Tom's Country View

On April 11th, 2014, Eric Church announced ' The Outsiders World Tour ', kicking off in September 2014, with presales starting in May. The tour will supposedly feature a high tech design and a 360 degree view of the entertainer and his band. Supporting acts will be Dwight Yoakam, Brothers Osborne, Brandy Clark and rock band Halestorme for select dates. Eric Church is one of the hottest country acts currently, even though he incorporates a lot of musical elements, which make him also attractive to non-country audiences; right-on with the 'Outsiders'-theme of his current, excellent album. So it is no wonder, that everybody wants to see him live (in particular when his live show has been hailed by Billboard Magazine and he has even been invited to alternative rock-, rap- and punk-festival Lollapalooza in 2013). And a World Tour clearly displays his immensely grown status in the world of music. Especially since country artists rarely ever leave the U...

" I have seen the morning burning golden on the mountains in the skies,  Achin' with the feelin' of the freedom of an eagle when she flies ... " When I first heard these lines on a (now lost and almost forgotten) cassette tape some 30 years ago, I was grabbed by the picture these words were painting in my mind. The coarse voice singing them was so different from anything that I heard heard before and they seemed such a perfect fit to the rough-looking, bearded guy with those steel-blue eyes on the cover of the tape. As this was long before the internet and the cassette tape did not hold much more information other than the track listing, it took a while to find out that the painter of this sonic picture ("Loving Her Was Easier [Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again]") was Kris Kristofferson . Little did I know at that time, that this would be the beginning of a long love-affair and fascination with unique voices and music with great lyri...