of the whole group’s range, including Rob and Austin’s. That’s still far from the human record but in practice technical records matter less than the use of what is between them. Typically, singers in the music business just have a voice of their own. They take a song and perform it in their voice. Tim has more than one voice. The fans say if you cannot identify immediately which of the four can be heard on the front, put your money on Tim. He doesn’t make the song fit his style, but the other way around, he chooses a pitch and stays there. At times it makes an impression like he’s being dubbed. It can be seen already in numerous samples above, but to save time compare “Hillbilly Bone”...
(original)
(In the original vid two boors invade a place they don’t like and behave there like in their home barn. Paradoxically, the HF film fits the lyrics better – here an awkward city nerd lands in the “fresh” countryside air, but because he got actually invited and welcomed there. One can suspect it’s not accidental, since HF tend to improve some originals not just in the musical terms. They never change lyrics, instead giving them their own interpretation by attached films. They are of opinion that a genre’s bad reputation or someone’s potentially offended feels are not a reason enough to throw the music in trash – instead it’s a reason to refresh the messages and forms, update them and “reclaim”.)
…and “Mayday”.
(original)
Besides of being the Dwarven king’s axe, Home Free is also a space mission to Mars: every carried pound of a crewmember is more useful if able to do two or five things instead of one. Each of the group has his own fixed role, but also each can – to a degree – take over another’s layer in the background in case of need, though they rarely draw attention to it (typically the goal is a fuse smooth enough to go unnoticed).
They apply the same approach to their vids – if it can be done with no hired people, by Jove andnine ten Muses, it will be done with no hired people. Friends and families make actors and extras. In “Grandma Got Runover By A Reindeer” doors are opened (and shut, soon) by actual neighbours and friend musicians, and the first one, becoming eventually the invasion’s victim, is Darren Rust, their producer (that guy who mans the sound system at studio recordings; Darren can be also seen in “Auld Lang Syne”).
“Love Train” was made of footage pieces from the fandom…
(original)
...and “Life Is A Highway” uses b-t-s materials, presenting HM’s tour life...
(original)
…brought to a halt under two years later. The first worldwide lockdown got to them between Prague and Vienna. Jenika (HF’s manager aside of her own music career, and also Tim’s wife) pulled off a sorceress and achieved a legal miracle of bringing a dozen of people and the bus back across the Atlantic. And then everybody were left with a gaping hole in the bank account after cancelling half of the tour and with no means of filling said hole outside of the Internet. What do and how to save the dog from being eaten by the starving children.
As it turns out, if in a suddenly-hospital-like world you put five healthy guys in urgent need of cash under the house arrest, they become terrifyingly creative... Also, they get really bored, which on artists manifests itself by, uhm, results. This here, I guess, was made in hope that someone, anyone besides the fandom might have been willing to pay for this world record of brand placement. (The fandom thinks the soap on pizza was played by honey, which not necessarily is a better option, but far from worst that Tim ever ate in front of camera anyway...)
(original ...somewhat. Tim rewrote it inside out and upside down.)
As can be heard, though, the only thing they never make concessions for is the sound. Soon they decided there’s no point in waiting through the rainy days, it’s better to adjust. No more driving down to a rented studio, now replaced by TeamViewer (or its like) with Darren on the other end and five sets of gear (which undoubtedly updated the level of bottom in the account holes) squeezed into places that never expected seeing a mic, but are acceptably muffled. Chance, who next to himself, his wife, a bunch of guitars and a warehouse worth of vinyls cannot fit even one cat (which makes him inconsolable) keeps the new studio in a closet and describes his recording process as singing to sweaters and jackets.
A separate issue was the entirety of visual stuff. How do you make a vid with the filming team and actors dispersed over more than 600k of square miles? On the top of that, their regular make-up artist slash stylist slash photographer (those were very efficient pounds of a crewmember) broke up with Austin short before the pandemic, which later during it inevitably meant breaking up with the whole HF. Hence “Flowers on the Wall” being very clearly an outcome of the unanimous “screw it, we still have what really matters, that is our voices”, and indeed, it’s one of their most catchy pieces. If (knowing them, “when”) they show b-t-s, I only want to see the process of choosing each of the backgrounds, because while the lyrics says rather about the wallpaper, these here unmistakably are bedding/dress/furnishing fabrics. :’) Chance owes someone a skirt, judging by those stitches on both sides, and Rob has neglected ironing his wall.
