Alright… I’m ready for a new Eric Church album.
The country superstar hasn’t released a new record since his Heart & Soul project in 2021, which was a three-part album that was released separately throughout April over three years ago now.
Of course, he famously wrote and recorded during a 28-day marathon in the North Carolina mountains, which was obviously during the COVID pandemic, though he had planned to do it that way before all of that broke out.
Anywho, since then, on the music front, he’s been pretty quiet.
Obviously, he’s been busy with plenty of other projects, like opening his bar in downtown Nashville Chief’s, his extensive Outsiders Revival tour, playing concerts and festivals, launching his full-time SiriusXM channel Outsiders Radio, creating a whiskey brand Whiskey JYPSI, and much more… so it’s not like he’s been sitting around twiddling his thumbs.
But having to wait three years from solo music is simply too long.
Of course, he’s been featured on hits like Morgan Wallen’s “Man Made A Bar” and things like the Rolling Stones tribute album Stoned Cold Country, but for a mainstream artist who is beloved by so many, that’s a really long time to go without releasing solo music.
I certainly appreciate his approach in some aspects, in terms of not feeling the modern push to constantly churn out music, because there are many times where I honestly get tired of an artist I really like, simply because the music gets so watered down in an effort to just do more.
Maybe Chief just hasn’t been overly inspired much lately? Who knows…
Unfortunately, the non-stop, frivolous nature of putting out songs just to do it is part of the current music business model, and it goes well beyond Nashville, but almost four years takes us to the other end of the spectrum in terms of time between releases.
On top of all of the time we’ve been waiting for new tunes (or at least I have), he hasn’t even teased us or given us any real hope for anything on the horizon. And like I said, I get it, he’s really busy and has a wife and two kids on top of a booming country career, but I think I speak on behalf of all of us fans when I say it’s been way too long.
I just needed to get this off of my chest, because I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately since we’ve had so many stellar releases not only this year, but even in 2023, that have been some of the best country projects put out in years. Heck, even Sturgill Simpson is putting out music again, albeit under a new guise Johnny Blue Skies, but still… it counts.
Eric, if you’re out there reading this, please know that we’re ready for a new album, or hell, even simply a new single at this point.
And I don’t mean waiting until next year… we need it much sooner rather than anytime in 2025… pretty please (you have to use your best manners when you’re asking for something like this).
Speaking of Heart & Soul, I stand by the fact that this was the best song on the album and deserved WAY more attention…
“Russian Roulette”
