Hear Eric Church’s Unreleased “Broadway Lights,” An Ode To Chasing Dreams In Nashville

If you live in Nashville, you probably have a love/hate relationship with Broadway.

For those who aren’t familiar with Broadway, it’s arguably the most famous street in Nashville (along with 16th Avenue and Music Row). It’s basically a five-block strip of bars, some historic and many named after famous country artists, filled with non-stop live music and partying.

Broadway is often the first (and sometimes only) stop for visitors to Music City, but it can be a source of frustration for locals these days. The constant partying and crowds of tourists make it difficult for those who live and work downtown, and the commercialization of Broadway over the past decade or so have stripped away a lot of the character that drew even locals to the famous strip.

But even as someone who lives in Nashville, I can admit that Broadway is still a fun place to party.

Sure, a lot of the bars are pretty cookie-cutter these days, and as a fan of traditional country music it just keeps getting harder and harder to find bars that play exclusively country music.

There are still a few places, though, that are worth making the trip downtown. And the energy of Broadway is infectious, even for a jaded Nashville local like me.

I would also venture to say that there’s more musical talent on Broadway than on any five block strip in the country. Whether you like the music they’re playing or not, it’s hard to deny that the bars on Broadway are filled with some of the best musicians in the country, folks who moved to Nashville to chase a dream and who are every bit as talented as most of the artists and musicians you hear on the radio.

Some will make it big. Most never will. But everybody who makes music on Broadway came to town with a dream.

I think it’s probably safe to say that Eric Church also has a love/hate relationship with Broadway. When he first came to town, the “Springsteen” singer did what most people do when they move to Nashville: He went to Broadway.

But he found out quickly that Broadway didn’t want him:

“I did what a lot of dreamers do. You pack your car…you put a guitar in it, and you go to the center of what Nashville is, which is Broadway.

And I couldn’t get a gig on Broadway. Nothing. I couldn’t even bartend on Broadway.

They didn’t want original music. They wanted you to play whatever the songs were at the time. I didn’t really do that. I was a songwriter.”

Well Church found a home not far off of Broadway, at the Fiddle & Steel Guitar Bar on Printer’s Alley, and the rest is history.

So it was a little ironic when, last year, Church opened his own bar in downtown Nashville – where else? – but on Broadway.

Chief’s even features the original sign from the since-shuttered Fiddle & Steel hanging in their two-story Neon Steeple performance venue. And when the bar opened in 2024, Church was finally able to do what he wasn’t allowed to all those years ago: Play on Broadway.

Throughout 2024, Church hosted his own residency, called To Beat The Devil, at his own bar on the very street that had turned him away when he first moved to town. And he opened each show with an unreleased song called “Broadway Lights,” a romantic ode to the street that Chief’s now calls home.

“Have you ever stepped on the cracks on Broadway
And wondered how many lonely fools
Have slipped and fell into those cracks on Broadway
And lost themselves in the music and the booze

Hey Mother Maybelle, I saw the light
I was lost and now I’m found
And now I give my soul tonight
‘Til the Broadway lights go down”

Because phones weren’t allowed at his residency shows, “Broadway Lights” had never been heard outside of Chief’s until earlier this year when Church took his To Beat The Devil residency overseas for two shows at the Royal Albert Music Hall in London. And luckily, his performance of the unreleased song was captured for the rest of the world to hear.

The song really reminds you of what Broadway represents for so many people: A dream and a stage where for some, those dreams will come true.The post Hear Eric Church’s Unreleased “Broadway Lights,” An Ode To Chasing Dreams In Nashville first appeared on Whiskey Riff.