By Dan Deming
Dissenting with Dan
Even if you are lukewarm on country music, there’s no question that the a cappella musical group Home Free is very entertaining.
The five members, describing themselves as a vocal band, were at Hutchinson’s Fox Theatre last Sunday night, launching the new Fox concert season. An enthusiastic audience greeted their no instruments style and brought a large number of out-of-town fanatic fans to town, some for their first Fox concert.
It’s called “The Jukebox Tour” because followers use the internet to choose a half dozen of their favorite songs which the group features during the shows’ second half. Home Free has been extremely popular for about a dozen years after winning NBC’s Sing Off in 2013 followed by 830 million YouTube viewings, six top three albums and 200 annual shows across the nation. Hutchinson was their fifth stop on their latest tour, and close followers came out to pack the front row with some standing nearly the entire show while vocalizing memorable lyrics from their many hits.
Home Free music includes numerous songs from what they term their Sea Shanty Medley, which led to a recent contract to write and record music for an upcoming pirate video game. Their rendition of a classic song called “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” named after a fatal Great Lakes ship sinking, includes naming all 29 sailors who died in a still mysterious accident. One of the five members puts on a highly impressive rhythm solo using only drum, percussion and vocal sounds coming from his mouth and backed by a highly chromatographic stage filled light display.
The same artist explained that an enhancement called “looping” is used to record musical sounds coming from the five member group, then replay them as a part of their singing. The audio effect is stunning and expands on the a cappella talents coming from the popular Branson group called “Six” who feature pop music while Home Free focuses on country.
The event had an unusual sponsor from Wichita called Snick’s Cat Cafe. They feature food and a separate cat roaming area where they’ve managed to adopt 170 felines since their recent opening.
The Fox had great leaving for home music after the performance ended and good intermission music, but if they can do so without upsetting the talent, intermissions need to be shorter based on grumbles I heard while waiting for the second half to start.
Fox ticket holders won’t have to wait long for the second of seven more concerts scheduled into next year as on November 5th a high energy blending of circus acrobatics and storytelling comes to town for “Tilt”.
And let’s give some highly deserved credit to Superior Boiler of Hutchinson who recently donated a $100,000 boiler to help heat the Fox this winter after the old unit, also a Superior donation, outlived its’ life. The Fox is raising another $150,000 for installation costs and has a $30,000 matching grant from Susan Richardson to further honor her late husband Mark, a generous Fox supporter before his death.
Dan Deming is a retired media professional and former elected city and county official. He can be reached at 620-960-6733 or dan.deming2@gmail.com.