Anyone still thinking about Eric Church's performance during New Year's Eve Live: Nashville's Big Bash? When it came time to shine a light on Music City on New Year's, all of the biggest stars in country music came to play. Luke Combs, Lainey Wilson, Miranda Lambert, Megan Moroney, Chris Stapleton, Jelly Roll, and Zach Top all had big roles in the five hour show, and Post Malone even stopped by to lend his recent country sound to the big night. Though the artist that stole the show, in my humble opinion, was none other than Eric Church. For my money, Eric Church has been one of the biggest figures in country music for the past two decades. No other artist has stuck to their guns like the Chief, and from his entry into the country music world with Sinners Like Me to his 2021 Heart & Soul project, he's been unapologetically himself. Obviously, Church had a lot of success in between those two projects. His 2011 Chief album turned the country singer into a bonafide country star, and his 2014's The Outsiders and 2015's Mr. Misunderstood were incredible follow ups. Kind of crazy to think that we are already approaching the 10 year anniversary of Mr. Misunderstood. If you don't count Church's latest single "Darkest Hour," which the North Carolina native released - and donated to his home state - in response to the devastating impacts of Hurricane Helene, it's been a while since the Chief has released new music. That's probably partially due to the country star opening up his downtown Nashville bar Chief's in April of 2024, which was then followed up by his 2024 "To Beat The Devil" residency at his very own spot on Broadway. Whether you saw Eric Church during his residency, or during his somewhat controversial set at Stagecoach, it's clear that he's experimenting with a new sound. The same old strumming and stellar voice from Church is still there, but he's starting to get into playing alongside a choir and orchestra, which was on full display during his performance that was included in Nashville's Big Bash. Church - as he has often done during his storied career - decided to throw the national audience a bit of a curveball with his performance. The talented artist could have hand picked any one of his number one hits to play, but he instead went with a medley of Al Green's "Take Me To The River" and his 2009 hit "Smoke A Little Smoke." You'll likely recognize "Take Me To The River" one way or another, since it was also popularized by the rock band known as the Talking Heads. Eric Church had his backing choir spread out all throughout 500-person music venue, which made for a remarkable audio and visual experience. And he did a tremendous job working together the two songs that don't actually sound all that much the same. Just a testament to the genius of his work, and why wouldn't he do something like that? After all, he was technically playing at his "home field" of Chief's. Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oleh1q3qZ4o&t=32s