That’s Damn Rock & Roll

Eric Church in Pittsburgh

When musicians and their team sit down to start planning a new tour, one of three things will result: either the show they stage will be basically the same show they’ve run before using the same stage set-up and basic set list to reduce everyone’s time, money and stress (think Tim McGraw); the show will employ the same technology and set-up that has become the standard for such tours (big back screen, big amps, some kind of multi-level stage arrangement) (think Rascal Flatts); or they will completely go out on a limb and reinvent how an audience can see the show (think Brad Paisley). In recent years the difference between acts who invest thought into their lighting and screen imagery and those who don’t has become clear; the latter use random geometric patterns or old video footage to play alongside the live action, while the former design and incorporate the screens for a more encompassing and tightly synched audio-visual entertainment. This can be especially big issue if a band returns to the same audience pool year after year with the same old show — it looks and feels tired.

When Eric Church sat down to design this tour, someone must have said something along these lines: instead of erecting our set behind a big curtain while the crowd waits after the opening act leaves the stage, and then turning the house lights out when the band goes on for a splashy POW moment, why don’t we just clear off the opening act’s equipment and leave a completely empty stage? The crowd will be puzzled at first, and then grow massively excited trying to figure out how on earth the band will get on stage!

And then someone else must have said: OK, let’s do it.

The Inky Jukebox is here to say it worked. Church and his axe men strode out to mics, while the drum kit and drummer lowered from the roof of the arena to a pretzel-type stage set amidst the audience at one end of the floor. What this set-up allowed was for a dazzling array of lighting effects to go into effect – both from the stage itself and from above, in a series of lights that were raised and lowered like giant cage bars made of translucent color. The screen, such as it was, and speakers sat above the stage, small and four-sided, so everyone could get a view.

The result was a dynamic and exciting set. The only drawback was for the fans seated in the arena’s upper decks, for whom the small screens were mostly obscured, resulting in our not being able to see any of the performers in any detail at all — they remained tiny figures for the entire show. At least big screens can let those fans see a singer’s face once in a while. And while we’re at it, the multi-direction speakers delivered a lot of muffled sound that appeared to pick up and incorporate echoes due to its central location; anything less than very clear enunciation got lost. While this aspect wasn’t so bad for Church himself, it was a disaster for Dwight Yoakam, whose style didn’t lend itself to this set-up at all. Mostly he sounded like someone who doesn’t know the lyrics making speech-like sounds in their place, which is surely not the case.

About Church’s show: suffice it to say that it was, as he promised, “the shit.” Church is practiced enough of a performer to deliver a tight, loud, musical, crowd-pleasing entertainment package as anyone you will ever see. The addition of Joanna Cotten to provide her inimitable backing vocals and duet services is a delight (girl can wail).

Also: Church played “Carolina,” a song The Inky Jukebox never thought she’d hear him sing and had all but given up on. SCORE!

The Inky Jukebox has just a few observations, this being her fifth Church show.

1) Church played all the usual suspects form his back catalogue EXCEPT “Love Your Love The Most,” which is also conspicuously missing from his live album. What gives?

2) It would have been great to hear some songs from The Outsiders which are possibly AMAZING live, such as: “Roller Coaster Ride,” “Like A Wrecking Ball,” and “The Joint.” What gives?

3) While it is cute and possibly dangerous to commit to play a song an audience member picks, it can backfire spectacularly, and not in the way you might expect: sure, you could forget the words or someone could pick a lesser-known song from the Caldwell County EP — or someone could pick their own personal favorite song, which also happens to be a song you’ve played a ZILLION times at every show. The crowd, which has the possibility of a delightful surprise ahead of them (what will he play? Something obscure? Something he doesn’t usually play and which I’ve never heard him do live?) can grow disgruntled if it seems like a wasted opportunity (as it was in Pittsburgh last night). What gives?