(original)
Gigabytes began travelling across state borders. Besides of “Quarantine” and “Flowers”, also the Shanty Medley, “Folsom Prison Blues”, “I Swear” and the rickroll or “Never Gonna Give You Up” were made in this time and in the same way, as well as a handful of others I haven’t brought but being no less great. Directing and edition of “Meet in the Middle” are quite seriously Oscar-worthy.
(original)
“Everybody Walkin’ This Land” realized by the same means is noticeably more polished already. It sounds hypnotic (particularly after entering Chance, who always adds some dreamy purr to the others’ sharper tones) and looks almost-kindof-sortof-wee-bit-vaguely-psychedelic in a hard to pinpoint way. (My personal favorite is the lady at 1:10 and 2:33 – this below-zero-fucks-to-give face, this absolute stillness of all but necessary muscles, this synchronization! :)))
(original)
Step by step the filming and production life began reaching beyond the fence perimeter, even if gathering the full team still was impossible. In the pursue of solutions (for the lack of experts problem) discoveries has been made. Eyeliner and stuff come also as travel kits! and small mirrors will do! including the car ones! Still, nothing beats Austin’s workaround with a smartphone. :))) Besides, some live in places where leaning out of a window is enough to get a free ‘do.
Half a year after the first lockdown they all got back together for studio recording and filming, and then also for live concerts. And they keep getting better. “Brothers In Arms” is months old. Someone in the comments points out they achieve the sound of a full organ set here.
(original)
(Meanwhile, Chance achieves the peaks of actorship, keeping a dramatic face up there, while down there trying to avoid tripping on Tim’s dog. Satchmo looks like a walking nap even while vertical, but most often he’s a flat out nap. He loves everyone by default, though with a dignity and only a moderate tail-wagging, even if you’re holding a biscuit.)
And the Home Free fandom call themselves Home Fries. ^^
1. Read this on something with a good sound system and if possible, boost the subwoofer. Headphones will make a difference as well.
2. Since it’s a long entry containing a lot of vids, I have no delusions (or hard feelings if not) that everyone’s going to feel like playing all. Thus, a quick cheat for anyone wishing just to check what is this about and whether the others are worth bothering: the vid that presents and sells the most effectively what I want to present and sell is marked red in the text. The caveat regarding good sound still applies, though.
More than a year ago I needed a decent performance of “Greensleeves” for the Music Themes Meme. This one was okay.
Turned out Peter Hollens has more good stuff.
(original)
As a matter of principle I dislike covers and my dislike boils down to a short "what for”. The answer for this is a cover better than the original. Janusz Radek takes care of this in Poland (you don’t know him, don’t worry about it right now). USA are larger, hence it has a whole community that in the unspecified meantime partially has grown up on YouTube and partially came there having grown up earlier outside of it. It stands on two legs – one are covers and the other is a cappella. The latter seems to be currently undergoing a revival based on showing what a cappella can do while pretending not being it. Maybe we’re just a generation that can’t afford instruments, while all – artists and audience – having computers... That’s why Peter works by layering of sound tracks, that is, he records them one by one and puts them together. The technical process of singing in choir with self looks like this. Meanwhile, YT makes it possible to gain an audience and sell it to them on one’s own and YT’s conditions instead of the radio and TV’s conditions (and limits).
The YT scene joins competition (how many fans can afford pouring cash down more than one or two Patreons?) and friendship in equal measures. Cooperations and side flings happen on a daily basis. Peter invites friends all the time. As you can see, some of them more often than others...
This is Tim Foust. Peter uses him for countering/complementing his own higher voice, but Tim has a five octaves range and usually makes use of it as a fifth part of Home Free. They call themselves the only all-vocal country group. Unlike Peter and other lone riders, having five voices at their disposal they’re able of layering in real time. Which means the ability of repeating a piece live, at any moment. Which means the possibility of outernet events. For the same reason they rarely use any digital filters – you can’t put a special effect in a pocket and take it to the stage.
