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Been a while since we've done an update, and since we've got just a great story to tell, now seemed like the perfect
time. We'll hit the normal stuff first though before we delve into storytelling mode.
OK, to begin, it looks very likely that Home Free will be performing at the NACA showcase in St Paul in April. This is
a great step for us as it opens the doors up to a lot of college gigs, something we've really wanted to get into more.
Beyond this one, we're very interested in doing a lot more of these events around the country as we continue to get
our name out there. Our new agent in Boston really likes us and wants to push us out there more too. We'll let you
know how that turns out...
On the membership front, Jon Mclemore has had to back out of being with the group permanently at this time. He
just had his 5th kid(yikes!) and isnt in a place right now to make a major move like that. We're certainly going to
keep him in the mind down the road for future things though. In the meantime, Joe Fine has been singing with us
again as baritone which works out great. With his school schedule we don't know what the future may hold for him,
but we're certainly happy to have him with us for now.
Outside of that, Matt just finished putting together a new promo video which you can check out on our website at
www.thehomefreegroup.com . Looks great(of course!). Weve also begun preliminary discussions of our next cd
project...we're debating between a christmas album or a Christian one...both good choices, but we're not sure
which is the best one for us to do next. And finally, we just got asked to sing at the MN all-state choir camp – while
the gig in of itself is nice, its biggest appeal is that we'll be able to reach a lot of kids and choir directors to help
further our Music In Our Schools program. Good times all around!
Enough of that then, onto our story!
time. We'll hit the normal stuff first though before we delve into storytelling mode.
OK, to begin, it looks very likely that Home Free will be performing at the NACA showcase in St Paul in April. This is
a great step for us as it opens the doors up to a lot of college gigs, something we've really wanted to get into more.
Beyond this one, we're very interested in doing a lot more of these events around the country as we continue to get
our name out there. Our new agent in Boston really likes us and wants to push us out there more too. We'll let you
know how that turns out...
On the membership front, Jon Mclemore has had to back out of being with the group permanently at this time. He
just had his 5th kid(yikes!) and isnt in a place right now to make a major move like that. We're certainly going to
keep him in the mind down the road for future things though. In the meantime, Joe Fine has been singing with us
again as baritone which works out great. With his school schedule we don't know what the future may hold for him,
but we're certainly happy to have him with us for now.
Outside of that, Matt just finished putting together a new promo video which you can check out on our website at
www.thehomefreegroup.com . Looks great(of course!). Weve also begun preliminary discussions of our next cd
project...we're debating between a christmas album or a Christian one...both good choices, but we're not sure
which is the best one for us to do next. And finally, we just got asked to sing at the MN all-state choir camp – while
the gig in of itself is nice, its biggest appeal is that we'll be able to reach a lot of kids and choir directors to help
further our Music In Our Schools program. Good times all around!
Enough of that then, onto our story!
Home Free News
Home Free: A Greek Tragedy in 3 acts. With Video (see left)!
Location: North Branch High School(30 min north of Minneapolis), An exit ramp just south of Minneapolis.
Cast of characters:
(The members of Home Free)
Matt Atwood
Chris Rupp
Adam Rupp
Joe Fine
Chris Foss
Johnny F (our light guy)
Chris' and Adam's parents
Roger (from Rogers towing)
Shrek (Rogers friend with the garage)
The nice Police officer
Neil (from 23 1/2 hour towing)
ACT I
Our story begins as Home Free is heading off to North Branch high school (about 2.5 hours north of our home,
Mankato)to do a concert there one cold, blustery MN day. Temperature outside is somewhere around 5 below. After
the usual bout of getting lost and wrong turns (and this WITH our GPS unit) we arrive at the school around 2:30 pm.
We set up our equipment, lights, etc. and begin our sound check. So far so good. At 4:30 we start thinking its time
for some pizza. So we all head out to our wonderful van only to find out...hmm...thats odd...it doesnt seem to want to
start. It was working fine just a few hours ago driving up here...what could be wrong...well, nevermind, lets just send
someone out to get some pizza and bring it back then, surely the problem will fix itself by the time we have to leave.
