Eric Church, one of country music’s most fearless storytellers, marks another ambitious and sonically rich chapter in his groundbreaking career with Evangeline vs. The Machine, available everywhere on May 2. Pre-order/pre-save HERE.
A self-proclaimed “album artist,” Church has always championed the power of cohesive storytelling, and Evangeline vs. The Machine is no exception. “An album is a snapshot in time that lasts for all time,” Church shares of the creative approach behind the highly-anticipated new project. “I believe in that time-tested tradition of making records that live and breathe as one piece of art – I think it’s important.”
“I’ve always let creativity be the muse. It’s been a compass for me,” he adds. “The people that I look up to in my career and the kind of musicians I gravitate to never did what I thought they were going to do next – and I love them for it. I never want our fans to get an album and go, ‘Oh, that’s like Chief or that’s like this.’ Painstakingly, I lose sleep at night to try to make sure that whatever we do creatively, they go, ‘Wow, that’s not what I thought.’ I think that’s my job as an artist.”
Lead single “Hands Of Time,” impacting Country radio on March 24, is available now as a preview of that endeavor. “As I get older, I’m looking for things that make me feel not as old,” Church explains of the track. “I can honestly say that when I hear music or see something from my past, I feel like I did then; I relate to what it was then. I really believe that a good way to handle that is with music.”
Among the other songs featured on the album is “Darkest Hour,” released ahead of the project to support relief efforts following the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene in September 2024, with all of Church’s publishing royalties donated to provide ongoing funds in support of a more resilient future for his home state of North Carolina. “That song had the chance to change things—it already has,” Church reflects. “The greatest concert I’ve ever played was the Concert for Carolina – that’s the greatest thing I’ve been involved with. This song played a big part of that night and is a rallying cry for the people there that still need a lot of help. As a person who writes and performs a song, seeing it truly impact people’s lives is the greatest thing you can hope to accomplish.”
Also included is “Johnny,” a soul-stirring reinterpretation inspired by “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” and the Covenant School tragedy, which Church has previewed in limited settings at both his Chief’s To Beat The Devil residency and the recent Country Radio Seminar, leaving audiences in awe. “About a year ago, we had a shooting here in Nashville at the Covenant School,” he explained when introducing the song during CRS. “Where my kids go to school, my two boys, is about a mile from that school. I will tell you something, the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life – parent or otherwise – is dropping 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, as I was pulling out, Charlie Daniels was playing, ‘The Devil Went Down to Georgia.’ I remember thinking, man, we could use Johnny right now, because the Devil’s not in Georgia, he’s everywhere. I went home and wrote ‘Johnny’.”
With such inspired tracks shaping the forthcoming Evangeline vs. The Machine – his first new album since 2021’s Heart & Soul trilogy – Church continues his legacy of redefining modern country music on his own terms.