Some time ago some random dude sang a shanty on TikTok (same one as Peter up there). Unpredictable stochasticity of the Internet fame did its thing and other randoms began jumping aboard. Soon the thing spread everywhere beyond TikTok and suddenly everyone and their parrot was covering “Wellerman” (including Peter up there). Which is why now I shall present Home Free by a stuff that is not representative for them and where they do not look like themselves. Because I can. :P
# opening and later the blue shirt with a whale – Chance (actually Adam Chance, but they already had one Adam, so);
- geek squared, fans fanartists back;
- it’s him who sold the others on the shanties, at least for this occasion;
- half of his Instagram drown in cats, not like I’m complaining;
- extra skill: can play jaw harp with no jaw harp;
# white(ish) shirt – Adam they already had;
- responsible for beatboxing and once in a while a shock of fans when he actually says something;
- the others say he’s the most tired of the whole team after concerts;
- extra skill: singing normal;
# outlet Jack Sparrow* – Tim;
- guilty of blowing out an unknown number of speakers, writing most of the HF original pieces (yes, they have original pieces) and arranging some of the covers;
- a regular supplier of fluffy content as much as Chance;
- extra skill: spiel powers when it’s useful to have spiel powers;
# red shirt + plastic(?) sword-like item (and – as some suspect in the comments – undies on his head) – Austin;
- together with Tim holding the duties of being pretty, particularly since he got shaggier and no longer looks like a high school dropout;
- responsible for majority of the remaining HF original pieces;
- extra skills, two in price of one: rapping no one asked for but everybody will get anyway and a tendency to unplanned fuckups improving live events brilliantly;
# glasses and The MoustacheTM, for once outshining The BeardTM – Rob;
- teddy bear as much in personality as in the looks;
- Dad of TwoTM;
- cause of numerous shocks of people saying he doesn’t look like his voice;
- extra skill: can whistle.
* As some also notice in the comments, imagine how this must have looked from aside: there’s a (borrowed) boat in front of the house, a Halloween-Came-Earlier-This-Year is standing in the boat and singing to someone’s phone camera. Nothing and never surprises Tim’s neighbors anymore. Besides, considering the usual quality of their vids, we should appreciate the effort put in selling the effect of “we filmed it with a squashed potato on a budget collected from a guitar case after two hours of
** They could actually earn something for singing.
This said, that’s the current team. Home Free is like the Dwarven king’s axe: lasting for the specified value of “lasting”. After circa twenty years the last remaining from the original founding team is Adam, with Chance being the most recent recruit.
Home Free has no leader. It’s their norm that the frontman of one piece makes the background in another. And most often they hand over the leading between each other within one song.* They like this system, consider it a value on its own and take care to keep it. They also say they extend it to the entirety of the teamwork – the balance of voices musical and decisional. And that on stage and in recording they love moments of joining the all five voices; apparently the harmony of contrasting tones feels as good as it sounds.
* All except Adam who never leads and says he doesn’t want to.
I used the shanty vid because it’s easy to name and point them out in it, but as far as “representative” goes, ”Ring of Fire” is the one. It’s by far their most popular piece (in 2013 they won The Sing-Off, a sort of talent show, with it) and it has all their trademarks:
✓ a cover;
✓ a country classic;
✓ the pitch elevator;
✓ leading handed around;
✓ an arrangement turning a relatively simple, repetitive original into a collection of surprises;
✓ conscious and precise control of every sound* – they leave very little room to randomness (you can’t hide any mess in the music if you are the whole music);
✓ a defined start & finish, they rarely go for the fading out end;
✓ the “full” impression with the background built by those not leading at the moment (there really is no single instrument, not even off-screen, they’re singing as you can see them, empty handed**).
* Some say they learned at last what lyrics actually is there from HF covers. Indeed, crystal-clear enunciation seems to be a side effect of treating every sound like it’s a clockwork cog.
