Now that we’ve had a weekend to digest Eric Church’s latest album, Evangeline vs. The Machine, what are we thinking about it?
Honestly, it wasn’t nearly as weird as I thought it could have been. Hearing he brought in a full orchestra, horn section, and choir for a “country” album raised my eyebrows a bit, and there’s no denying that sonically this album doesn’t fit with his earlier work and is much more in line with his “controversial” (using that word colloquially, I see nothing controversial about it) Stagecoach gospel set a few years back, but after a few listens through, it’s clear this is a fantastic body of work that certainly will stand the “Hands Of Time” … (Had to do it)
“Johnny” is a clear stand out and seems to have picked up the most steam online while the album’s only cover, “Clap Hands”, gets me fired up every time I hear it. Is it like Chief’s old music? Absolutely not, it seems to be a southern rock evolution of the Meatloaf-esk Heart & Soul project, but hey, the man’s an artist and will do what he likes, hard to fault him for that.
When one of my favorite artists releases a new project I find myself running through their back catalogue after taking in the new and this Eric Church record was no different. Yes, I really do like Evangeline vs The Machine but at this point in my life I can’t see anything surpassing my love for those first few records; Sinners Like Me, Carolina, Chief, The Outsiders, and Mr. Misunderstood may just be the best 5-album run of all-time…
“Bleed On Paper”, the second track on Evangeline, was co-written by Casey Beathard and his son Tucker, who’s an artist himself. While he’s never fully burst onto the scene like it seems he was set up to be back in the day, Tucker still commands a loyal fanbase and continues to write and release music on his own schedule. His biggest song, “Rock On”, is no longer available on streaming services, most likely due to some dispute with an old label, and that’s a bummer because high school me absolutely loved that one…
Casey is one of the most prolific songwriters in Nashville, with cuts to his name such as Eric Church’s “Like A Wreaking Ball”, “The Outsiders”, and “Like Jesus Does”, Kenny Chesney’s “The Boys Of Fall” and “Don’t Blink”, and Trace Adkins’ “Just Fishin'”. He’s been a longtime collaborator with Eric Church, including on a song that just so happens to have been written about his son Tucker.
The Backstory of Eric Church’s “Homeboy”
“Homeboy” was the sixth track on Chief, Eric Church’s 2011 album that also gave us “Drink In My Hand” and “Springsteen”. Written by Casey and Church, it’s an allusion of sorts to the Bible’s prodigal son story, with a person begging someone to give us the hard living, bad acting life they’ve taken up and just come home.
Well, it turns out that Casey had a very specific person in mind when putting this one together, although the muse wasn’t nearly as wild or troublesome as the character in the song.
During an acoustic performance back in 2017, Casey and Tucker got around to playing “Homeboy”, but before the father-son duo got to singing, Casey filled in the backstory on how it came to be:
“As songwriters you keep your antennas up all the time for phrases or things. I had this title in my head but I didn’t know how to write it. And I saw them [Tucker and his other son CJ, yes the Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback] get out of the car and I knew that they were so tight if Tucker ever got in too much trouble, CJ would go, by all means, anyway he could to go find him and try to get him out of that trouble…
So the song was written from that perspective of CJ trying to get him out of trouble.”
Casey made sure to tell the crowd that Tucker had never actually gotten in that much trouble…
Pretty cool, huh? Your dad writing a song about how much of a pain in the rear end you were growing up?
Tucker’s since embraced it but it did take a little bit of time. He spoke with Music Choice back in 2016 about coming to terms with being “Homeboy”:
“I don’t know, I kind of hate it honestly. I never wanted nobody to know that but you know, you tell one person and then they’re like “There’s our next headline; Tucker Beathard is “Homeboy””. It’s like, whatever.
But at the same time, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t kinda cool. But it’s farfetched, so I don’t want anyone getting the representation that I got tattoos on my neck or fake gold on my teeth or nothing like that.”
You never truly know how your favorite songs came to be…
