AIR DATE: MAY 2017

Hey everybody, it’s Eric Church back for the twenty-seventh episode of “Outsiders Radio”.   We just wrapped up the Holdin’ My Own Tour with two shows in Nashville.  Over 60 cities, no opening act, just me and the band for two sets with an intermission.    I said when we started that I did it because I could.  The fans made it possible.  You loved these songs on my albums, and you wanted to experience them live.  So that’s what we did.

We started the shows with a song called Hallelujah, written by Canadian singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen, who died last year.  A lot of artists have recorded it, including John Cale and Jeff Buckley.  Jeff’s version came out ten years ago, which was ten years after he died in a drowning accident in 1997.  That’s the version I use every night, with just a spotlight on a mic.

The late Jeff Buckley and Hallelujah. That’s how we’ve been starting the Holdin’ My Own shows all year.  In a few cities, like Calgary, I did it myself, acoustic, a few songs into the first set.  But at most places, that’s how our show began.  From there, we do a song from the Mr. Misunderstood album called Mistress Named Music.  What you MAY not know is that we have a local choir that joins us every night on this song.  And my 5-year old, Boone, helps get the choir on stage.  If you’ve been at the shows, that’s Boone getting’ the choir on stage. 

Those two songs have been how we’ve started the Holdin’ My Own Tour this year.  In that last song, I’m joined by our harmony singer Joanna Cotton.  It’s been fun being on the road this year.  We’ve had a chance to play a lot of music from my album, but we’ve also tried to localize it every night.  In addition to the local choir for Mistress Named Music, I’ve also tried to come up with a cover song that related to the places we played.  That was a real challenge in some places.  For example, there’s been a lot of songs written about Memphis.  But I chose these two.

That’s Bobby Bare with the hit version of Tom T. Hall’s classic How I Got To Memphis from back in 1970.  We did that song, along with Marc Cohn’s Walking In Memphis.  We’re spotlighting some of the cover songs I did on the Holdin’ My Own Tour on this edition of Outsiders Radio.  Early in the tour, we did some shows in Canada.  You might not know this, but The Band was originally from Canada.  Drummer & singer Levon Helm was the lone American.  Robbie Robertson was born in Toronto, and the rest of the guys were from other towns in Ontario.  So while we were up there, we did some classic songs by The Band, including these.

Couple of songs by The Band: The Night They Drive Old Dixie Down and Up On Cripple Creek….examples of the cover songs we did on the Holdin’ My Own tour this year.  We had some special guests on a few shows.  Ray Wylie Hubbard sat in on the Dallas show.  In Denver, we had two guests: Keyboard player Chuck Leavell, who’s played with The Rolling Stones, the Allman Brothers, Gov’t Mule, and many more.  Also Glenn Hughes, who was in Deep Purple.  So we did a few cover songs with them.

Just a couple of the cover songs I did in Denver last month: American Woman, originally done by the Guess Who, and Little Feat’s classic Dixie Chicken.  And yes, that was the song the Dixie Chicks drew on for their name.  We’re spotlighting some of the cover songs I did on the Holdin’ My Own Tour this year.  One of my favorite bands, Pearl Jam, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year.  So when I was in Tacoma, I did one of their songs.

That’s the timeless Chuck Berry and a song from 1970: Tulane.  Chuck passed away in March, and we did that song in tribute to him during our show in Salt Lake City.  We had a lot of fun with the cover songs during the tour this year.  I probably could do another show on this subject.  We have New York State of Mind, I Love L.A., Sweet Home Chicago, and Tell Me Something Bad About Tulsa.  Every night, we ended the show with a song that has meant a lot to me over the years, so it’s the perfect way to end this edition of Outsiders Radio.  Here’s a live version of Springsteen.

Eric Church hosts Outsiders Radio monthly on SiriusXM's The Highway. Eric explores his personal music influences and plays his current favorites. Church will also play exclusive, never before heard music from his own archives.

Outsiders Radio will air on the last Friday of every month at 10:00 pm ET via satellite on The Highway channel 56 and through the SiriusXM Internet Radio App on smartphones and other connected devices, as well as online at siriusxm.com. The show will also be rebroadcast on Mondays at 12:00 am ET and Wednesdays at 11:00 pm ET. Stream SiriusXM FREE for 30 Days. No credit card required. See Offer Details at www.siriusxm.com/freetrial. New SiriusXM Internet Radio subscribers only.