Eric Church started posting cryptic videos to Twitter earlier this week. Since Sunday, he has posted one video a day. Each day, Chief gives a little more information. However, he’s still not letting on what he has planned. As a result, the members of the Church Choir have put their detective caps on and are trying to figure out what the North Carolina native is hinting at.
Before we dig into what we think Eric Church is hinting at in these videos, let’s look at the facts. Church hasn’t released an album since his Heart & Soul triple album in 2021. He made Heart and Soul available to everyone that month. However, only fan club members could get their hands on & until last year. Church released the final installment of his three-part album to the public in August 2022.
That doesn’t mean that Eric Church hasn’t been working on new music. Last month, he appeared on the Grand Ole Opry and performed an unreleased song about his dad. So, it would be easy to assume that Chief has a full album in the works. After all, he’s a consummate songwriter. Heck, he and his team wrote his entire triple album in a little less than a month. Even with his 2022 tour stops and appearances on the Opry, he had plenty of time to pen a new record. However, that’s not where we think he’s going with this.
With that said, let’s look at Church’s posts.
An Overview of Eric Church’s Cryptic Posts
On Sunday, January 8th, Eric Church posted a video without context. The features a grainy VHS effect over a radio dial. When the needle hits the sweet spot on the dial, the video clears up, and we hear a clip of “Springsteen.” Additionally, we see a date – 01.11.2023.
The next day, Eric Church posted a second video. This time, he added the date in the post’s caption. The video is mostly the same. The big difference is that when the needle finds the sweet spot it plays a clip of “Heart on Fire.” It’s important to note that it’s a live cut of the song. You can hear the crowd cheering behind Chief’s vocals.
Today, January 10th, Eric Church posted another video that looked the same. This time, he wrote “7:30AM CST 1.11.2023” in the caption. So, we know that whatever announcement he’s planning to make will come early tomorrow morning. This video stands out, though, because it doesn’t feature a song. Instead, we hear Church saying “I still remember my first amphitheater concert. I was 16 years old,” before the video ends.
Our Guess: Chief Is Going to Announce a Live Album
We’re pretty sure Eric Church is about to give us a live album. It just seems right. So far, Church has dropped two live albums – Caught in the Act (2013) and 61 Days in Church (2017). Caught fell between Chief and The Outsiders and 61 Days dropped between Mr. Misunderstood and Desperate Man. So, it just seems like it’s time for a new live record.
More than that, Eric Church’s Gather Again tour that kicked off in the fall of 2021 and went over into 2022 was a special one. The 55-stop trek allowed Chief to stand in front of the Church Choir for the first time since 2019. Recording a live album on such a momentous tour just makes sense.
Finally, we have the videos. The first video, honestly, doesn’t do much for this theory. The next two, however, do. The live cut of “Heart on Fire” – a single from Heart – and the clip of him recalling his first big concert seem to spell it out.
We’ll know for sure tomorrow morning. Chances are, we’ll get a live album announcement along with a brand-new single from Eric Church (our money is on the live cut of “Heart on Fire”).
