Home Free Team With All-American Icon Don McLean for Reimagined 'Vincent'
The band is currently on tour, with shows across the U.S. scheduled through the fall – including an appearance at CMA Fest in Nashville on June 8.
By: Josh Sharpe May. 01, 2024
Country’s only all-vocal band, Home Free, teams with an all-American legend, offering a masterful new take on the Don McLean classic, “Vincent.”
Singing alongside McLean for a tribute to artistic struggle and misunderstood genius, the 1971 folk-rock favorite was written by the Grammy-winning icon and member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, originally appearing on McLean’s seminal album, American Pie. But Home Free remake the track in their signature harmony blend, adding a rich sonic texture to match the song’s inspiration.
An official music video is also out now and features McLean, as the collaborators pay homage to impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh and world-famous artwork like The Starry Night.
Tim Foust comments, “There is a case to be made for “Vincent” being the best-written song of all time. Musically AND lyrically, it just doesn’t get any better. What an unbelievable honor to share the microphone with Don McLean on his masterpiece. And the fact that this is our second collaboration with him is surreal beyond words.”
Signaling mutual admiration, Home Free is featured on the title track of McLean’s upcoming new album, American Boys – a harmony-filled send-up to the artists who invented rock ‘n’ roll and inspired McLean’s career. The album will be released on May 17, and McLean started his 50th Anniversary Starry Starry Night Tour earlier this month.
On Monday night (4/22), Home Free were featured in “Walkin’ After Midnight: The Music of Patsy Cline,” a live-to-tape concert event at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. Opening remarks were made by the First Lady of the United States, Dr. Jill Biden, with special appearances by everyone from Wynonna Judd to Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, Kristin Chenoweth, Natalie Grant, Rita Wilson, Mickey Guyton, Beverly D'Angelo, Ashley McBryde and many more. The band delivered a stirring rendition of Patsy's "Seven Lonely Days," bringing the sold-out Ryman Auditorium to its feet for a standing ovation in the show's first half. The band returned to the stage in the show's second half to join Rita Wilson for her performance of "She's Got You," earning her praise for their "gorgeous harmonies."
Meanwhile, Home Free released their Crazy(er) Life album in March, helping celebrate 10 years since their breakout as a band. Re-imagining popular songs from the career-defining early days when they first arrived in the national spotlight, the album nods to the hit album debut Crazy Life (Columbia Records), which was released in 2014 after Home Free won NBC’s The Sing Off.
The band is currently on tour, with shows across the U.S. scheduled through the fall – including an appearance at CMA Fest in Nashville on June 8.
About Home Free:
With over 757 million views and 1.7 million subscribers on YouTube, 900,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, 760,000 followers on TikTok, and a legion of tens of thousands of fans who come to see them perform live every single year, Home Free has built a career entertaining music fans all over the globe.
The band has been praised by tastemakers like Rolling Stone Country, People, Billboard, Taste of Country, CMT, FOX, Country Now, and Country Rebel (to name a few), and after 10 years in the spotlight since their win on NBC’s The Sing Off, released their Crazy(er) Life album in March.
An attention-grabbing mix re-imagining popular songs from the career-defining early days when they first arrived in the national spotlight, the album nods to the hit album debut Crazy Life (Columbia Records), which was released in 2014.
Crazy(er) Life follows the 2023 album As Seen On TV and the chart-topping success of 2022’s So Long Dixie, which hit#1 on the Billboard Country Album chart to become the sixth Top 3 album of the group’s career.
About Don McLean:
Don McLean is a GRAMMY Award honoree, a Songwriter Hall of Fame member, and a BBC Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. His smash hit “American Pie” resides in the Library of Congress National Recording Registry and was named a Top 5 Song of the 20th Century by the Recording Industry of America (RIAA). A New York native, Don McLean is one of the most revered and respected songwriters in American history. After paying his dues in the New York club scene in the late 1960s, he went on to score mega-hits like “Vincent (Starry, Starry Night),” “Castles in the Air” and many more. His catalog of songs has been recorded by Madonna, Garth Brooks, Josh Groban, Drake, “Weird Al” Yankovic, and countless others. In 2015, McLean’s handwritten manuscript of “American Pie” lyrics was auctioned by Christie's, selling for just over $1.2 Million. 2019 honored Don with a star on the Las Vegas Walkway of Stars, and his song “And I Love You So” was the theme for Prince Harry and Megan Markle’s wedding. Don landed a new recording contract with Time Life in 2020, with whom he released a catalog of recordings and a new album Still Playin’ Favorites. In 2021, Don’s “American Pie” was featured in the Avengers’ Black Widow and the Tom Hanks movie Finch. McLean received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, celebrated the 50th anniversary of “American Pie,” and recorded a version of the song with a cappella group Home Free. In 2022, McLean received six Telly Awards for his collaboration with international heavyweight Tyson Fury, released American Pie: A Fable children’s book, and was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame. In 2023, the Telly award-winning documentary The Day The Music Died was released on DVD and Blu-Ray. In unexpected news, President Yoon of South Korea sang “American Pie” for a delighted audience of White House guests in Washington, D.C. McLean was inducted into the Music City Walk of Fame during a public ceremony along with Darius Rucker, Joe Galante, and Duane Eddy in Nashville, Tennessee. His latest album, ‘American Boys,’ will be available May 17, 2024.
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