Home Free in Oslo, Norway

Right now I'm in Stockholm, Sweden, in our hotel lobby getting some well deserved rest after a very long day yesterday and an early morning today. Tonight is the second concert of the European leg of the Timeless World Tour, but I will tell you all about that tomorrow. Today's post is all about yesterday's concert in Oslo, Norway - my 8th Home Free show so far.

It was the first time for the Guys to perform in Norway and they loved it there. Not surprised. And let me tell you that Norway LOVED them! A lot!

The venue was a 1000 seated venue with 4 bars, as Tim kept telling us, and I believe we managed to get the best seats of the house on row 10 with the 9 rows in front of us being 2 steps below our floor level. Perfect view and perfect sound!

The guys are traveling with an opening act this tour so before we got to see and hear the brilliance of Home Free we were treated with the brilliance of singer-songwriter Jeffrey East. Let me tell ya'; if you ever get a chance to go see him live - Take it!! As Home Free fans we are used to their special connection with the fans during the show - Jeffrey East got that part down too, so funny!

Not only that; his songs were really good, his voice as well and last, but certainly not least, he has an awesome beard! Jeffrey East - remember that name! I will share live videos of him later on, but until then check him out on YouTube and Spotify and like him on socials. Jeffrey East

I had a chance to have a chat with him after the show and he is also a very gentle, kind and polite guy who is very excited to be on tour with the guys of Home Free. I'm looking forward to seeing him opening on every show I'm going to this tour! So keep your eyes open for the name Jeffrey East!

So, what about Home Free? They were absolutely amazing, as always but more! I have stayed away from watching any live video this past year because I wanted to be surprised on this first concert and boy are they getting better and better. This was also the first time they brought their special lights with them, and they are using a tour bus to get from show to show - just as they do in the States. We were told that the bus is enormous and sleeps 14, and has at least 1 microwave in a strange place.

I'm not going to get trough all the songs they did, but they did some songs I haven't heard live before and some I have heard. Some of the banter in between was new to me and some I've heard before, and it was as funny as always. I've mentioned before that going to a Home Free show isn't just a concert, it's a stand-up comedy act as well. I stand by that after Oslo as well!

They all look great and look like they are taking really good care of themselves, which is great because we want them around for a long time still.

The biggest cheer of the evening was when Timeless went into Try Everything, a song that means a lot to me for personal reason, and the roof probably lifted the ceiling a bit. Adam Rupp got a standing ovation with applauds that went on for a long time after his beatboxing solo - a well deserved tribute indeed. The talent of that freak of nature keeps blowing  my mind. I will never be able to understand the talent he's got. How one single man can sound like a complete drum set will forever remain a mystery to me.

Austin's wailing opening of When You Walk In was powerful, wonderful and dreamy. Seriously, that man got skills!

Rob's sweet and buttery voice in Go Rest High sent chills down my spine. In an extremely good way!

Chance's highs and lows with that raw, raspy and smooth voice hits home for me every single time. The choice of bringing him in is undoubtedly a great one. And yes, Tim, we are also so happy that he didn't join Pentatonix!

And then we have Tim, with his sarcasm and spot on humour, his rumbling low notes, his sweet high notes and his charm, who brings down laughter after laughter. He certainly didn't let us down this time either.

But the thing that gets to me most when it comes to Home Free are all the feelings I get within. Not only during the show, because that is to be expected with them, but that feeling when it was getting close to being our turn to do the VIP pic (we started VIP with the pics followed by signing). It's a feeling of excitement and expectations. It's butterflies in the stomach, it's rushing blood, it's brain going blank and it's love. So much love! One of the Fry sister's I'm traveling is described it as the fantastic feeling she gets before getting up on stage to perform. To me it's a feeling of going home after a long time being away.

If Home Free was a religion their live shows would be MY CHURCH!

Tonight's show is in a standing room only venue, so I'm looking forward to it for that reason, because I'm sure the energy will be very different. But I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.

Oh, and Europe finally got to meet Nate! Love him! Such a sweet and gentle guy! Home Free knows how to surround themselves with sweet people.

With that I'm going to end this post with a snippet of yesterday's My Church, because that's what I'm doing when I go to their shows. I'm going to My Church. Courtesy to my sister H for catching it on video and allowing me to share it with the world.

Love/
Carina

It's Tour Time

And so the adventures begin. I'm at the airport waiting to board my flight to Oslo. The European leg of Home Free Timeless Tour begins today and I will be there!
This is their first time performing in Norway and tomorrow will be their first time performing in Stockholm, Sweden and I will of course be there as well.

The guys will continue their tour on Sunday while I go home, but I will pick the tour up again in Prague, Czech Republic on the 8th of September and in Cologne (Köln), Germany before I again go home while the band continues on their victorious journey here in Europe.

So, I'll be at the first 2 shows of the tour and at 2 in the middle so obviously I will be at the last 2 shows as well which are Birmigham, UK on the 20th of September and finally London, UK on the 21st.

I will be blogging about all the shows, and a couple of them will be standing room only which is unusual for Home Free's shows, so it will be interesting to compare them with the normal seated shows I've been to before.

Of course I'm doing all this with my fellow Euro Fries, my little sister included everywhere but Cologne, and I'm super excited to not only get to see the Guys again, but also all my old and new friends from all over Europe.

I hope you'll check in and join me on my adventures!

