Eric Church
photo: townsquare media · cc by 2.0 ↗Eric Church is a North Carolina-raised singer-songwriter whose outlaw-leaning, arena-rock-scaled country made him one of Nashville's defining voices of the 2010s, from 2011's Chief through 2014's The Outsiders. Equally versed in honky-tonk tradition and hard rock volume — he cites Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings alongside Metallica and AC/DC — Church built a reputation as country's most restless formal experimenter. Morgan Wallen has said discovering Church's early albums as a teenager was what got him into country music in the first place.
Church has named Merle Haggard among his foundational country influences, and paid direct tribute with 'Pledge Allegiance to the Hag' — a song that name-checks Haggard's outlaw persona and Bakersfield twang.
listen forSet Haggard's 'Mama Tried' (1968) next to Church's 'Pledge Allegiance to the Hag' (2009) — both run on a lean, guitar-forward honky-tonk band and a narrator who's unapologetic about a hard-living past.
Church has said he 'directly ripped' his practice of never repeating a setlist from Springsteen's marathon, storytelling-driven shows, and he named a song after him.
listen for'Born to Run' (1975) and Church's own 'Springsteen' (2012) both chase the same widescreen, arena-rock build — Church's song is literally his attempt to bottle the feeling of hearing Springsteen for the first time.
Waylon Jennings is one of the outlaw-country names Church regularly cites, and the loose, boot-scuffed grit of Jennings' delivery runs through Church's own early honky-tonk material.
listen forListen for the shared rough-hewn, talking-blues phrasing between Jennings' 'Luckenbach, Texas' (1977) and Church's 'These Boots' (2006) — both let the vocal sit behind the beat in that unhurried outlaw drawl.