Nobody puts on a live show quite like the Chief.
Eric Church is set to celebrate the release of his new album, Evangeline vs. The Machine, with a unique concert experience in the form of two shows set for May 23 and 24 at Nashville’s newest live music venue, The Pinnacle. His latest studio project, produced by longtime producer Jay Joyce, is set to drop on May 2 album.
Church will perform the new album in sequence for the first time, and will also share some performances of his biggest hits and fan favorites. He’s always used his albums to tell a cohesive story, and that’s exactly what he intends to do in this live show:
“An album is a snapshot in time that lasts for all time. I believe in that time-tested tradition of making records that live and breathe as one piece of art – I think it’s important.
I’ve always let creativity be the muse. It’s been a compass for me. The people that I look up to in my career and the kind of musicians I gravitate to never did what I thought they were going to do next – and I love them for it. I never want our fans to get an album and go, ‘Oh, that’s like Chief or that’s like this.’ Painstakingly, I lose sleep at night to try to make sure that whatever we do creatively, they go, ‘Wow, that’s not what I thought.’ I think that’s my job as an artist.”
Tickets to “Evangeline vs. The Machine Live” go on sale to premium Church Choir members Monday, March 31 at 10 a.m. CT
The album features 8 songs, including the already-released “Darkest Hour” and “Hands of Time,” and it also contains “Johnny,” a powerful new song that Church performed during his To Beat the Devil residency at his Nashville bar, Chief’s, and performed publicly for the first time during CRS last month.
Eric revealed that the song was actually written the day after the tragic shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School:
“About a year ago we had a shooting here in Nashville and where my kids go to school, is about a mile from that school. And I’m gonna tell you something, the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, parent or otherwise, is dropping them off at that school the day after that shooting, and watching them walk inside.
And I sat in the parking lot for a long time, and as fate would have it Charlie Daniels was playing “The Devil Went Down To Georgia” And I remember thinking, ‘Man, we could use Johnny right now’ because the Devil is not in Georgia. He is everywhere, and I went home and wrote ‘Johnny.’”
@bonitawallace8 @Eric Church with a moving performance of “Johnny” with a powerful speech at @Ryman. #ericchurch #ericchurchmusic #nashville #nashvilletennessee #crs ♬ original sound – Bonita
Evangeline vs. The Machine Track List
1. Hands Of Time (Eric Church, Scooter Carusoe)
2. Bleed On Paper (Tucker Beathard, Casey Beathard, Monty Criswell)
3. Johnny (Eric Church, Luke Laird, Brett Warren)
4. Storm In Their Blood (Eric Church)
5. Darkest Hour (Eric Church)
6. Evangeline (Eric Church, Luke Laird, Barry Dean)
7. Rocket’s White Lincoln (Eric Church)
8. Clap Hands (Tom Waits)
