Names and faces

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Eric Church isn’t sure what reaction he’ll get when he plays his new single, the hard-rock anthem “The Outsiders,” on Wednesday night during the Country Music Association Awards. It’s the first time he’ll play the song in front of the Music Row “establishment” and millions of fans who don’t follow him, and he’ll be pushing mainstream country music’s edge quite a bit further than folks are used to. “Could be crowd-surfing, could be mosh pits,” Church said. “They could be throwing cans at me.” The song is the title cut and first single from Church’s fourth album, The Outsiders, which is set for release Feb. 11. Church’s last album, Chief, won the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music album of the year awards, sold 1.5 million copies and changed his career. The album’s success moved him from promising songwriter to arena-filling star. He did it by tapping into the growing hunger for hard-rock sounds in country. Instead of touring extensively this summer, the 36-year-old North Carolina native, who’s up for two awards Wednesday, including male vocalist of the year, decided to focus on recording. He enlisted longtime producer Jay Joyce again and wrote 121 songs for consideration. They cut that down to the 11 or 12 that will appear on the new album, brought in Church’s band and started to bounce ideas off each other - not at all the way the typical country album is recorded.

The Country Music Association Awards aren’t until Wednesday, but Taylor Swift is already a winner. The Country Music Association will present Swift with its Pinnacle Award, given to an artist who has achieved worldwide success and recognition that’s unique to country music. Garth Brooks is the only other performer to win the award. It was created in 2005. Swift is the top nominee at Wednesday’s awards, airing live at 7 p.m. Central on ABC from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. She’s got six nominations along with Kacey Musgraves and is going for a third entertainer of the year win. Swift will perform on the awards show with Alison Krauss, Vince Gill, Sam Bush, Edgar Meyer and Eric Darken.

Front Section, Pages 2 on 11/05/2013