** Empty doesn’t mean not busy. It’s noticeable they all more or less need hands to watching tempo. Somewhat semiconsciously that is, which at times makes for hilarious results – here everyone just made use of their pockets, except Tim who’s trying to hold down his right hand having a mind of its own with the left one... until he gets carried on and forgets. XD
Here it’s actually six voices, because while Tim starts, the next line gets taken over by Avi Kaplan (in a beanie swapped for a hat in the end) borrowed from the (arguably) main rivals. Besides that, instead of Chance there’s Chris, also of the original team. It was one of their oldest vids, hence the night lighting leaves room for improvement somewhat. They had no drone, so a large excavator’s arm made a camera crane. The whole thing was realized (in 2014) by the “cousin has a piece of land with dry shrubs and he knows a dude owning a construction company” method, which they haven’t really changed much till this day, even if in the meantime they gained friends, experience and budget (the last one’s status: it’s complicated). They work on the permanent “how & where to make some extra bucks” mode, which can be seen in the end of majority of vids, except “Thank God I’m A Country Boy” (being also one of the best narrative ones) where you have no idea what are they saying because the screen got stolen by a chicken and a horse. Especially when Tim, trying to protect the chicken, kisses the horse who backs off, disgusted. “Ew, come on, human...”
As you can already say between “Ring of Fire” and “Thank God I’m A Country Boy”, they soon began to aim for not just sound, but also vid’s quality. However, details of said quality often aren’t immediately obvious. “What We Ain’t Got” doesn’t really draw the viewer’s attention to gradually disappearing furniture, small items and clothing elements... until the last word that Tim says instead of singing – even the music itself is lost.
“Honey, I’m Good” is a groundhog evening that starts anew every time Rob forgets himself and drinks anything. So pay attention to what he does to avoid that. :) Finally he succeeds in getting to the end and breaking the loop, but at the expense of Tim who on the way out barely stays vertical and finds the direction only thanks to Austin.
“Everything Will Be Okay” (HF original) has a clear narration, but only the final frame reveals what everybody looking at the bear see.
In “Folsom Prison Blues” Adam, who’s the only adding a 100% non-verbal layer, wears the uniform that seems to imply a psych ward, unlike the others’ “normal” uniforms. Intended or not? The backgrounds, though, were deliberately hanged on random heights. (The fandom debate on what they’re convicted of – except Tim* – stays open. :)
* And even if he didn’t tel it, this smirk alone is life-sentence-worthy.
As far as they’re concerned, Christmas is half year long. That’s because if it was all year round, they couldn’t make pieces about summer fun. Death, taxes and the rain on vacations are less certain than the annual supply of Christmas stuff from HF.
A classic carol “What Child Is This”, that is “Greensleeves” again, this time arranged like a monastic choir. Six voices again, since the cover officially belongs to their ex, Chris, and HF are there as an invited support. Tim in a dozen seconds goes through some 80% of his scale, then comes back to the basement floor and directly from there trades off with Austin who starts from the attic and gets
Just a little less (by age) classic “Do You Hear What I Hear” arranged by Adam (which is signed by putting him on the front). He should do it more often, arranging, that is. One of the best clips visually and musically. Austin and Tim look and sound like an angel and demon on someone’s shoulder.
A little bit younger yet “Grandma Got Runover By A Reindeer” or the worst carolers you never answered the door to. I don’t know who even expects a video on top of such a lyrics, but HF always pass the expectations.
And one pretty new, the year before last, “Snow Globe” (HF original). By the way we also get the winner of The Most Bedroom Eyes Of The Year On YT. One blown out speaker is no enough for Tim, now he also set upon burning some screen. Do let know if yours survived. That is, assuming you have anything left to write it on...
From the same year, Austin has a proposition as well. “Cold Hard Cash” (HF original) or five very capitalistic elves in a very red place. Oh, and did I mention that each of those two songs is lead by its author? (It’s not a rule, though.)
Here an initial explanation is needed: I’m allergic to the “oh why you left me, oh you gonna regret, oh reconsider” type of hits (pfft). The name of the wailer that gets on my nerves the worst is unworthy of putting in this company, but there is a non-zero probability that upon hearing him one more time I might get off the bus in the middle of the road. So now it’s obvious why I welcomed “Full of Cheer” (another HF original) with a lot of cheer. :))) Especially that judging by the intro their inspiration seems to have come from the same direction. And then there are extra merits, like the wtf on the cat’s face and the outfits that also made a live career (HD and full screen recommended, seriously ^^).