4) Encores. Audiences expect them. Towards the end of a show, the audience will start thinking about what song(s) they are going to be treated to as an encore. Sure, ending with “Springsteen” makes for a good show-ender (it was what he ended the last tour with), but with no especially different treatment than any other big hit, and no indication that this would be the last song, it is a bit confusing when the house lights go on signaling, unexpectedly, the end. No band introductions? No particular thank you to the crowd? No take-a-bow? What gives?

All of this being said, Eric Church is an artist at the top of his game, and puts on a hell of a show. See him at all costs.

SET LIST (In no particular order)

Sinners Like Me

Sinners Like Me

Pledge Allegiance to ht Hag

Before She Does

These Boots

Guys Like Me

Carolina

Carolina

Lotta Boot Left To Fill

Smoke a Little Smoke

Chief

Country Music Jesus

Jack Daniels

Springsteen

I’m Getting Stoned

Homeboy

Drink in my Hand

Creepin’

Over When It’s Over

The Outsiders

The Outsiders

That’s Damn Rock and Roll

Dark Side

Devil Devil

Give me Back my Hometown

Talladega

Cold One

Eric Church: The Outsider Who Came in From The Cold

At exactly the one-minute mark of the song “Broke Record,” perceptive listeners will notice Eric Church’s inside joke — the record skips. Deliberately. Of course, it isn’t a record and cannot skip; the glitch has been built in digitally. But look at the song’s title — perfect.

It’s just this sort of smart musicianship that makes The Outsiders, his wildly adventurous latest album, a mind-blower that rewards both those fans who have followed his particular brand of musical expression since the beginning, as well as those persuaded to check him out because he’s become Rolling Stone’s country darling.

If there’s anything that even a first listen of this album will tell you is that it’s not business as usual. It transcends genre, for one thing. Sure, Church is unabashedly a country artist — but the independence he’s insisted on during his career has paid off in having the cajones to release a record who pays dues to no-one. Notice is given immediately in the opening title track, which rattles with metal guitar riffs and overlays, soaring after a particularly sexy guitar rip that practically says “we ain’t done yet, no sir.”

“Wrecking Ball” delivers heat through a vocal track high on reverb, complete with a Hammond C-3 accompaniment which strongly recalls Procol Harem’s “White Shade of Pale.”

"Roller Coaster Ride" includes pure synth touches and ugly low-key piano before lifting us up on a rise that pops your stomach the way a real roller coaster does. 

There’s a spoken word intro to “Devil Devil,” a cautionary tale, which was recorded in a parking lot on a phone.

Any song titled “That’s Damn Rock & Roll” requires a kick-ass female voice wailing in the background, and this one has it in Joanna Cotton’s gutsy vocal. The Rock & Roll featured here is reminiscent of glam rock in the best possible way.

“A Man Who Was Gonna Die Young,” “Dark Side,” and Talladega” are all classic acoustic Eric Church songs whose storytelling and exquisite guitar playing are beautiful.

“Give Me Back My Hometown” is an obvious single which seems to pay homage to U2’s big anthemic sound.

The last track, “The Joint” is about as close as you can get to David Essex’s iconic 1973 hit “Rock On” as it’s possible to get without paying royalties. This album goes beyond Chief’s “Smoke A Little Smoke” / “Jack Daniels” ethos by actually taking us into that woozy cloud. The way-slow reggae trombone is a touch of genius. Listen on headphones.

One of the best compliments The Inky Jukebox can pay this album is that it sounds like no other. It forges completely new ground. It is transcendent. 

Chesney / Church: How Forever Feels

Saved two months

Bought a little diamond

Tonight’s the night

Feels like perfect timing

“She said yes! She said yes!”

The boys of summer

After seven consecutive years playing Heinz Field, Kenny Chesney is right when he says that attending his shows has become a summer tradition. The 58,000 fans who sang along to every last word all appeared to have made that tradition theirs.

It’s just as well that they sang along, because it didn’t seem as though Chesney’s mic was working all that well — it picked up the upper register of the choruses well enough, but the verses suffered intermittent loss all night. The Inky Jukebox has attended three Chesney shows, and this time, the sound balance favored the guitars so much that every performer’s vocal suffered.

