Eric Church had a big week at CMA Music Festival in Nashville last week, which included hanging out with his fan club, the Church Choir members, at a secret party and raising more than $20,000 for his Chief Cares charity fund with his The Outsiders pop-up stores which offered some rare merchandise normally only offered at his concerts.
Eric capped a week of special performances on Sunday (June 14th) night at the CMA Music Festival at LP Field where he started his set with Little Feat’s “Sailin’ Shoes” and finished the night with a surprise performance during Keith Urban‘s set of their shared Number One hit, “Raise ‘Em Up.”
The Little Feat cover was part tribute to his favorite band and part history lesson for fans who may not know of that rock group’s impact on modern country music and Eric’s own sound.
He said, “I’m a huge Lowell George fan (Little Feat’s late guitarist). There are two huge influences on my life, The Band and Levon Helm, and Lowell George is my favorite guitar player ever. He’s just my guy. I grew up on those records. To me, musically that’s the DNA of who I am and that’s the DNA currently of what country music should be.”
The week of memorable performances started Wednesday (June 10th) night when Eric performed his latest single, “Like a Wrecking Ball,” during the CMT Music Awards. The performance will be immortalized as the music video, which premieres on CMT tomorrow (Wednesday, June 17th).
Later that night, Eric joined Marty Stuart at The Ryman for his annual Late Night Jam. There he played The Band’s “The Weight” for fans and caught fans by surprise by doing a cover ofLittle Big Town’s “Girl Crush” with Karen Fairchild and Phillip Sweet along with special guests Chris and Morgane Stapleton.
Eric will resume The Outsiders World tour on June 20th at the Black Diamond Harley-Davidson in Marion, Illinois.
(The Pulse of Radio)
