Got the creative juices flowing.
Eric Church just released his 8th studio album, Evangeline vs. The Machine. And like we’ve come to expect any time the Chief drops new music, it’s unlike anything he’s ever done before.
I’ve already given my thoughts on the project, so I’ll spare you all that here. But the album is not only unlike anything Church has ever done before: It’s really unlike anything we’ve ever heard from ANY artist in country music.
Evangeline vs. The Machine features a full orchestra, horn section and choir, all of which feature prominently on the 8-song tracklist. You don’t hear many country albums with a baritone saxophone or a French horn, or a gospel choir singing backup. But it works, and it’s a masterpiece.
The album seems to be a continuation of what Church started on the Outsiders Revival Tour back in 2023, when he brought a horn section and 3 backup singers along with him and played not only a lot of deep cuts from his catalog but new, jazzed up versions of some of his biggest hits.
Then of course there was his headlining performance from Stagecoach last year, where Church performed an hour and a half long acoustic set along with the gospel choir, covering everything from “I’ll Fly Away” and “When The Saints Go Marching In” to “California Love” and “Gin and Juice.”
But as it turns out, the inspiration for Evangeline vs. The Machine goes back even further, to a performance with an unlikely collaborator.
During a stop in New Orleans on his Gather Again Tour back in 2022, Church was joined by New Orleans legend and Grammy-award winning superstar Trombone Shorty. If you’re not familiar with Shorty, the New Orleans native (whose real name is Troy Andrews) is a world-renowned trombone player (as I’m sure you would have guessed) who’s performed everywhere from the White House to the Super Bowl.
He’s collaborated with several country artists over the years, including on Dierks Bentley’s song “Mardi Gras” and in 2016 when he performed with Little Big Town at the CMA Awards.
More than anything, he’s just one bad motherf***er.
So it’s really no wonder Church invited Shorty to join him on stage during his stop in New Orleans, where the two performed a rocking version of “Ophelia” by The Band, along with “Proud Mary” and Church’s own song “Cold One.”
And not long after that, Shorty returned the favor, inviting Church to perform with him during his annual “Treme Threauxdown” that he hosts every year in New Orleans during Jazz Fest.
The two once again performed “Cold One,” along with “Come Together” by the Beatles, and Church told the Los Angeles Times recently that it was that performance that inspired him to make Evangeline vs. The Machine:
“Trombone Shorty came and played a show with me in New Orleans on the Gather Again tour, and we ended up in the dressing room after and got in this incredible conversation about brass instruments and string instruments and the history of music.
Later he invited me to come play this show he does during Jazz Fest. There were probably two white people onstage that night: me and Steve Miller.
So we do my song “Cold One” and “Come Together.” I’ve done “Cold One” a thousand times, but I had never done “Cold One” like that. It was a Black New Orleans band with horns and background singers and a violin player — not Juilliard violin but like a janky New Orleans violin. The dude had the damn thing on his shoulder, not under his chin.
Everything was wrong for what that song is. I’m not convinced anyone even knew the song. But we found our spot in the middle of it, and it was killer. I flew home thinking: I want to do a record this way.”
Evangeline vs. The Machine has no doubt been polarizing. Plenty of fans were hoping for a more traditional album from Church after waiting 4 years for new music. But it’s also the biggest creative risk he’s taken in his career, something most country artists wouldn’t even try to pull off. And personally, I think it’s maybe his best album of his career.
And it was all inspired by this performance of “Cold One.”
Oh, and make sure you watch this chill-inducing performance with Shorty from the Gather Again Tour.