This technical difficulty didn’t stop the love, however. The last time The Inky Jukebox saw the Eli Young Band play, we had our hands on the stage. They have since had enough hits to bring the pre-show audience alive. 

Eric Church tore it up, delivering a blistering set that translated admirably to such a vast venue. He seemed genuinely taken aback by the roar of voices singing along.

Chesney did what he does best: drop a solid two-hour set crammed to the gills with hit after sing-a-long hit. Behind him, a supermoon rose from the Pittsburgh skyline in an arc to center stage, providing an enormous celestial spotlight.

These boots / Have counted off many a band...

Halfway through his set, a young man seated two rows down from The Inky Jukebox proposed to his pink-hatted girlfriend, and she said yes. Much high-fiving with everyone around him ensued, he wearing a giant smile and declaring how happy he is. The good spirits defined the crowd, many of whom had been partying for days in advance of the show, in boats parked 13-deep outside the stadium at the head of the Ohio.

Sitting outside in the heat at midnight, having stopped for a soft-serve on the way home, an old man saw The Inky Jukebox’s hat and asked if we’d been to the Kenny Chesney show. The Inky Jukebox said yes. “Lucky dogs,” he replied.

He was right.

Caught In The Act: Eric Church

Sometimes the best version of a musician’s work is on an immaculately produced and engineered CD, one that has seen the loving care of electronic tools to craft a sound that is better than real life could ever be. Sometimes you go to see this musician live and realize that perhaps they’re better performing in a studio.

And sometimes, the reverse is true.

Eric Church is a live act. The way he delivers a song on the stage is a dynamic, powerful experience, and is one of the reasons his star has risen so far and so high in such a relatively short period of time. The Inky Jukebox has been a fan of Church since his early days, when we trolled YouTube for shaky footage of him performing on tailgates. It doesn’t matter if it’s just him and a guitar in a parking lot or accompanied by a full band and light show on a stage, he gives 100% every time.

This summer he’s playing stadiums on the Kenny Chesney tour — which will be interesting to see, because playing a stadium is a wholly different task than playing an amphitheater or arena. We’d say it will introduce him to a whole new fan base, but come on : who are we kidding? If you’re going to a Chesney show, you’re already familiar with Church.

At this weekend’s Academy of Country Music Awards, Church delivered the kind of performance that folks who have been to his live shows have seen, but those watching on TV haven’t: a stripped down acoustic set. This time, he also did it without his signature ball cap and aviator shades. It's a tonic for those who only associate him with loud, fast-paced floor-thumpers. Dude can sing and play.

We like the beard. It echoes the stark video he released for “Like Jesus Does.”

Church has said that people will view his career as pre- and post-Chief. The Inky Jukebox isn’t so sure. Every one of his prior albums is a complete statement, and is just as well-crafted.

Perhaps he feels this way because he has just released his first live album, which is heavily loaded with songs from Chief (understandably, since it was recorded during a show on his most recent tour). It’s not a greatest hits album, as some have said: it’s merely a live album. But it is the next best thing to hearing Church play live, and will give anyone who has never seen him an idea of the energy he exudes on stage.

If you like your country rocking — you’ll love this record. The iTunes version has 17 tracks to the physical CD’s 11, so it’s absolutely worth the download. 

All Praise Eric Church and Justin Moore

Sinners Like Us: The Blood, Sweat and Beers Tour, 

Pittsburgh Sept 15, 2012

Justin Moore appreciates the crowd

Last night in Pittsburgh, Eric Church and Justin Moore, country music’s new bad boy vanguard, put on a master class in kicking ass. If the 13,000 capacity crowd wanted their faces rocked off with hit-after-blistering-hit, that’s exactly what they got. Apart from one girl I could see (more on her here), every single person there was a devotee of the kind of hard-living, hard-partying, leave-your-guts-on-the-floor lifestyle preached by these two ministers of Outlawism. If you remove the crutch the R leans upon, you’d be left with EPIC CHURCH, which is what the CONSOL Energy Arena turned into — one big revival tent. In case you didn’t know that’s what you’d signed up for when you bought a ticket (more on that here), then the High Priest made it clear in his opening song, “Country Music Jesus.” And boy, if you had any doubts that American music was all out of soul, then your soul was saved.

