Eric Church says fans can expect never-before-heard songs and personal stories when he debuts his new live show, “Eric Church: To Beat the Devil,” next month at Chief's, his bar in Nashville and its live scene.
“It will be a unique performance in which I will participate. There are some funny things. There's some stuff in there that I've never said,” says Church Rolling rock. “Fans can walk out of there, 'I'm going to hear something that no one else in this room is ever going to hear.'
The 19-show residency begins April 5, which is also Chief's opening night, and runs through early June in the venue's intimate 350-seat theater. Coincidentally, “To Beat the Devil” — named after a Kris Kristofferson song — wraps up with three concerts during CMA Fest weekend, June 7-9. (Church's freewheeling, musically adventurous set at last year's CMA Fest polarized fans, leaving him “shocked” by the reaction.)
Church says the idea for the residency was partly inspired by his admiration for Bruce Springsteen's Broadway production. The country singer-songwriter attended a show in New York and was struck by Springsteen's honesty when he told the audience that much of what he wrote about racing cars and working in factories was fictional, not based on experience.
“I remember thinking, 'Man, it would be great to be on stage with people who helped you make this thing and really have a level of honesty with them that I can't have on stage with my normal stuff,'” he says. . Church, who plans to speak on stage to play the Route 91 festival in Las Vegas shortly before a mass shooting, as well as the death of his brother Brandon in 2018. “I want to talk about things that I've intentionally not talked about never in interviews. But I can do that in this place, because it's a safe space.”
The theater inside Chief's looks like a miniature Ryman Auditorium, the historic Nashville venue a few blocks west. Church designed his venue, which occupies two stories of the Chief, as a ticketed performance venue for artists who want to give fans a show that differs from their big concerts. “Acoustically, it's all wood, so it's built for that,” says Church. “Whether it's a background for an older artist, or for up-and-coming artists to come and play this venue in downtown Nashville, in the heart of everything.”
Last summer, Church, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's 2023 Artist-in-Residence, performed two special concerts at the Hall's CMA Theater. While those shows touched all aspects of his career, he says they're different animals compared to what he'll be doing during “To Beat the Devil.”
“The chronological part of the Hall of Fame will be some aspect of that. But the difference is that I'll be able to talk about what was going on in my life at the time I wrote the song,” he says, adding, “There will be songs played for this show that have never been released. .”
Church's last studio release was 2021's three-part album Heart & Soul. He says he is currently writing new material, but has yet to record.
“I'm a little confused about where we are as a format right now. I'm more in an instrumental mode, as you'll hear with the Chief's show: a guy and a guitar, and the stories about it. That's not what's happening right now with a lot of what you're hearing [in Nashville],” he says. “So I'm trying to either work it out internally or just do what I'm going to do anyway — and see if it all follows through.”
tickets for “Eric Church: To Beat the Devil” will be available first to its premium members Church Choir fan club through registration system. Fans can register on March 12th and, if selected, have the opportunity to purchase tickets on March 20th. A public pre-sale starts on March 22 if tickets are still available. All-inclusive prices range from $99 to $499, with a portion of each ticket sold going to the singer's charity, Chief Cares. Last week, each of the 40,000 or so premium members of Church's fan club received an act for a physical (and virtual brick) in his Nashville bar, part of Church's campaign to create a new kind of artist-fan community.
“Eric Church: To Beat the Devil” air dates.
Friday April 5th
Wednesday, April 17
Thursday, April 18
Monday, April 29
Tuesday, April 30
Wednesday May 1st
Tuesday, May 7
Wednesday, May 8
Friday, May 10
Saturday, May 11
Tuesday, May 14
Wednesday, May 15
Friday, May 17
Tuesday, May 21
Wednesday, May 22
Thursday, June 6
Friday June 7th
Saturday, June 8
Sunday, June 9
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