Eric Church

If you're looking for music that doesn't take sides, you're looking for love in all the wrong places. Eric Church stands by his religious and political convictions with a chip on his shoulder, a drawl in his tone, a guitar in his hand and a bottle in his mouth. His updated take on neo-traditionalist country leans hard on the ballad, but his lyrics balance sin and redemption just like the city of Nashville, which unabashedly places strip bars and chapels right next door to each other.

This nasally North Carolinian's debut could be the literary country album of the year. In the
opener, "Before She Does," a man keen on low taxes, barstool beer and his dogs calculates
that Jesus will return sooner than his girlfriend. The title song and "How 'Bout You" float
notions of a whiskey-drinking, clock-punching aristocracy. In "Two Pink Lines," an
unmarried couple sweat, not during sex but later, during a hospital pregnancy t... More >