Let’s start with Justin Moore, which is always a good idea any time of day. The only thing that differentiated him from the “main act” was that his set was shorter. It needn’t have been; he could just as easily have rolled on through both his albums in their entirety and the crowd would still have not wanted him to leave the stage. Instead, he was limited to a roll-call of his singles (all hits), plus the crowd-pleaser “I Could Kick Your Ass,” which he’ll never be able to leave out of a set list for the rest of his career. The crowd belted along to every single word, sometimes drowning him out — except for those times when he switched into high gear and delivered one of his signature upper-range long notes, which are enough to prove that he’s the best male singer in country music. Perhaps that’s his real gift: it’s not just that he has the song, the look, and the attitude: dude’s got a pair of lungs and ability to deliver melody like no-one else.

This here's in a club, but you get the idea

He also knows how to work a crowd. It’s been a few years (alas) since The Inky Jukebox saw him, and he had not yet affixed his star the firmament. With some hard time touring tucked in his belt, he’s got it down to a fine art. The Inky Jukebox would have liked there to be more time in his set to deliver some of his ballads (“Like There’s No Tomorrow,” “Flyin’ Down a Back Road,” and “Outlaws Like Me” would have been nice), but we understand that when you open for someone else, your job is to whip the crowd into a frenzy with up-tempo numbers. (For the record, why did they release “Till My Last Day,” a bit of an ode to cliché as his next single instead of “Outlaws Like Me,” which is transcendently awesome?)

Moore’s covers are so good it makes you wish he’d release an album of them; his delivery of “With A Little Help From My Friends” was a perfect example of this done right — hearing a song you know inside out as if for the very first, and best, time.

Justin Moore demonstrates why he's the best singer in country music

Anyone who’s seen Eric Church before knows that when you hear the thomping strains of Clutch’s “Electric Worry” come over the PA system, he’s about to take the stage. It’s a good intro — a perfect blend of old-time stomp and metal shred, just the sort of thing Church’s band excels at.

Eric Church wants you to know that he doesn’t give a shit, a damn, or a single solitary fuck about, as he put it, “anything that’s happening outside this arena.” It’s that attitude that both sets him apart from the rest of the country pack, yet ties him to it, in the grand tradition of the old-school stars he worships. He’s unapologetic about pretty much everything he does on stage, which is a good thing. When he thumps his chest or pumps his fist in the air or gives the crowd a wide-mouthed howl, you know he means it, dammit. Eric Church can do this because Eric Church has the balls to back it up with pure talent. Does he need the bank of flamethrowers behind him, letting off great rips of fire to punctuate choruses? Of course not. But he knows this is a magic show-cum-sermon, and that tricks that make it seem the devil is biting at your heels are all part of the act.

Pyromania

As far as stage shows go, it’s a treat to see him finally design his own, after playing the opener for so long. The revolving backdrop of huge painted curtains doesn’t feel out of place alongside a forest of spotlights bursting from the stage, and the billowing clouds of thick smoke that illustrate “Smoke A Little Smoke” seem less a gimmick than an in-joke. He swigs his Jack Daniels from a red Solo cup just like you expect him to, and you hold on of your boots in the air like leather lighters when he sings his peon to them, “These Boots.”

See the crowd wave their boots

The real lighters are few and far between these days; during the closer, “Springsteen,” he asks the crowd to flash their cell phones instead. Sure enough, the arena becomes a twinkling universe of screens that is a sight to behold, and you’re in no danger of getting your hair or the brim of your hat singed.

In getting to call his own shots, Church delivers many things he believes in, including that whole albums deserved to be played in their entirety. This is easy for him to do, given that none of his albums contains a single fluff song. He spread every song off Chief out over the show, with liberal helpings from Carolina and Sinners Like Me along the way. It doesn’t matter if only a handful were ever singles; such are Church’s records that every song feels like it must have been a hit you sang to on the radio.

