Always blazing his own trail.
It’s safe to say that since he released his debut album Sinners Like Me in 2006, Eric Church has always been ahead of the “mainstream” country music sound.
Back in 2006, country music was largely, as Church puts it, “soccer mom country.” It was radio friendly, bubblegum pop country that was, believe it or not, dominated by female artists.
But the then-newcomer from North Carolina burst onto the scene with an album that was the polar opposite: It was gritty, with a rock tinge that would prove to be a sample of what was to come from Church on later albums. And the songs talked about everything from drinking and heartbreak to Merle Haggard and death…and even the death penalty.
It’s safe to say there wasn’t anything else like it at the time. And that’s exactly what led Arturo Buenahora to sign Church to his first publishing deal in the first place.
Church has talked many times about moving to Music City and realizing that he wasn’t wanted on Broadway. He was a songwriter, and the honky tonks on Broadway were looking for bands to sing cover songs to drunk tourists. Not really his style, so it’s no surprise that it wasn’t a great fit.
But he quickly found a home just off Broadway, at the Fiddle & Steel Guitar Bar in Printer’s Alley, where he got to hang out with – and learn from – some of the greatest songwriters in country music…guys who had written songs for the legends like George Jones and Waylon Jennings.
So when it came time to meet with the labels about a publishing deal, Church no doubt felt like he was up to the task.
The label execs. however, disagreed – and they weren’t afraid to tell him how they really felt.
Church sat down with Willie Geist for an interview on The Today Show last year, and during the extended interview released on the Sunday Sitdown podcast, Church recalled meeting with one exec who he thought was ready to sign him to a deal:
“I got the closest I thought I was gonna be. There was this guy, they were like, ‘Hey, we like what you’re doing, we’re gonna have a guy come down from New York, and we wanna sign you.’ And he flies in, and I think this is it. This is gonna be my moment.
And I walk in and I had four songs that are on my debut album, Sinners Like Me. And I’m feeling pretty good about ’em. I honestly was arrogant enough that I didn’t know which one I wanted to play first because I didn’t think I was gonna have to play two.”
But that’s not exactly how the meeting went:
“I play the first one, I’m like a verse in, and he kinda puts his hand up and I was thinking, ‘This is it. This is the moment. This is what you’ve been waiting on.’
And he goes, ‘Yeah I don’t like that. You got anything else?’
So we worked through this for like four songs, and he said, ‘I don’t know where you’re from, and I don’t really know what you did there, but I recommend going back and doing whatever that was.’”
Not quite the reaction he was hoping for…
(The four songs, by the way, were “How ‘Bout You,” “Two Pink Lines,” “Pledge Allegiance To the Hag,” and “Sinners Like Me.” That’s a helluva catalog to walk in with – which makes it all the more baffling that labels actually passed on him).
Well Church was discouraged after being rejected, and was planning on going back home. But as he recalls it, his late brother convinced him to stay and give it one more shot.
That one more shot was a meeting with Buenahora, who at the time was the Senior Director of Creative Services and Production at Sony Music. And this time, Church walked in with a different song: “Lightning.”
Buenahora was recently at Church’s show in Knoxville on his Free the Machine tour, and he recalled that first meeting with Church and hearing him play his Green Mile-inspired song about a man meeting the electric chair.
According to the show recap from Knoxville written by Adam Lucas, the label exec was immediately intrigued:
“Who’d you write that with?”
As it turns out, the answer was…nobody. “Lightning” was a solo write from Church. And it was enough to get the young artist his first publishing deal.
Buenahora says that he was impressed by Church because he was unique among the country artists who were popular at the time:
“He just writes great songs. He was writing things that nobody else was writing. It was really honest and authentic, and none of it felt pretend. When your job is listening to songs all day, you hear all the ideas. People chase what’s working. He wasn’t chasing anybody.”
That’s for sure.
It’s one thing about Church that has never changed throughout his career. Back in 2009, nobody in country music was singing about smoking weed when Church released “Smoke A Little Smoke.” In fact, he was warned by his label that it would be the end of his career. As it turns out though, he was just ahead of the game.
In 2014, rock music wasn’t nearly as prevalent in the country sound as it is today. But that didn’t stop Church from releasing The Outsiders.
And most recently, Church released an album featuring a orchestra, horn section and gospel choir with Evangeline vs. The Machine. There’s nobody else doing that in country music – yet. I have a feeling that once again, Church set the standard that we’ll see artists chase over the next few years.
That’s just what he does. And according to Buenahora, that’s just who Church is:
“The blueprint is to write the best album you can and play shows relentlessly. You’ll get your head kicked in and maybe it’ll work. It’s a hard business. It’s a long shot. Some people want to do what’s already working or what they think might work. Other people know what they do, and they do that and hope it works. To me, that’s what an artist is. Eric has never tried to copy anybody. He’d rather fail doing something his way that’s his idea than copy somebody else.”
Of course he may have been the first to recognize it, but the label exec doesn’t think Church would have ended up back in North Carolina if it weren’t for that meeting:
“It would have happened either way. He was too good for it not to happen. But I’m glad I got to be the guy who believed on that day.”
I think I speak for all Church fans when I say we’re glad you believed on that day too.
