DESTINATION DULUTH ARTIST PROFILE SERIES
The first time Rob Lundquist set eyes on Duluth, he was a high school senior touring the University of Minnesota campus. Driving north on I-35, the road curved downhill and opened to a wide view of Lake Superior. “I just remember going over that hill, looking out at the lake, and thinking, oh my goodness, this is incredible,” Lundquist recalls. “I fell in love with it right then.”
It was the beginning of a connection to the Zenith City that years later came full circle when his band, Home Free, filmed The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald aboard the William A. Irvin in Duluth.
This week, Home Free will make a special Duluth appearance on Friday, October 3, performing Gordon Lightfoot’s classic Fitzgerald song at A Night of the Fitz & Sea at The West Theatre.
Early Years to UMD Vocal Performance Major
Lundquist grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis, surrounded by a wide range of music. His mom tuned in to pop radio—Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Boyz II Men—while his dad filled the house with everything from Gordon Lightfoot and Cat Stevens to Pavarotti and Sinatra.
“I started out playing saxophone,” Lundquist says. “But when I started singing, people paid a lot more attention to that than my sax playing.”
His parents encouraged him to pursue that gift at UMD, where he immersed himself in the music department. “I was at school from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. most days,” he says. “Choirs, jazz ensembles, musicals, opera scenes—I wanted to do it all, and I loved every minute.”
Professors like Rachel Inselman and Tina Thielen Gaffey shaped his path. Inselman pushed him toward opera, while Gaffey pulled him into jazz and performance opportunities. “Tina’s also the reason I met my wife Kelsey,” he says. “We were both in her program, and later she organized an alumni trip to Ireland—that’s where our relationship really started.”
Rob’s former UMD voice professor Rachel Inselman remembers him not only for his talent but also for his versatility. “Rob was my voice student in the early 2000s and was a joy to work with,” Inselman says. “He had a gift for singing in many different genres—classical, musical theater, and jazz.”
Inselman noted that Lundquist threw himself into every opportunity at UMD. “He was involved in choir, opera studio, and vocal jazz, and he excelled in all of them,” she says. During his student years he also earned the Matinee Musicale Scholarship, the DSSO Scholarship for leading the tenor section, and was named a Schubert Club Winner in the Twin Cities.
What impressed Inselman most went beyond the awards. “Rob is just a wonderful, happy, and thankful person who loves being on stage,” she says. “He has found his niche with Home Free. I love this group, I go to every concert I can, and I’m so proud of Rob’s journey.”
“My time in Duluth was awesome, man, I loved it so much,” he says. “I had amazing professors, and I was in pretty much everything you could do musically at UMD.” From long days rehearsing in Weber Music Hall to late nights with friends in the music and theater departments, Duluth became both a training ground where he felt at home, leaving him with memories and connections that continue to pull him back to the city.
The Early Years of Home Free
After graduation, Lundquist joined the vocal group Foreshadow, which caught the attention of Home Free. He signed on in 2008.
Home Free had begun in 2000 in Mankato, Minnesota, when brothers Chris and Adam Rupp formed a small a cappella group with friends. By the time Lundquist joined, the band was still very much a part-time venture. “I had to have a part-time job in Minneapolis,” he recalls. “I was bartending at the Guthrie Theater, and they would let me go for weeks at a time because we would get random gigs.”
Those gigs ran the gamut—cruise ship shows, small-town theaters, and grueling runs like the Allied Concert Series, where the band would perform 45 shows in 60 days across the Midwest. “It was a lot of touring,” Lundquist says. “Long drives, modest audiences, but it was a great way to cut our teeth.”
The Sing-Off
Everything changed in 2013 when Home Free landed a spot on NBC’s reality competition The Sing-Off.
“That first night, we reached more people in one episode than in 13 years as a band,” Lundquist says. “It was life-changing.”
The grueling weeks of rehearsals and filming felt more like music camp than cutthroat TV. “We just became lifelong friends with the other groups. They wanted drama, but we all just respected each other’s talents.”
One performance, in particular, was a turning point: Home Free’s rendition of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.” “The judges lost their minds, the crowd went nuts—we thought, maybe we could win this thing.”
They did—and the win launched Home Free into full-time touring with hundreds of shows a year and a growing library of viral music videos. Since then, the band has released more than a dozen albums, including Crazy Life (2014), Country Evolution (2015), Timeless (2017), Dive Bar Saints (2019), and their holiday favorites Full of (Even More) Cheer and Warmest Winter. Several of these projects have reached the Billboard Country Albums chart, while their inventive covers and originals have collectively drawn more than 700 million views on YouTube.
Challenge the Sea
The band’s latest project, Challenge the Sea, grew out of an unexpected turn during the pandemic. “During COVID we put out a sea shanty medley, and it is by far the biggest thing we’ve ever done,” Lundquist explains. “We kind of just did it to get on the trend that was happening at that time, but it just took on a life of its own.”
That viral success even led to Ubisoft, a video game company, inviting them to write an original shanty for Skull and Bones. With their two most-streamed songs on Spotify now in the genre, the group leaned in. “People are really digging what we do in this style,” Lundquist says.
Michigan native Adam Bastien suggested Gordon Lightfoot’s The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, a song that meant a great deal to him personally. “With the 50th anniversary coming up, the timing just felt right,” Lundquist says. Producer Darren Rust arranged it.
“We gave ourselves two days. One day, we basically got to take over the William A. Irvin, which was incredible,” Lundquist says. “Getting behind-the-scenes access to parts of the ship most people never see—that was a huge highlight
Personal and Humorous
Away from the stage, Lundquist is a husband, dad, podcaster, and self-proclaimed “Home Free’s Sexiest Singer.” He gave himself the cheeky title—later emblazoned on a T-shirt, while joking that it carried as much weight as his long-suffering loyalty to the Minnesota Vikings.
He and his wife Kelsey, a marriage and family therapist, are raising two kids—Lydia and Charlie—while juggling his demanding tour schedule. “Being a dad is my favorite thing,” he says. “The hardest part is being away, but FaceTime makes it possible. Honestly, it’s tougher on me than it is on them—they’re so busy with their own lives.” On a side note, their appearance in Duluth on October 3 is Rob and Kelsey’s 12th anniversary – so wish them a happy anniversary if you come to A Night of the Fitz & Sea.
He’s also found a love for bass fishing at his in-laws’ lake place up north near Nevis, Minnesota. “The day we were leaving, I thought I’d cast one more time—and ended up catching one of the biggest fish of my life. That was a fun day.”
A Tug Back to His Music Roots
Even after traveling the world, Lundquist enjoys coming to Duluth where his music career truly began.
“I love Duluth, man. It’s been really fun to keep coming back and see how much it’s grown,” he says. “West Duluth is so cool now—the restaurants, breweries, all the energy. I used to see Trampled by Turtles at Pizza Luce for five bucks, and now they’re all over the world. It’s a pretty great place.”
On October 3, when Home Free performs The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald at the West Theatre, it won’t just be another stop on tour. For Rob Lundquist, it will be a return to the city that helped him believe a life in music was possible.
About the Event
Destination Duluth Presents
A Night of The Fitz & Sea
The West Theatre
Friday, October 3, 7 pm
Featuring The National Museum of the Great Lakes Documentary, A Good Ship and Crew Well Seasoned – The Fitzgerald and her legacy.
With a special appearance by Home Free singing The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald
BONUS – All tickets holders will receive a free copy of Home Free’s new album Challenge the Sea
Limited seats are available at A Night of The Fitz & Sea