Acoustic brilliance: sing along now, y'all

Half way through, the black curtain came down on the stage, and he gave the crowd a mini, stripped down acoustic set that recalled (for The Inky Jukebox, at least) the way early YouTube videos captured him giving impromptu performances sitting on tailgates in parking lots. 

Eric Church: 2009 (parking lots)

Just the man and his guitar and a song — that’s all he needed, and all he still needs. He is a good enough player to make it sounds like three guitars at once — his notes and riffs sparkly and rhythmic at the same time. You know you’re on to something good when everything else can be peeled back to the bare bones.

Eric Church: 2012 (arenas)

This is not to say that the full-on experience of the band is less satisfying: he says he “likes his country rocking / how ‘bout you?” and the answer’s an emphatic yes. At times you could be forgiven for thinking you’d wondered into a hard rock or metal show — that’s how loud they crunch and shred, fairly melting your face off in the process.

The show draws to a close with the heartfelt “Springsteen,” during which he breaks into a countrified “Born To Run,” to everyone’s delight. Behind him, a giant American flag hangs, an unsubtle notice that this country has a new hero troubadour to worship. He stood for a long time after the rest of the band left the stage, looking out at his disciples cheering. What a view he must have had.

SET LISTS (in no particular order)

Justin Moore

Guns

How I Got To Be This Way

Small Town USA

Backwoods

I Could Kick Your Ass

Hank It

Bait A Hook

Till My Last Day

If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away

Eric Church

Creepin

Drink In My Hand

Hungover And Hard Up

Homeboy

Country Music Jesus

Jack Daniels

Springsteen

I’m Getting’ Stoned

Over When It’s Over

Lotta Boot Left To Fill

Carolina

Smoke A Little Smoke

Hell On The Heart

Before She Does

Sinners Like Me

How ‘Bout You

These Boots

Guys Like Me

Pledge Allegiance To The Hag

Top Dogs: Toby Keith and Eric Church

Locked and Loaded Tour

Pittsburgh, Sept 3 2011

The last country show of the season was blessed by a perfect starry night that topped off a sizzling summer day in Pittsburgh. Chances are, if you were a fan of country music anywhere in the tri-state area you were at the Eric Church / Toby Keith show at Burgettstown: it certainly looked like everyone came out judging by how packed the hill was. Unlike most shows where tailgaters hold out until the headliner before entering the amphitheater, this one brought a capacity-plus crowd in from the tarmac well in time for Eric Church’s set, which could have been a headliner in itself.

 Eric Church is one of those fellows who talks softly in interviews but acts like a crazed pumped-up bottle rocket on stage. His set started with a loud crack at Clutch’s “Electric Worry” which made The Inky Jukebox’s metalhead Sweetie stand up and pay attention. Sure enough, Church delivered a set that would have set light to the lawn had the lawn been, well, drier — like it usually is by this time of year. He picked from among the hits off his first two albums and provided a generous dose of strong songs from his latest release, Chief. 

Even though Church kicks it old school in his insistence that new records be anticipated like they used to be before the internet allowed you to hear everything in advance, and doesn’t play ANYTHING live before the actual album release date, these songs (which are only a few weeks old, performance-wise) sounded as kick-ass and polished as any of his other material.

Shooter Jennings has perhaps unwisely decided to open a can of whoop-ass in his return to his country roots by releasing as the first single off his new album “Outlaw You,” a song which calls out fellow singers for name-dropping the outlaw aesthetic that Shooter clearly feels is an insult to his Pappy Waylon et al. Trouble is, all it does it make him come across like a kid on the playground hiding in his Dad’s big shadow while being too chicken to name names. The Inky Jukebox has a theory (even though Shooter himself is coy about it) that the dude in the “baseball cap / Who couldn’t hit country with a baseball bat” is Eric Church. Why? Very few of today’s young bucks wear baseball caps as their signature headwear (Luke Bryan and Rodney Atkins are the only other ones The Inky Jukebox can think of, and neither of them pass themselves off as outlaws), so it’s got to be Church he’s after. This seemed to be confirmed by the inclusion of a version of “Gotta Lot of Boot Left To Fill” that seemed particularly crackly; you hear Church spitting out “I don’t think Waylon would have done it that way” and you think Aha. So Shooter’s responding to Church for saying for all his pedigree, he’s inexperienced. This theory was enhanced when Church launched into a solo version of “A Country Boy Can Survive,” which Shooter has appropriated as his own theme song.

