The Top 10 Most Underrated Eric Church Songs

Hard to narrow this one down.

It’s no secret that we’re big Eric Church fans around here. I’d easily include him near the top of my favorite artists of all-time, and one of the greatest songwriters of the past few decades.

Church recently released his eighth studio album, Evangeline vs. The Machine, which had me digging back into his catalog to listen to some of his earlier stuff. And man, those early Eric Church albums are pure heat.

There aren’t many “skips” in his catalog (in fact for me there’s only one – if you know you know), but there are a ton of underrated songs that never got the attention they deserved, songs that should have been #1s and are far and away better than pretty much anything else on the radio.

So I figured we’d take a look at some of those, and go back through some of the most underrated songs in his two-decades worth of music. (And for the record, these are in chronological order, not ranked by how much I like them or how underrated I think they are).

1. “The Hard Way”

From his debut album Sinners Like Me, this song hits even harder as you live more life and learn more of those lessons that he talks about learning the hard way.

“Only fools don’t take the time of day
They stay too busy runnin’
To stop just once and tell their dad
Just how much they love him
That’s a lesson I wish I would have learned
Before that phone call came and it was her
No, Momma never had to say a word
I knew it was too late
That’s a lesson I wish I didn’t learn the hard way”

2. “Can’t Take It With You”

Another song from his debut album with brilliant songwriting that’s unfortunately overlooked. The opening line really shows off the Church’s lyrical prowess:

“Never realized how much she brought to the table
‘Til I went to set my cup of coffee where the table used to be”

And the haunting way he describes leaving without the love of his life is another lyrical masterpiece:

“That ol’ house is in the rearview
Riding shotgun is her ghost
Who says you can’t take it with you when you go”

Just a brilliant song.

3. “Where She Told Me To Go”

This is another heartbreaker, this one from Church’s 2008 sophomore album Carolina, that doesn’t get enough credit for its masterful songwriting. “I can’t get no picture on the TV screen, can’t stand the ones up in my head” shows you the emotional turmoil he’s going through, and you know exactly where she told him to go without ever explicitly saying that she left and told him to go to hell:

“I was looking for freedom
I was looking for a good time
I was looking for a little space
A little place, some peace of mind
I was going with my change of heart
Wanted no part of forever
I was looking for a blessing
When I said baby it’s all for the better
Yeah, what do you know
I think I wound up where she told me to go”

4. “Over When It’s Over”

I debated including this one from his Chief album on here, just because I wasn’t sure whether it was really considered “underrated” because it’s such a fan favorite. But the groove, the lyrics, the powerhouse vocals from Joanna Cotten…the whole thing just deserves way more love than it gets.

5. “Hippie Radio”

This is one that got a lot of attention as a fan-favorite when it was first released on Church’s Desperate Man album, but after the initial buzz it seems like it’s never really gotten the love that it deserves. The song tells the heartwarming story of going from a kid in the back of his dad’s car listening to a “Hippie Radio” to driving a girl around, and eventually having his own kids in the backseat.

The way it manages to capture each phase of life while tying it all back to the songs that were on the radio may sound cliche, but as with pretty much everything Church puts out, it’s masterfully done.

6. “Jukebox & A Bar”

I will NEVER understand how this song has flown so far under the radar. It’s one of my favorites from his entire catalog, and once again shows off his songwriting prowess: I mean, who else could use the word “phosphorescent” in a country song?

Sure, it may not be the most groundbreaking subject matter, singing about getting over heartbreak by heading to the bar and firing up the jukebox, but the lyrics package the message in a way that feels fresh and welcoming. I mean, there’s even a reference to Viagra in there:

“They can make cars drive themselves
And prove time travel ain’t crazy as hellThey’ve even got a pill to make a soft package hard”

I also love the way he illustrates the juxtaposition between the “jukebox” and “a bar” in the chorus, proving that both come together to serve distinct but important roles:

“One pushes me up the mountain
And one rolls me down the hill
While I sit here in a phosphorescent dark
You can keep your fancy potions
And your incandescent notions
As for me and my barely-beating heart
There’s no better prescription
For the human condition
Than a jukebox and a bar”

And let’s be honest, he’s right: As far as we’ve come in society, sometimes you just need to sit in a dive bar and putting on some good music.

7. “Heart Of The Night”

The next time I get a speeding ticket, there’s a good chance it will be because of this song. The driving, Meatloaf-sounding rock opera perfectly captures the feeling of being trapped and wanting nothing more than to point your headlights west and drive off into the “still-beating heart of the night.”

8. “Crazyland”

This one is brilliant in the way that it paints a picture of a bar full of broken people, using their problems as their nicknames. There’s “Her Leaving,” “Sorrows,” “I Told You So,” and “Out of His Mind,” all coming to the same place to drown their sorrows in “Crazyland.” But it’s the last line that really ties it together, when the narrator finally reveals his name and why he’s there in the first place: “Baby, Please Come Back.”

It’s such a unique spin on the idea that everybody is carrying their own hidden burden, but in “Crazyland” their burdens are all out there for the world to see.

9. “Kiss Her Goodbye”

Honestly I could probably include the entire & album here, because I feel like it was maybe the best out of the entire Heart & Soul trilogy but never really got the attention or the love it deserved. But because I’m limiting my list to 10 songs, I’m going to leave off songs like “Lone Wolf” and “Mad Man” that could easily be on here and go with “Kiss Her Goodbye,” just because there’s one single line that’s one of the best that he’s ever written:

“My lips can’t seem to drink up enough neon to kiss her goodbye”

Such a poetic way to say that going to the bar isn’t curing your heartbreak.

10. “Lynyrd Skynyrd Jones”

This one from Soul is one of the few songs that Church has recorded over his career that he didn’t also have a hand in writing, but when you’ve got one of the best in the business in Casey Beathard, it’s easy to see why Church didn’t think the song needed anything else.

The song got a lot of attention when it first came out because of the incredible storytelling and the shocking plot twist at the end. Basically, it’s a story about a boy who was conceived at a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert, and it’s full of references to the legendary rock band – including the surprise at the end, when it’s revealed that the boy is the son of Curtis Loew, the “finest picker to ever play the blues” from Skynyrd’s song “The Ballad of Curtis Loew.”

It’s hard to find storytelling like this in country music these days, which is why it’s a shame the song is so underrated.

Like I said at the beginning, it’s hard to narrow it down to just 10 underrated Eric Church songs when it feels like there are so many in his catalog that don’t get the attention they deserve. But when it comes to deep cuts, these are some of the best in his catalog.The post The Top 10 Most Underrated Eric Church Songs first appeared on Whiskey Riff.