Eric Church Performs One-of-a-Kind Concert: ‘Greatest Honor of My Life’

Eric Church is known for his musical surprises, and he was in for an epic surprise when the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum named him their 2023 Artist in Residence. For two nights, the intimate CMA Theater in Nashville would be his, but what would he do?

Throw out a wild and playful three-hour set, like he does on tour? Maybe include an expansive acoustic mix, like he did (for half an hour) at CMA Fest 2019? Or maybe drop a bunch of new music, like he did in 2015 with Mr. misunderstood?

In the end – unsurprisingly – Church decided to do something he’d never done before, and it was truly epic: a musical journey through his life and career in a setting that looked more like a living room than an 800-seat theater. (Or at least the living room where the six-member band and three backing singers regularly stop by.)

Eric Church’s rebellious spirit celebrated in new museum exhibition: see the highlights

During the 85-minute set, the 46-year-old artist didn’t say a word until he introduced his last song. Instead, he simply sat back, played his guitar and let 19 impeccably selected songs tell his story.

Dominating the back of the stage was a video screen framed by a colossal replica of a ’60s-style television, which served as narrator, identifying Church’s stages with audio and visual clips mostly drawn from his media coverage.

“Eric Church is the sellout of country music,” a news commentator’s voice concluded as Church, alone on stage, patiently played the opening notes on an acoustic guitar. “His songs are unfortunately being forgotten.”

Eric Church performs as artist-in-residence at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on August 29, 2023 in Nashville.

Jason Kempin/Getty

It was the kind of negative word he attracted, especially early in his career, and Church deftly refuted it, sailing through the persistently memorable “On the Road.” It’s a new song, debuted at a concert in North Carolina in August.

With his band’s guitarists and drummer joining him in a cluster over his left shoulder, Church then went back to square one, performing a token version of his 2006 debut single, “How ‘Bout You” — after a video intro that lamented, “It’s too bad Church’s debut sounds so anonymous.”

The point-and-counterpoint continued as Church plowed through “Carolina,” the title track from his 2009 sophomore album, and “Smoke a Little Smoke,” his controversial 2010 radio single, before reaching the breakout album cut from 2011 Main: “Country Music Jesus.” By now, of course, many devotees of his church choir consider that song a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The next five selections reflected Church’s vertical ascent to superstardom: “Springsteen” (from Main), “Talladega” and “Give Me Back My Hometown” (from 2014 Outsiders) and the title song of the album “Mr. Misunderstood” and “Record year” (also from Mr. misunderstood).

Eric Church performs as artist-in-residence at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on August 29, 2023 in Nashville.

Jason Kempin/Getty

But just when the night seemed headed for a greatest hits performance, Church turned the wheel to his real-life trials in recent years. The electronic narrator reminded the audience for the first time of his encounter with death from a blood clot in 2017.

“Doctors told him he needed emergency surgery at Duke University Hospital in Durham,” the video clip soberly reported, “because the vibrations from the helicopter might dislodge the clot. They gave him blood thinners and an ambulance for two and a half hours.”

Eric Church Reveals Birth Defect Blood Clot Almost Killed Him: ‘I Wanted To Die’

Church’s musical response, “A Man Who Was Gonna Die Young,” actually dates back to 2014 when he recorded his amazement at living to be 36 years old. This time, he updated the lyrics to reflect his current age: “I turned 46 this morning / and you only remember half of it / it’s a miracle you outlived Hank and Jesus.”

Church then handed over two more older and wiser picks from 2018 desperate man “Some of It” and “Monsters,” before facing what must be country music’s darkest day, the Route 91 Harvest Festival massacre in 2017. He played the Las Vegas event two nights before a lone gunman killed 60 concertgoers and injured more than 400. Three days after the shooting, the grieving artist debuted his haunting response, “Why Not Me,” before a dark Grand Ole Opry audience.

As he did that night, Church performed solo, accompanied by his own guitar, before a hushed theater crowd. Then, as he played the last notes, he rose from his chair and inexplicably wandered off the stage. Just moments later, perhaps Church’s biggest shocker of the night emerged from the shadows: Country Music Hall of Famer Vince Gill, who took the stage to sing his soulful anthem, “Go Rest High on That Mountain.”

Vince Gill performs on stage for Eric Church as Artist in Residence at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on August 29, 2023 in Nashville.

Jason Kempin/Getty

The video made it clear that Gill was paying Church’s tribute to his younger brother Brandon, who died in 2018 at the age of 36 as a result of chronic alcoholism.

Sam Church has never dealt with loss in a song, and giving in to the spotlight seemed as selfless as it was inspired. Indeed, the label mates are bound by grief – Gill lost his own brother too soon and began writing a song of grief and comfort soon after Bob Gill’s death in 1993. Doubtless somewhere offstage, Church broke down in tears, along with the rest of the audience.

After Gill exited to a standing ovation, Church reappeared with the full band to perform the vital “Never Break Heart”: “Go on, hurt, heart / Live and let you learn, heart.” That song, along with the next selection, “Through My Ray-Bans,” appeared on Church’s latest album, 2021’s three-disc Heart & Soul.

Vince Gill and Eric Church attend Eric Church’s Artist in Residence performance at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on August 29, 2023 in Nashville.

Jason Kempin/Getty

Who is this unmasked man? Without his trademarks, Eric Church talks career, driving and that outlaw image

That’s when Church finally spoke, calling the residency “the greatest honor of my life.”

“All you’ve seen tonight is who we are,” he told the crowd, “and that, unbelievably, is how we got into this room.”

Still, Church had another surprise: After years of resisting, he said, he was finally ready to declare that his all-time favorite song, “Holdin’ My Own,” had been cut Mr. misunderstood. Before he brought her out, he made sure to mention that his wife Katherine, to whom he has been married for 13 years, and their two sons, Boone, 11, and Hawk, 8, were there to hear her.

And then he leaned into the lyrics: “Until I run out of time / I’ll spend the rest of my time / with one arm around my baby / and one arm around my boys.”

Perhaps it was telling that of all the labels that were submitted during the evening – outsider, boundary pusher, icon and iconoclast – Church’s final speech left the audience with the impression of a seasoned man, a family man and most of all, a grateful man.

Eric Church performs as artist-in-residence at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on August 29, 2023 in Nashville.

Jason Kempin/Getty

The show, which Church repeated the following night, was described by veteran music journalist Robert K. Oermann in his introduction as something Church and his band “never did… and probably never will again.”

But Church has said in recent interviews that he’s planning intimate shows at the 470-capacity showroom at Chief’s, his Nashville bar set to open by the end of the year, and this residency has proven he’s perfectly capable of similar surprises to come.

The church donated his performances to the museum; all proceeds support its educational mission. The two concerts are organized in conjunction with the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum exhibit, “Eric Church: Country Heart, Restless Soul,” open through June 2024.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education