He delighted The Inky Jukebox’s metalhead Sweetie by sprinkling a number of Black Sabbath intros into his set that were especially prescient; “Sweet Leaf” for instance with “Smoke A Little Smoke.” By the time he’d slayed his encore and smashed two cans of beer on his chest and drained them, the sun had gone down and the crowd was fired up good and proper.

 Toby Keith’s tour is sponsored by Ford. This is a point he wants to make perfectly clear by displaying Ford advertising everywhere he possibly can, including on the stage monitors and in the videos playing behind him. Clearly, Toby’s fans are the sort of rabid rednecks who like their music patriotic, and he comes through with bells on. And fireworks. And smoke machines. The color theme for his show is red white and blue, son, and don’t you forget it. While Keith isn’t the world’s best singer per se, he is a wholehearted entertainer; his set didn’t let anyone down who came expecting to hear a greatest hits retrospective. A particularly touching moment came when he sang “Should Have Been A Cowboy,” inviting a very young boy in a huge cowboy hat up on stage to play his wee guitar. It must have been an incomprehensible occasion for the boy, who remained tight-lipped while he strummed away, but his parents will never let him forget it. 

During the encore which predictably saved the “Courtesy of the Red White and Blue” for the finale, he pulled a serviceman up from the crowd to sing alongside him for the duration — something the chap took to with delighted aplomb. Keith left the crowd with the admonition that we should never apologize for being patriotic (check) which is the very definition of preaching to the choir.

It was a Church choir that night, so I suppose we came for a sermon and got it. The Inky Jukebox’s metalhead Sweetie even sang along to “Beer for my Horses” and demanded some Eric Church to take home with him. That’s what The Inky Jukebox calls Mission Accomplished.

The metalhead Sweetie can be found at The Metal Blog of Metal

Bang Bang Bang Bang

Ace of Spades

Now lookee here, Y’all: Lemmy is a legend in his own boots and The Inky Jukebox won’t have a word said against him. In fact, The Inky Jukebox was a Lemmy fan back when it wasn’t groovy to like Motörhead if you were a chick, which was a long time ago. Now, of course, you have to be able to recognize Motörhead songs as if you’ve been singing them since childhood because if you don’t, you will feel alienated and ill at ease when you walk into your local tattoo parlor, which is no way to feel when you are about to get tattooed.

Which brings us to this little gem for those of you who, like The Inky Jukebox, like a little acoustic twang in your Kilmister classics every once in a while. And in case you haven’t been to a live country show lately, you’re going to hear a lot of metal riffs, so you better bone up on your classic Sabbath (Eric Church) and Metallica (Luke Bryan). Eric Church opened his set in Pittsburgh this weekend with a little Clutch, though most of the sell-out crowd didn't know that.

Awesome, boys. 

Eric Church: Country Music Jesus

Hail To The Chief

 If you like your country rockin’ then Eric Church is your man. On Chief, his third full-length album, he sticks to what he does best: being his good old badass self. He lets less room in for the extraordinary ballads that peppered his first two albums in favor of pushing the rock and roll pedal to the floor. A partial exception might be his first single, “Homeboy.”

From the man who brought us “Smoke a Little Smoke,” we have more songs about imbibing; “Drink in my Hand” is about — well, that’s self-explanatory. “Hungover & Hard Up,” on the other hand, is — not hard to decipher, perhaps because “Jack Daniels” apparently kicked his ass last night. The lead track “Creepin’” is also about being hungover. A disastrous marriage results in the bride having a rock (diamond) so “I’m Getting Stoned.” The Inky Jukebox suspects he would have anyway. “Keep On” is a very sexy song that challenges a flirt to follow through, only to have the tables turned once she gets what she wants.

