"People talk about Dylan going electric at Newport, but in the moment that didn't go well for Dylan. He was booed — people threw s—. But now that’s a paradigm shift, right? You and I are going, 'F—, I wish I was there.'"(Eric Church / Los Angeles Times, Mai 2nd, 2025)
When Eric Church headlined the legendary Stagecoach Festival in California in April of 2024, many fans felt offended. So much so that many began leaving the audience after just 15 minutes. "Eric Church is a legend, but he hasn’t gotten off the stool and most songs are covers with the choir," journalist Anastassia Olmos wrote on her X-account. "This isn't what we came for."
What had happened? Instead of his usual show featuring his hits, Eric Church had skipped his band and instead brought a 16-person gospel choir to accompany him. He performed covers of Leonard Cohen ('Hallelujah'), Al Green ('Take Me to the River'), and Snoop Dogg ('Gin and Juice'), as well as gospel standards like 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot' and 'Amazing Grace'.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times from May 2025, Eric Church still stands by his performance a year later: "I kind of knew going in [that] this is probably not the place for this show. You know there's gonna be 30,000 TikTokers out there on people's shoulders trying to take pictures of themselves. But I did it because it was the biggest megaphone, and it would get the biggest reaction."
It was a first insight into the music that had been on his mind for some time.
"[Jazz musician] Trombone Shorty came and played a show with me in New Orleans on the
Gather Again tour [in 2022], 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," Eric Church told the Los Angeles Times. "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', but I had never done it like
that. It was a Black New Orleans band with horns and background singers
and a janky New Orleans
violin. 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."
Eric Church released the new record on May 2, 2025, under the cryptic title "Evangeline vs. The Machine". It is his first official project with new music since 2021. With only 8 songs and a length of just under 36 minutes, it represents a stark contrast to the current trend of more is better.
The Jay Joyce -produced project almost turned out to be even shorter, as Eric Church told Variety: "We had initially thought the record was gonna be six songs. We went back through it, and I was like, 'Man, I feel like it's a little serious. There's no smile in the album. There's no relief from the tension, from the drama'. So we added 'Hands of Time' and we added 'Rocket's White Lincoln'."
The musical result of the project is certainly a bit like the performance at the Stagecoach Festival from 2024: it will leave many fans disappointed and perplexed, as it sounds so completely different and unfamiliar with its strings, brass and choirs.
At music.apple.com, Eric Church talks about the album's atmosphere: "There's tension that strings and vocals provide that you can't get from a
guitar, you can't get from a keyboard. They can create
drama. And a lot of this record has drama. I think that it sounds like a movie soundtrack."
When Garth Brooks released his comeback album in 2014 , it had a similar title with "Man Against Machine". It was meant to represent the theme of an artist having to relearn how to re-assert himselves against the machine of the music industry after a 14-year hiatus: Careful calculations, details drawn down to design. Is it really for the better or a better bottom line?
But while Garth Brooks only packaged the topic in the title song of the album, which he wrote together with Jenny Yates and Larry Bastian, Eric Church, together with Jay Joyce, turned it into a complete concept album, elevating the topic beyond only looking at the music industry.
At gardenandgun.com, he talks about the motivation and meaning of the album title: "My kids are thirteen and ten, and they’re on their iPads or their phones, and everything’s very machine-driven. Evangeline is the muse, so it’s a creative element against the machine. The biggest thing to me, and to do a record like this, in this time, with what’s out there, is creativity. I’m fighting against the machine to get it out."
'Bleed On Paper' written by Casey Beathard, Tucker Beathard, and Monty Criswell, talks about this struggle. It's the heart and soul of a songwriter being put on paper.
Keep on singing what I know,
between a minor and a major.
Keep pulling at the bittersweet,
and if it ain't the latest flavor.
Little bit of devil, little bit of savior,
whole lotta life cuttin' like a razor.
With some blue ink, a blank page
and an old six string, I bleed on paper.
(Bleed On Paper / Casey Beathard, Tucker Beathard und Monty
Criswell)
During the Country Radio Seminar (CRS) in Nashville in February 2025, Eric Church spoke about the experiences that had so painfully shaped him in recent years: "I played in Vegas on a Friday night, and the following night was the worst mass shooting in US history. I lost a lot of fans there, and it broke me in a lot of ways."
"About a year ago, we had a shooting here in Nashville at the Covenant School. Where my kids go to school is about a mile from that school. [Perhaps] the hardest thing I've ever done in my life was to drop them off at that school the day after the shooting and watching them walk inside. I sat in the parking lot for a long time."
"And as fate would have it, Charlie Daniels' 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia' came on the radio, and I remember thinking, 'Man, we could use Johnny right now, because the Devil's not in Georgia, he's everywhere."
This resulted in the core element of the album, the song 'Johnny', named after the heroic character Johnny from the song 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia'.
watching my boys play,
of how different my life was when I was their age.
Now machines control the people,
and the people shoot at kids.
I shutter to think about what the next thing is.
'Darkest Hour', with its hopeful message, is dedicated to the victims of Hurricane Helene, but it divides opinion with its slightly missed attempt at conveying emotions through a falsetto voice.
'Storm In Their Blood' speaks of people who are sometimes loud and bold, while 'Evangeline' symbolizes the artistic antithesis of the machine. The Greek letter Sigma on the album cover is likely a visual reference to the first letter in Evangeline, which, when tilted sideways, becomes the M in machine. Just as it is animated on apple.music.
The lighthearted 'Rocket's White Lincoln' written by Eric Church himself, about a cruising night in a white Lincoln, is thematically off, as it was added to the project later on. Possibly a concession to the label to make it a future radio single.
The current single, 'Hands of Time' fits in somewhat better, addressing the omnipresent theme of transience. Reminiscences of memories framed by music make us painfully aware that the hands of time cannot be halted.
The album ends darkly again, with an unexpected cover version of the Tom Waits song 'Clap Hand'.
"Evangeline vs. The Machine" is a surprisingly bold project by Eric Church, positioning itself far off mainstream, likely disappointing some fans. But it confirms the artist Eric Church, who isn't seeking commercial success with this album, but rather has set a different goal for it:
"[Today everyone] cuts a bunch
of songs and records are 35 songs long, but it’s hard to get a vibe. I’ve been in this 20 years and have had a bunch of records, and
this time I wanted to have a vibe, like a [Brian Wilson / Beach Boys album] 'Pet Sounds” kind of deal,
where it just has a thing. [Producer] Jay [Joyce] and I both were like, 'This may or may not work, but we want to lean into that.'"
Comments
Post a Comment