Get to Church on time, country star tells his fans

Eric Church fans will get a double dose of the country crooner on his latest tour stop, and they'd better not plan on showing up fashionably late.

For his Holdin' My Own Tour, which pulls into North Little Rock's Verizon Arena on Saturday, the Nashville outlaw is traveling without an opening act and will perform two sets on his own separated by an intermission.

"Fans must be in their seats by 8 p.m. sharp ... to catch a memorable opening moment by Church," according to publicity materials for the tour.

The 39-year-old Church, who last visited Verizon Arena in 2014 headlining his Outsiders tour, is on the road in support of his fifth studio album, 2015's Mr. Misunderstood.

The record may be the only major-label effort out of Nashville that name drops Elvis Costello, Jeff Tweedy, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Jackson Pollock, which Church does on the title cut, a song about a misfit dreaming of stardom and looking for a place to belong. Another track, "Kill a Word," is an anti-hate ballad featuring backing vocals from the amazing Rhiannon Giddens of Carolina Chocolate Drops.

The song "Holdin' My Own," which gives the tour its title, is a tender, midtempo reflection of finding peace with family and music.

The album is a stellar example of how the North Carolina-born Church can defy mainstream country expectations, although he has plenty of songs about drinking beer on tailgates at the lake or cruising down back roads in his Jeep. He's an artist with one boot on the outlaw side and one in the Top 40.

It works. He has won five Academy of Country Music awards and three Country Music Association awards -- including album of the year for Mr. Misunderstood.

Church's debut album, Sinners Like Me, was released in 2006 and featured a guest appearance by Merle Haggard on "Pledge Allegiance to the Hag."

In a review, slantmagazine.com said Church "brings a degree of honesty and more than a few genuinely clever turns-of-phrase to his songwriting, giving his debut album far more meat than some of his contemporaries could hope to match."

Carolina followed in 2009 and featured "Smoke a Little Smoke," Church's ode to his and Willie Nelson's favorite recreational drug.

The song "Springsteen," about falling in love at a Bruce Springsteen concert, was the third single from the 2011 album Chief and became Church's first No. 1 single (he has seven so far).

The Outsiders, released in 2011, was his fourth album and spawned the hits "Give Me Back My Hometown," "Cold One," "Wrecking Ball," "Talladega" and the title track.

If early reviews of the current tour are any indication, fans can expect to get their money's worth at Saturday's show, which will feature a 360-degree stage.

Church "slayed the crowd with enthusiasm, endurance and a cavalcade of sensitive ballads and party tunes," wrote John Bream in the Minneapolis Star Tribune about Church's three-hour-plus Jan. 20 concert in front of 19,000 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

Weekend on 02/02/2017