And “Auld Lang Syne” for the year’s end. When live, they sing it off the mics. I think that’s called making a point. “Yes, we can.”
Once in a while a Legend makes them an offer, “Hey, will you do me a choir?” They do. They sound better than the Legend yet make sure to keep the Legend in the spotlight. It has a passing the torch vibe all over it, usually. Kenny Rogers recorded with them (you’ll never guess) a carol, a gospel one this time. “Children Go Where I Send Thee” is also a cumulative song – you can trust HF to make every repetition unique in spite of that.
“American Pie” is a jubilee cover for 50 years of the song, made with the original’s author, Don McLean. The vid went online on the day of the 62nd anniversary of the incident that inspired the lyrics. By the way it presents all four (without Adam) voices in turn.
They like playing with styles. The line between cover (defined by Tim as “Really great music that just about everybody loves. Until now.”) and parody is quite vague for them.
“Crazy” or Austin proving it’s possible to weep dreamily. Some commenters are fussy about the general amount of shagginess allegedly too high for the mid-20th century, but it ought to be honestly admitted that it’s balanced by the mass of gel in Chance’s bangs, generating enough of gravitational pull to bend the spacetime.
“Man of Constant Sorrow” is seemingly very serious too, but some suspicions start crawling up. Besides all the mosquitoes and leeches, that is. (By the way it’s also one of the songs where you can see why they like – and how they may feel – harmonic moments.)
Suspicions get stronger at “Blue Ain’t Your Color”…
At “I Swear” all suspicions go out the window, replaced by a certainty that this Very Serious Valentine Product in not really that serious. Behind-the-scenes is 30$ monthly, but loaded fans report the production was made in a very economic budget class. Unavoidable losses included one suit, a gallon of liquid bubbles, candles, one full bottle of wine and about four roses; on the other hand, the plates stay empty all the time and Chance is outta-home-presentable only above the frame’s edge.
This was an April Fool’s Day. It was foreshadowed extensively, but teasers included “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “My Heart Will Go On”, and then... When normal people rickroll someone, they send a link. When HF rickroll the fandom, they don’t take shortcuts. A fuzzy cherry on the top is Austin’s cat puzzled about his human’s newest weird shit and why he fastened himself with office clamps.
And finally “All About That Bass” that also is a citation? parody? of the original vid. Here the director was Kristin Denehy, HF’s choreographer, also “visible” up there in “Blue Ain’t Your Color”. Herding cats, as they say about her job in the fandom...
And as we’re at this clip right now… Tim’s five octaves mentioned earlier overlaps the majority of the whole group’s range, including Rob and Austin’s. That’s still far from the human record but in practice technical records matter less than the use of what is between them. Typically, singers in the music business just have a voice of their own. They take a song and perform it in their voice. Tim has more than one voice. The fans say if you cannot identify immediately which of the four can be heard on the front, put your money on Tim. He doesn’t make the song fit his style, but the other way around, he chooses a pitch and stays there. At times it makes an impression like he’s being dubbed. It can be seen already in numerous samples above, but to save time compare “Hillbilly Bone”...
(In the original vid two boors invade a place they don’t like and behave there like in their home barn. Paradoxically, the HF film fits the lyrics better – here an awkward city nerd lands in the “fresh” countryside air, but because he got actually invited and welcomed there. One can suspect it’s not accidental, since HF tend to improve some originals not just in the musical terms. They never change lyrics, instead giving them their own interpretation by attached films. They are of opinion that a genre’s bad reputation or someone’s potentially offended feels are not a reason enough to throw the music in trash – instead it’s a reason to refresh the messages and forms, update them and “reclaim”.)
…and “Mayday”.
Besides of being the Dwarven king’s axe, Home Free is also a space mission to Mars: every carried pound of a crewmember is more useful if able to do two or five things instead of one. Each of the group has his own fixed role, but also each can – to a degree – take over another’s layer in the background in case of need, though they rarely draw attention to it (typically the goal is a fuse smooth enough to go unnoticed).
They apply the same approach to their vids – if it can be done with no hired people, by Jove and
“Love Train” was made of footage pieces from the fandom…
...and “Life Is A Highway” uses b-t-s materials, presenting HM’s tour life...
