Nobody else is doing it like Eric Church.
Of course that’s been true for most of his career, from releasing a song about teen pregnancy as his second career single to mailing a surprise album directly to his fans.
It’s been nearly 20 years since Church dropped his debut album Sinners Like Me, which in a constantly-changing music landscape can sometimes feel like an eternity. Artists come and go, and those that manage to stick around often have trouble keeping things fresh and interesting this far into a career.
But not Eric Church. On that, he’s in a league of his own.
Church released his latest album Evangeline vs. The Machine today, his first album since his 2021 triple album Heart & Soul and only his 8th career studio album. And somehow, 20 years into his legendary career, he’s still managing to keep fans on their toes and push boundaries that listeners may not even realize existed.
Evangeline vs. The Machine is not only unlike anything Church has ever done before: It’s unlike anything ANY artist in country music has done before.
Backed not by his traditional band but by a full orchestra, horn section and choir, Church manages to effortlessly blend country music with rhythm and blues, rock and roll and soulful sounds that come together in a 35-minute rocket that takes off with his latest single “Hands Of Time” and doesn’t come back down until the last notes of his cover of the 1985 Tom Waits song “Clap Hands.”
The album’s lead track, which ironically was the last song that was added to the project, serves to set the scene for the rest of the album:
“We ain’t as young as we used to be
But young at heart is so easy
When you let some loud guitars and words that rhyme
Handle the hands of time”
Whether intentional or not, “Hands Of Time” ends up serving as a lens through which the rest of the album can be viewed. There’s “Bleed On Paper,” a soulful but almost dark-sounding track about pouring your heart and soul (no pun intended) into writing a song. And then the album moves on to “Johnny,” one of the most emotional tracks of the project which Church wrote the day after the Covenant School shooting here in Nashville, with the father of two begging for “Johnny” from the Charlie Daniels classic “Devil Went Down To Georgia” to come back and rescue the world from the devil once again:
“Johnny oh Johnny, where did you go?
The devil’s broke out of Georgia
And he’s feasting on our souls
There’s fire on the mountain and the flames are closing in
So run, get your fiddle boy and send him to hell again”
The powerful sound and message of “Johnny” is then followed up with “Storm In Their Blood,” which is littered with Biblical and historical references as it pays tribute to the warrior spirit of men who don’t “seek love and peace” but were “born with a storm in their blood.” And there’s a really cool ending to the song that brings it all home.
The second half of the album kicks off with “Darkest Hour,” the song about being there for someone in their hardest moments that took on new meaning after it was released in the wake of the devastation from Hurricane Helene in Church’s home state of North Carolina.
Up next is the title track, “Evangeline,” which immediately sets itself apart from anything else in country music when it kicks off with a French horn, launching into a sonic journey would be just as at home on a Jackson Browne album as it is on Church’s masterpiece. In the mythical battle between Evangeline and the machine, the title character in the song serves as the free-spirited protagonist and creative muse that “the machine” relies on to keep running. It’s an almost allegorical take on the relationship between artists and the music industry, a relationship in which there may be tension between the two sides, but at the end of the day they’re both necessary for the art to come to life.
One of the standouts on an album full of highlights is “Rocket’s White Lincoln,” a funky, lighthearted jam reminiscent of the Rolling Stones that’s full of vibrant imagery about gassing up the car and driving off into the night.
And finally, Church brings it home with something he’s never done before: A cover song, albeit one that sounds like it was written specifically for Evangeline vs. The Machine with its groovy sound.
When you get to the end of the musical journey, you’ll realize: There aren’t any breaks. The album is one cohesive piece of art, each song flowing seamlessly into the other. And Church says that making an album that can be taken as a whole, as opposed to just releasing individual singles, is something that’s still important to him in this time of rapid-fire music:
“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.”
But equally as important was following his creativity to wherever it may lead, trying to keep things fresh and different for fans:
“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.”
I’ve said it before, but one of the things that I appreciate the most about Church is the way he grows with his music. Each album is a distinct snapshot of not only where Church is an artist at that point in his career, but where he’s at as a husband, a father, and as a person.
That’s not easy for artists to do, especially when you hit on something that works: There’s no doubt that it would have been easy for Church to see the success of an album like Chief and decide that he needed to make more albums like that, but instead he changed it up with The Outsiders. And here we are a decade removed from that album, which was the most rock-influenced of his career, and he’s releasing an album packed full of baritone saxophone, French horn and a gospel choir. That’s some balls right there.
Of course it not only takes courage from an artist, but it also takes confidence in your own creativity and an ability to cast any insecurities aside as you follow your own sound.
And in that, Church just continues to prove that he’s in a league of his own.
“Bleed On Paper”
“Johnny”
“Storm In Their Blood”
“Rocket’s White Lincoln”
