Eric Church Had Fans From All 50 States In Attendance For His Three-Night Red Rocks Run

The choir travels well.

Eric Church wrapped up an epic three-night run at the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado last month, performing three totally different shows over three different nights.

The first night was billed as “Eric Church vs. The Machine,” and featured Church performing with a full orchestra and choir. He started by performing his entire new Evangeline vs. The Machine album front to back, and then played reworked versions of some of his biggest hits.

The second night was “Eric Church vs. The ECB” and was a throwback show of sorts, digging deep into his catalog and playing a ton of his older hits, with just his original Eric Church band.

And the last night was “Eric Church vs. The Guitar,” which is exactly what it sounds like: Just Eric and his guitar (and his longtime background vocalist and duet partner Joanna Cotten). And it was pure magic.

If you want to read more about the shows, I did a full recap after each night, but it’s safe to say that having three nights of Church as my first Red Rocks experience may have just ruined the venue for me. I’m not sure how any show I go to from now on is going to top that. And what am I supposed to do, fly out to Colorado just for ONE show? Church set the bar high, and I’m not sure anybody is going to be able to meet it.

And as it turns out, fans traveled far and wide for the experience.

Church’s team confirmed that tickets were purchased for the shows by fans in ALL 50 STATES, meaning that there were even folks in Alaska and Hawaii who couldn’t resist flying to Colorado for the unforgettable shows.

I mean, think about it: Red Rocks holds 9,500 people. That means that out of the 28,000 people who were there (at most, although we know it was less because there were people who were in attendance for all three nights), there was at least one person from each state there over the course of the three-night run.

Pretty insane and a testament to the impact Church has had on country music. I can’t think of another artist who would have that kind of reach.

Anecdotally, I talked to quite a few people there who said it was their first time at Red Rocks but that these were “bucket list” shows for them that they couldn’t pass up, and there’s no doubt that they didn’t leave disappointed.

The three-night run at Red Rocks is no doubt going to be talked about for quite a while among Church fans as some of the best shows of his career. You can’t talk about Church now without talking about the Red Rocks shows. And there were fans from all 50 states who got to experience them. That’s pretty cool.

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Church’s New Song – Inspired By Whiskey Riff

After opening the show on night 3 with a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and then performing his unreleased ode to life as an artist, “On The Road,” Church stopped to introduce a new song that he had written that day…and it turns out, it was inspired by a Whiskey Riff article.

I’ve been recapping each night’s shows here, and in my article on night two, I mentioned that it was a throwback show of sorts. It was just Eric and his original band, and at one point in the night Church himself even joked that he’d had an airplane bottle and was wearing an American flag scarf like the old days:

“2012 broke out in here real fast.”

I pointed out that for those who say they “miss the old Eric Church,” night two at Red Rocks was proof that he’s undeniably still the Chief. And apparently that got Eric’s attention.

You can probably imagine my shock when I was standing in the crowd as Church mentioned the inspiration for his new song:

“I read an article. I never read anything. And I read this article today, it’s a site I really like, and the article said, ‘Eric Church played Red Rocks last night, and the old Eric Church, the Chief was back. It was 2012 all over again.’

And I’m a songwriter. So I wrote this song today. Why not, right?”

Well by that point I was scrambling to pull out my phone from under my rain-soaked poncho, but he then performed the new song he wrote called “New Old Me.”

“Little bit older, little bit wiser
Little bit simpler, little more strong
Little more the man I wanna be
Little more grounded, little more guided
Little less reckless and open wide
Now when I pass the mirror I see
Same guy I used to know, but these days
I’m just a new old me”

Now I’m a little biased, but I’m going to say that we need Church to get this one in the studio.

“New Old Me”

And now, I’ve got the ultimate answer whenever somebody says “tell us a fun fact about yourself.”The post Eric Church Had Fans From All 50 States In Attendance For His Three-Night Red Rocks Run first appeared on Whiskey Riff.