Ever since he got booted off the Rascal Flatts tour in 2006 for playing too long, Eric Church has been country music’s middle finger, upending the way things are done in Nashville with both his albums and his live show. His new record Heart & Soul is a wildly ambitious triple album — one titled Heart , one & , and one Soul — that he wrote and recorded in the mountains of North Carolina with longtime producer Jay Joyce and an army of trusted songwriters. Instead of a studio, he commandeered a restaurant and challenged himself to write and record a song a day. The result is an urgent, seat-of-your-pants record, with songs that salute Church’s fans (“Through My Ray-Bans”), celebrate his rebel image (“Lone Wolf”), and bite the hand that feeds him (“Stick That in Your Country Song”). After reinventing the country music tour in 2019 by doing away with opening acts, playing three-hour gigs, and shuffling the set list from night to night, Church is determined to be one of … [Read more...] about Eric Church on Why Music Is Going to Save Us