Eric Church preaches to a choir of sinners like him who nevertheless pray hard for their “Country Music Jesus” to come save them. Him or “Springsteen,” anyhow. His fans are deeply committed to tearing it up when the volume is turned up loud through those live amps. It will be interesting to see how he ignites the audience opening for Toby Keith this fall. With this new collection to add to his set list, he should pretty much burn it down, y'all. 

Eric Church: A Testimonial

A Long Line of Sinners Like Him (You Make It Look So Easy)

Every now and then I come across someone who still thinks country music is sung with a deep twang by chubby dudes in giant ten-gallon hats and two-tone shirts, or by suspiciously butch gals with long hair, high-waisted jeans and button-down shirts who express their innermost feelings by hooking their thumbs into their belt hoops and line dancing. Yee-haw!

They are incredulous, therefore, to keep reading about country music taking the lead when it comes to sales, tour grosses and a loyal, young fan base when the rest of the music industry is falling to pieces. I got news for these folks: Garth Brooks semi-retired a long time ago, and their favorite rockers are all recording in Nashville now.

Check out what modern country sounds like. Sure, they wear Wranglers, hats and boots; they sing about country topics; they have Southern accents. But they are also lean and mean and rock out as hard as anyone.

A good example of the New Country Man is Eric Church. He’s quietly built himself a serious reputation by putting out records where every single song is a winner, and touring his ass off. The pyro in his stage show comes entirely from 100-proof attitude and raw talent, and the crowd burns up with it. He inspires a passionate, rowdy following who sing along word-for-word with gusto, whether he’s delivering a balls-to-the-floor up-tempo bit of rock and roll or a tender ballad.

His 2006 debut, Sinners Like Me, practically whops you upside the head and serves notice: this dude means business. The title track is a rollicking love story to being a man’s man that draws on the rhythms of traditional sea shanties but with jangly guitar, fiddles,  and rousing chorus. It doesn’t matter if your story isn’t the same as his; I don’t know any man who couldn’t relate to it.

Church shows his real songwriting talent with his ballads; “What I Almost Was” is a heartfelt tale of near-disaster that sounds fresh every time you hear it, while “Lightning” is the most haunting paean to execution since Springsteen’s Nebraska. The Lightning in question refers to the electric chair; this song, which builds in energy (like the juice), is delivered by the condemned man, and is perhaps the most oddly joyous speech given by a death-row inmate as any you’ll hear. It’s also exquisitely beautiful.

It is this gorgeous juxtaposition that makes Eric Church something special and also representative of modern country; these folks are highly skilled craftspeople when it comes to songwriting and careful delivery.

This can also be heard on the title track of his second album, Carolina, in which Church lets his voice howl out a coda of grace and pleading beauty to his home state. But the album has its share of gritty old-school material too: “Smoke A Little Smoke,” a recent hit, lays down the rules for what it takes to be a good ole boy. This is where you can also find his first hit, “Love Your Love The Most.”

The opening licks are enough to draw you in, and the list of things he loves keeps you hooked. This album is so good that you could hit any song with a dart thrown blind and come up with a winner. Listen to "Those I've Loved" to get a good idea what this guy is up to. 

Church’s latest EP is a four-track gem titled Caldwell County. It’s a taste to keep things fresh for the crowds who will try their damndest to drown him out with whistles and cheers when he takes the stage this summer. In his trademark baseball cap and aviator shades he exudes an ebullient sexiness that is completely tamed during interviews where he appears humble and quite shy. He's also very naughty: check out the video playing on his YouTube channel promoting his win at this year's ACMs: "Looking For A Happy Ending." (Yep)

It will be interesting to see him opening for Toby Keith this summer; I fancy the audiences will be there just as much for one as the other.

Eric Church's website

More Modern Country Boys (Check ‘em out):

Jason Aldean

Blake Shelton

Justin Moore

Chris Young

Dierks Bentley

Billy Currington

Brad Paisley

Tim McGraw

Trace Adkins

Keith Urban

Kenny Chesney

Ryan Bingham