(as odd as that statement may sound, that has actually happened several times before..ah, how we love our van)
So we find ourselves some pizza, and then put on a great show that evening at the school. We tell the choir director,
hey, we may need a jumpstart, our van wasnt starting earlier, and begin to tear down. At around 9:30 we finish
tearing down and start loading up our van and trailer...the van still won't start. How frustrating...we try jumping it...still
no good. It really sounds like it WANTS to start...but it wont. At this point we begin really worrying as we'd all really
like to go home that night. Finally, after a solid hour of trying and failing to get it to start, our light guy Johnny calls
Triple A. They send out Roger, we're saved! We tell the choir director she can go home, we'll be good from here.
Roger fiddles with the engine some and gets it going! But wait...theres a horrible screeching noise. Seems the
reason it wouldn't start before is that our water pump is frozen (along with our antifreeze...oops, antifreeze? I mean
water). We cant drive home with that! What do we do?? Sleep in the school? Yikes....fortunately, Roger takes pity on
us and tells us he knows a guy, he calls him Shrek (strangely enough, he looked like Shrek, minus the green...)
that might still be up, and has a garage. Sure enough, we're in luck, so at midnight Chris heads off with Roger and
our towed van to Shreks garage, where for the next hour and a half Shrek works on our van, flushing out the
radiator, tightening all the belts, and taking a blowtorch to our water pump. (in the meantime the other guys decide
to go play basketball in the gym) Surely now we're saved! A crappy series of events, but not the end of the world. At 1:
30, we finally pull out of North Branch, and all is well with the world. Right? Right???
ACT II
At 3 am we're just south of Minneapolis when Matt says, hey guys, the van is losing power, its like we're dragging
something....he then looks out his side window and sees nothing but sparks flying from our trailer. We quickly pull
off to the nearest exit ramp where we discover the tire on our trailer has exploded. Thats right, exploded. It is pretty
much completely shredded, having also decided to take our fender along with it. You really have to see it on the
video to get the full impression, words don't do it justice. At this point we're all about ready to scream, as we'd really
like to go to bed and the night has ALREADY been a disaster. So we call 911 and the nice police officer comes out
to help us. He calls a flatbed tow truck to get the trailer, and we sit and wait in our van. (remember its a good 5
below outside right now too). Neil, the tow guy arrives, and assesses the situation. Gonna be a good 80$ to tow it
(plus now we have the headache of taking care of our trailer from a distance, and then getting it later in the week,
wonderful). Fine, whatever, we just want to go home. OK then, why dont you move the van fwd about 50 feet and Ill
get the trailer. So we begin to move the van...you can probably guess of course what happens here.
ACT III
The van doesnt move. The brakes have completely locked up on it. It will move in reverse oddly enough, but it isn't
going anywhere in fwd. (we later learn that somehow the parking brake got engaged, overheated, melted, and
threw bits of itself into the brake pads...when we stopped going finally, this caused the brakes to lock up) This has
now become surreal as we approach 4am. The nice police officer asks us, ok guys, what do you want us to tow
first, the van or the trailer? At this point we dont know whether to laugh or to cry...perhaps were all dreaming this. So,
for the SECOND time in one night, we have our van and trailer towed by Neil as the rest of us watch from the cop
car. Chris calls up his parents and says, youre not going to believe this....
Fortunately for us, hearing our story was more important than sleep to them, so they begin making the hour drive
north to come and get us. We spend a DELIGHTFUL hour in Perkins as we being adding up just how much this
night has cost us...its best not to ask. On the plus side, the ride home was quite hilarious as we recapped the
nights adventures(you really HAVE to laugh at times like this...). Finally...FINALLY....at 7 am we arrive home (9 hours
late) and can go to sleep. Thus ends the night from hell. As much as we've tried here, I dont know that words can
fully express this evening. If you look real hard though you can see the silver lining...we now have a GREAT story to
tell about our wonderful trip, and can match horror road stories with anyone. You just gotta look REALLY hard...
-The Guys
Location: North Branch High School(30 min north of Minneapolis), An exit ramp just south of Minneapolis.
Cast of characters:
(The members of Home Free)
Matt Atwood
Chris Rupp
Adam Rupp
Joe Fine
Chris Foss
Johnny F (our light guy)
Chris' and Adam's parents
Roger (from Rogers towing)
Shrek (Rogers friend with the garage)
The nice Police officer
Neil (from 23 1/2 hour towing)
ACT I
Our story begins as Home Free is heading off to North Branch high school (about 2.5 hours north of our home,
Mankato)to do a concert there one cold, blustery MN day. Temperature outside is somewhere around 5 below. After
the usual bout of getting lost and wrong turns (and this WITH our GPS unit) we arrive at the school around 2:30 pm.