/Love Carina

Thank God for this Woman, Amen

The title of this post is a line from the latest Home Free cover titled "Woman, Amen/Female" which is a medley of Dierks Bentley's "Woman, Amen" and Keith Urban's "Female".

Both these songs are in their different ways a celebration of women. While Dierks' song is about a more specific woman being the savior in ones life, Keith's song is more about women in general.

I hadn't heard any of these songs beforehand, which often is the case for me with the songs Home Free cover, so I went to YouTube to have a listen. I always do that when Home Free release a cover, and I always find their version better than the original. That certainly doesn't mean the originals are bad in any way, it just means that the way Home Free perform music is more to my taste.

I love the depth in their sound; it's so full, but you can still hear the distinction between the different parts. This song is no different. I love both of the original songs for several reasons; the lyrics are pretty amazing and speak for themselves, really, the melodies fit the lyrics and the respective voices of Dierks and Keith enhance the songs. All those things are important to me.

One thing one has to remember when comparing an original song to a Home Free cover is that Home Free does not use any instruments - all sounds are made with the human voice (and the occasional body percussion, and in 2 songs violins). I am in no way knowledgeable enough to understand the difficulty in transforming an instrumental arrangement into a vocal arrangement, but think about it - how do you replace drums, bass lines, guitars, pianos and other instruments with simply voices AND MAKE IT SOUND EVEN BETTER AND FULLER than the original? It can not be an easy task to do!! To me that deserves a lot of respect and admiration.

Because this is a medley of two songs with different tempos the Home Free arrangement has a faster pace of the "Female" bits of the song as the original is much slower. I like both the original slow pace and the higher tempo of Home Free's cover.

So what do I love about this particular cover? Well, everything, but to be a bit more specific than that I love Tim's bass line - it is absolutely amazing! It always is, but for some reason this one hits home a lot for me. I love Adam's bass drum and steady heavy beats - that man really is a freak of nature. How can those sounds come out of one man's mouth? It's crazy, I tell you! Crazy! Chance is amazing for the lead, as always! His voice is so smooth and so raw at the same time and it fits this song perfectly. Austin is the one singing the "Female" bits of this medley and it's of course a perfect fit with the more uptempo pace matched with his voice and joy of life. And then we have Rob - loving, caring, cuddly, sweet Rob who so clearly sings about the love in his life, his wife. Rob's part is the chorus and when he sings it you feel how content, in love, joyful and safe he feels in his love for her. He believes and means every word he sings. If you watch the video you will see it in his eyes, in his smile, in his body language; if you listen to the song you will feel it in his energy. And I'm in love with it!

All of these guys are radiating with love, always, and that is a huge reason why I love them so much, why their music and they speak to me so profoundly. They love music, they love life, they love their lives, they love their loves, they love what they do and they love their fans. And it shows and it spreads.

This song makes me just a little bit happier than I already am, and I am a very happy person.

This song has come to mean a lot to me, and I'd like to share the reason why; I love personal growth, it is one of my great life passions and I am a huge fan of loving oneself. I believe that it's the key to live a happy life and I believe that living a happy life is the key to a happier world. Here's how and why; if I am happy I automatically allow the people around me to be happy too, but if I am unhappy the people around me have a tendency to hold back their own happiness because they don't want to "rub it in my face". It's how we are taught to act and react - to take care of other people's needs first and foremost, before taking care of our own needs. We are taught to spend our lives making other people happy before making ourselves happy, and when everybody is taking care of everybody else first than no-one is taking care of themselves. Here's the problem with that; people who don't take care of themselves are not happy. It's like with the instructions you get on a flight; take care of your own oxygen first before taking care of your kids' oxygen. Why are we told to do that? Because if we can't breath and get oxygen we are of no use to our kids. If we don't make sure we are happy first, we can't help anyone else be happy.

So what does all this have to do with this song, you might ask? This song is a celebration to women, and a woman that saved a drifter specifically - I am that drifter, but I am also that savior. So when Home Free sings "Thank God for this woman, Amen" I think and feel "Thank God for this woman, I am". Because, I am so grateful and happy for who I am, but I am also so grateful and happy for who I was, and I am so grateful and happy for who I am becoming. So, thank God for this woman I am! being me has saved my life - because being me means caring for myself first and caring for myself first has brought me to a place where I can truly say that my life is magnificent and happy in every single way.

Remember I mentioned earlier in this post that I am a very happy person? This is why. I take care of myself first and foremost. So what about the people around me, how happy are they? Well, because I don't take care of them they get to take care of themselves. They make their own decisions and do what makes them happy in their lives. I see them thrive and I see them being happier than they used to be when I used to take care of them first before me. This means everybody is happier. And because they take care of themselves first the other people in their lives get inspired to take care of themselves first too - and so we are creating a happier world. It all starts with you being responsible for your own happiness, and with you allowing everybody else to be responsible for their own happiness. Who wouldn't support someone they love in the pursue of their happiness? I'm sure this is part of the secret with the love Home Free are spreading; they are following their own happiness leading everyone around them to feel happier as well. I am simply following my take on their lead.

Now, this is my way of thinking and living, and I find that it works perfectly in my life and for the people in it. I follow my happy paths towards my dreams and I'm having a heck of a lot of fun doing so!

So here's to me! And here's to all of you; Enjoy your life, dare being happy!

Who do you think about when you sing or hear this song?

Love//
Carina