By Adam Lucas

 

GREENVILLE, S.C.—Early in Friday night’s three-hour set at Bon Secours Wellness Arena, Eric Church paused and looked behind him.

                  

“These people behind me,” he said, gesturing to the nearly two dozen people who have been on stage throughout the Free the Machine tour, “are the people who make this all go.”

                  

That’s going to be an important takeaway when this tour—sadly—ends next weekend in Florida. Church sold the tickets. It’s his face on the t-shirts. But looking back on this tour in a couple years is going to mean remembering all the people who made it so unexpectedly diverse.

                  

Evan Cobb plays a saxophone solo that leads into “Johnny” every night. Michelle McClary has a French horn solo during “Evangeline.” 

                  

Think about that for a second. Fifteen thousand people bought tickets and put on their boots and got a babysitter to go see Eric Fucking Church and then spent part of their night listening to Michelle McClary play the French horn. Ain’t music great?

                  

And who knows? Maybe somewhere in the crowd we made another French horn convert to join Michelle and…none other than Ashley McBryde, who opened the evening in Greenville and then watched Church’s show from side stage. Earlier in the night, after six months of watching her do it, I asked McClary why she repeatedly turns the horn over when she’s not playing. Her answer: “You have to avoid condensation building up inside of it, because then it sounds a little gargly.”

                  

As McBryde watched, she pointed out McClary doing that spinning motion. This was my chance to show off my knowledge! “It’s to prevent condensation,” I said, thinking I sounded extremely wise.

                  

Well, it turns out that McBryde—this is an actual fact—went to Arkansas State on a French horn scholarship, which means she doesn’t need some dumbass trying to explain French horn protocol to her. Fortunately, she was too kind to tell me she didn’t need my brass wisdom. And in the way that only someone who is one of the best songwriters in the genre can do, she perfectly explained what McClary was doing.

                  

“She is dumping,” McBryde said, “the spit.”

                  

If that turns into a song title that goes to number-one, just remember it started in Greenville. 

                  

“These people are the best in the world at what they do,” Church said. And when Eleonore Denig, Laura Epling, Patrick Monnius and Kaitlyn Raitz intro “Johnny” on the strings, it sounds like it. 

                  

By 2028 or 2029, maybe everyone in Nashville will travel with a string and horns section. Right now, though, you’ve got to come to an Eric Church show to understand why it works.

                  

“This is probably,” said John Henry Trinko after Friday’s performance, “the most musical thing I have ever done.”

                  

He should know. Because during “Springsteen,” on the spur of the moment, Church looked back at his keys player and said, “You and me, John Henry.” It had never been rehearsed. It was just two guys playing in their garage, if their garage was a sold-out arena. So Trinko improvised, and Church sang, and it was yet another example of how rewarding it can be if you just take a couple steps outside the normal.

                  

The rest of the people on stage love those moments. In many cases, it’s why they got into music in the first place. Roy Agee once again blasted his dynamic trumpet solo during “Cold One.” This time, though, he added a flourish at the end, a couple quick blasts as the song was crashing to an end. It was so unexpected that even Church quickly wheeled around to see what had happened…and then gave Agee a big grin and a fist bump.

                  

“It surprised him!” Big Roy said as he came off the stage.

                  

Those moments are how you make a three-hour set fun for the people on stage. It’s not easy playing for that long. “Sometimes I see people in meet and greet, and one of them will have come to a lot of shows and they brought their friend to their first show,” Church said on stage. “You can always tell that the first-timer thinks they are going to have a snack and half a beer and play 12 songs and then go back to the hotel. The person who has been there before is stretching and drinking water and knows, ‘This is about to be some shit.’”

                  

That’s why the first people in the Church Choir line arrived at 4 a.m. Friday morning. At the moment Church told the crowd the story about the first-timers, he was already 16 songs in on a 30-song night and it was nearly 11 p.m. 

 

Are there really shows where they just play 12 songs and go home? That doesn’t sound like much fun. Fortunately, if you go to Eric Church shows, you’ll never have to worry about that.

 

Instead, you get moments like the penultimate song of the evening, as Church decided to play “Hallelujah.” It’s a big moment song. Prior to Friday night, the last three times Church had played it were at Red Rocks, at the Concert for Carolina, and at Stagecoach. He doesn’t just give that one away. 

 

But he was less than two hours from Granite Falls, and he’d played golf with his family during the day, and he always says that being close to the mountains is where his soul is at rest.

 

So “Hallelujah” made sense on this night and with this crowd and with these people. Thousands of phones lit up the arena as he played. After a night with horns and strings and rocking guitar solos and incredible vocals, it was just one man with a guitar. Just one person with the vision to share the stage with a couple dozen others, but also the power to own it all by himself.