We set up our equipment, lights, etc. and begin our sound check. So far so good. At 4:30 we start thinking its time
for some pizza. So we all head out to our wonderful van only to find out...hmm...thats odd...it doesnt seem to want to
start. It was working fine just a few hours ago driving up here...what could be wrong...well, nevermind, lets just send
someone out to get some pizza and bring it back then, surely the problem will fix itself by the time we have to leave.
(as odd as that statement may sound, that has actually happened several times before..ah, how we love our van)
So we find ourselves some pizza, and then put on a great show that evening at the school. We tell the choir director,
hey, we may need a jumpstart, our van wasnt starting earlier, and begin to tear down. At around 9:30 we finish
tearing down and start loading up our van and trailer...the van still won't start. How frustrating...we try jumping it...still
no good. It really sounds like it WANTS to start...but it wont. At this point we begin really worrying as we'd all really
like to go home that night. Finally, after a solid hour of trying and failing to get it to start, our light guy Johnny calls
Triple A. They send out Roger, we're saved! We tell the choir director she can go home, we'll be good from here.
Roger fiddles with the engine some and gets it going! But wait...theres a horrible screeching noise. Seems the
reason it wouldn't start before is that our water pump is frozen (along with our antifreeze...oops, antifreeze? I mean
water). We cant drive home with that! What do we do?? Sleep in the school? Yikes....fortunately, Roger takes pity on
us and tells us he knows a guy, he calls him Shrek (strangely enough, he looked like Shrek, minus the green...)
that might still be up, and has a garage. Sure enough, we're in luck, so at midnight Chris heads off with Roger and
our towed van to Shreks garage, where for the next hour and a half Shrek works on our van, flushing out the
radiator, tightening all the belts, and taking a blowtorch to our water pump. (in the meantime the other guys decide
to go play basketball in the gym) Surely now we're saved! A crappy series of events, but not the end of the world. At 1:
30, we finally pull out of North Branch, and all is well with the world. Right? Right???
ACT II
At 3 am we're just south of Minneapolis when Matt says, hey guys, the van is losing power, its like we're dragging
something....he then looks out his side window and sees nothing but sparks flying from our trailer. We quickly pull
off to the nearest exit ramp where we discover the tire on our trailer has exploded. Thats right, exploded. It is pretty
much completely shredded, having also decided to take our fender along with it. You really have to see it on the
video to get the full impression, words don't do it justice. At this point we're all about ready to scream, as we'd really
like to go to bed and the night has ALREADY been a disaster. So we call 911 and the nice police officer comes out
to help us. He calls a flatbed tow truck to get the trailer, and we sit and wait in our van. (remember its a good 5
below outside right now too). Neil, the tow guy arrives, and assesses the situation. Gonna be a good 80$ to tow it
(plus now we have the headache of taking care of our trailer from a distance, and then getting it later in the week,
wonderful). Fine, whatever, we just want to go home. OK then, why dont you move the van fwd about 50 feet and Ill
get the trailer. So we begin to move the van...you can probably guess of course what happens here.
ACT III
The van doesnt move. The brakes have completely locked up on it. It will move in reverse oddly enough, but it isn't
going anywhere in fwd. (we later learn that somehow the parking brake got engaged, overheated, melted, and
threw bits of itself into the brake pads...when we stopped going finally, this caused the brakes to lock up) This has
now become surreal as we approach 4am. The nice police officer asks us, ok guys, what do you want us to tow
first, the van or the trailer? At this point we dont know whether to laugh or to cry...perhaps were all dreaming this. So,
for the SECOND time in one night, we have our van and trailer towed by Neil as the rest of us watch from the cop
car. Chris calls up his parents and says, youre not going to believe this....
Fortunately for us, hearing our story was more important than sleep to them, so they begin making the hour drive
north to come and get us. We spend a DELIGHTFUL hour in Perkins as we being adding up just how much this
night has cost us...its best not to ask. On the plus side, the ride home was quite hilarious as we recapped the
nights adventures(you really HAVE to laugh at times like this...). Finally...FINALLY....at 7 am we arrive home (9 hours
late) and can go to sleep. Thus ends the night from hell. As much as we've tried here, I dont know that words can
fully express this evening. If you look real hard though you can see the silver lining...we now have a GREAT story to
tell about our wonderful trip, and can match horror road stories with anyone. You just gotta look REALLY hard...
-The Guys
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