- Country musician and songwriter born Kenneth Eric Church in 1977 in Granite Falls North Carolina.
- Church bought a guitar at the age of 13, and began writing songs. By senior year of high school, he was playing Jimmy Buffett songs in dive bars in North Carolina. After graduating from college, he moved to Nashville to pursue a music career.
- By 2005, he was writing songs for other country artists. He started working with producers to help him with his solo career. Initially, the record companies were not interested, but after he wrote and demoed Lightning, Capitol Nashville signed him.
- His first album, Sinners Like Me, was released in 2006. Four singles were released – 3 hit the top 20 Country Songs chart – How ‘Bout You, Two Pink Lines and Guys Like Me.
- He kept up the momentum. His next 3 albums each sold over 1 million copies, and the 2011 album Chief and the 2014 album The Outsiders both peaked at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart, showing crossover success outside of the country music genre. Two songs hit #1 on the Country Songs chart – Drink In My Hand and Springsteen. Springsteen makes numerous references to Church’s idol Bruce Springsteen, but the song actually is about teenage romance. Rolling Stone ranks it #58 on their list of the Greatest Country Songs of All Time.
- He also scored a #1 country hit with a duet sung with Keith Urban, Raise ‘Em Up.
- Church has been nominated 7 times for Grammy awards, but he has yet to win one.
- Eric Church is a strong player in the current world of country music. His songs are cleanly produced, containing classic country harmonies. He mixes songs with a modern country rock/pop sound with other songs that have a more traditional country sound. His best selling single from his most recent album is called Record Year. Being a lover of vinyl records, I love the song – it tells the story of his girlfriend leaving him, and he deals with it by renewing his love affair with his 3 foot stack of vinyl records: “…since you had to walk on outta here, I’ve been havin’ a Record Year.” Here’s the video.