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Eric Church revealed new details about his next album as he debuted the project’s lead single on Thursday (March 20).
The powerhouse country star, hailed one of the genre’s “most fearless storytellers,” released “Hands Of Time” as he shared new information about the upcoming record, Evangeline vs. The Machine. The album “marks another ambitious and sonically rich chapter in his groundbreaking career,” and “continues his legacy of redefining modern country music on his own terms,” per a press release announcing Church’s next chapter.
“As I get older, I’m looking for things that make me feel not as old,” Church said in a statement of his newest anthem. “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.”
“I’ve always let creativity be the muse. It’s been a compass for me,” he said of the Jay Joyce-produced album. “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.”
Evangeline vs. The Machine is Church’s latest project since his Heart & Soul triple album made its debut in 2021. “Hands Of Time” arrives after “Darkest Hour,” Church’s first solo release in more than three years. He delivered the ballad as a tribute to his home state, North Carolina, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, and signed over publishing royalties to help those impacted by the devastation. Church teamed up with fellow North Carolina-born country star Luke Combs to host a star-studded benefit show, Concert for Carolina, which raised more than $24.5 million, Combs confirmed the day after the event. Church hailed Concert for Carolina “the greatest concert I’ve ever played,” and considers “Darkest Hour” “a rallying cry for the people there that still need a lot of help.”
“Darkest Hour” appears on Church’s upcoming 8-track album along with “Johnny,” described as “a soul-stirring reinterpretation inspired by ‘The Devil Went Down to Georgia’ and the Covenant School tragedy,” per the release. Church previewed the song at his residency he hosted to mark the opening of his bar in Nashville, Tennessee, and he previewed it at the recent Country Radio Seminar. Church shared at CRS that his two sons go to school “about a mile” from Covenant, and “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’.”
Evangeline vs. The Machine will arrive on May 2. See the full track list below, and listen to “Hands Of Time” here:
1. Hands Of Time (Eric Church, Scooter Carusoe)
2. Bleed On Paper (Tucker Beathard, Casey Beathard, Monty Criswell)
3. Johnny (Eric Church, Luke Laird, Brett Warren)
4. Storm In Their Blood (Eric Church)
5. Darkest Hour (Eric Church)
6. Evangeline (Eric Church, Luke Laird, Barry Dean)
7. Rocket’s White Lincoln (Eric Church)
8. Clap Hands (Tom Waits)