…brought to a halt under two years later. The first worldwide lockdown got to them between Prague and Vienna. Jenika (HF’s manager aside of her own music career, and also Tim’s wife) pulled off a sorceress and achieved a legal miracle of bringing a dozen of people and the bus back across the Atlantic. And then everybody were left with a gaping hole in the bank account after cancelling half of the tour and with no means of filling said hole outside of the Internet. What do and how to save the dog from being eaten by the starving children.
As it turns out, if in a suddenly-hospital-like world you put five healthy guys in urgent need of cash under the house arrest, they become terrifyingly creative... Also, they get really bored, which on artists manifests itself by, uhm, results. This here, I guess, was made in hope that someone, anyone besides the fandom might have been willing to pay for this world record of brand placement. (The fandom thinks the soap on pizza was played by honey, which not necessarily is a better option, but far from worst that Tim ever ate in front of camera anyway...)
As can be heard, though, the only thing they never make concessions for is the sound. Soon they decided there’s no point in waiting through the rainy days, it’s better to adjust. No more driving down to a rented studio, now replaced by TeamViewer (or its like) with Darren on the other end and five sets of gear (which undoubtedly updated the level of bottom in the account holes) squeezed into places that never expected seeing a mic, but are acceptably muffled. Chance, who next to himself, his wife, a bunch of guitars and a warehouse worth of vinyls cannot fit even one cat (which makes him inconsolable) keeps the new studio in a closet and describes his recording process as singing to sweaters and jackets.
A separate issue was the entirety of visual stuff. How do you make a vid with the filming team and actors dispersed over more than 600k of square miles? On the top of that, their regular make-up artist slash stylist slash photographer (those were very efficient pounds of a crewmember) broke up with Austin short before the pandemic, which later during it inevitably meant breaking up with the whole HF. Hence “Flowers on the Wall” being very clearly an outcome of the unanimous “screw it, we still have what really matters, that is our voices”, and indeed, it’s one of their most catchy pieces. If (knowing them, “when”) they show b-t-s, I only want to see the process of choosing each of the backgrounds, because while the lyrics says rather about the wallpaper, these here unmistakably are bedding/dress/furnishing fabrics. :’) Chance owes someone a skirt, judging by those stitches on both sides, and Rob has neglected ironing his wall.
Gigabytes began travelling across state borders. Besides of “Quarantine” and “Flowers”, also the Shanty Medley, “Folsom Prison Blues”, “I Swear” and the rickroll or “Never Gonna Give You Up” were made in this time and in the same way, as well as a handful of others I haven’t brought but being no less great. Directing and edition of “Meet in the Middle” are quite seriously Oscar-worthy.
“Everybody Walkin’ This Land” realized by the same means is noticeably more polished already. It sounds hypnotic (particularly after entering Chance, who always adds some dreamy purr to the others’ sharper tones) and looks almost-kindof-sortof-wee-bit-vaguely-psychedelic in a hard to pinpoint way. (My personal favorite is the lady at 1:10 and 2:33 – this below-zero-fucks-to-give face, this absolute stillness of all but necessary muscles, this synchronization! :)))
Step by step the filming and production life began reaching beyond the fence perimeter, even if gathering the full team still was impossible. In the pursue of solutions (for the lack of experts problem) discoveries has been made. Eyeliner and stuff come also as travel kits! and small mirrors will do! including the car ones! Still, nothing beats Austin’s workaround with a smartphone. :))) Besides, some live in places where leaning out of a window is enough to get a free ‘do.
Half a year after the first lockdown they all got back together for studio recording and filming, and then also for live concerts. And they keep getting better. “Brothers In Arms” is months old. Someone in the comments points out they achieve the sound of a full organ set here.
(Meanwhile, Chance achieves the peaks of actorship, keeping a dramatic face up there, while down there trying to avoid tripping on Tim’s dog. Satchmo looks like a walking nap even while vertical, but most often he’s a flat out nap. He loves everyone by default, though with a dignity and only a moderate tail-wagging, even if you’re holding a biscuit.)
And the Home Free fandom call themselves Home Fries. ^^
