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Eric Church On Difficulty Of Curating ‘Evangeline vs. The Machine’ Tracklist: “Biggest Challenge Of This Album”
We’re learning more and more about Evangeline vs. The Machine as we get closer to it’s May 2 release date.
Eric Church and his marketing team have done a tremendous job of teasing the project ever since they dropped a cryptic video back in the middle of March. Slowly but surely, the Chief has revealed that a new project was on the way, and the details keep coming in the form of photos, short interview clips, and exciting announcements like the release of his single “Hands of Time,” or his three-night run at the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheater.
For fans of Church (some call themselves a member of the “Church Choir”) that have been asking questions about the eight-song track list, the most information we’ve gotten thus far came in the form of a short video posted onto Eric’s socials. We already knew the writing credits for each song, but the Chief explained himself how and why the eight songs came together to form Evangeline vs. The Machine:
“With picking the songs on this album, I mean… it varies. There’s a number of songs that I wrote by myself. There’s a number of songs I wrote with co-writers. There’s some songs I didn’t write. And I think I was looking for what song would fit the mood and temperament of the room I was in with the instrumentation. And that’s not every song, you know?
There’s a lot of songs that are great songs that we thought about for this project and (they) just didn’t fit what we had in the room. I think that was maybe the biggest challenge of this album, was finding song that fit what I want to do creatively but also fit what the room could do creatively. I think that the marrying of that was where the real thought process went in on this album.”
Hear Eric talk about how he built the tracklist for Evangeline vs. The Machine — finding the songs that not only matched his creative vision, but also fit the vibe and soul of the room where it all came to life. pic.twitter.com/QKOn1eka37
— Eric Church (@ericchurch) April 14, 2025
Love the attention to detail, and I expect nothing less from Eric Church at this point.
Sounds to me like a number of great songs were left on the cutting room floor, which begs the question… I wonder if we’ll see the rest in the form of a double album? As great as that would be, for now we only know with 100% certainty that the following songs will be included in the project that will be here before we know it:
Evangeline vs. The Machine Track List
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)
Out of all the songs that we’ve already gotten to hear from the upcoming album, the one that I’m most looking forward to having as a studio recording is “Johnny.” I was fortunate enough to hear him play it live during his To Beat the Devil residency at his Nashville bar, Chief’s, and it’s profoundly moving.
Eric revealed that the song was actually written the day after the tragic shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School when he performed it publicly for the first time at CRS:
“About a year ago we had a shooting here in Nashville and where my kids go to school, is about a mile from that school. And I’m gonna 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 that shooting, and watching them walk inside.
And I sat in the parking lot for a long time, and as fate would have it Charlie Daniels was playing “The Devil Went Down To Georgia” And I remember thinking, ‘Man, we could use Johnny right now’ because the Devil is not in Georgia. He is everywhere, and I went home and wrote ‘Johnny.’”
@bonitawallace8 @Eric Church with a moving performance of “Johnny” with a powerful speech at @Ryman. #ericchurch #ericchurchmusic #nashville #nashvilletennessee #crs ♬ original sound – Bonita
The post Eric Church On Difficulty Of Curating ‘Evangeline vs. The Machine’ Tracklist: “Biggest Challenge Of This Album” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.