Eric Church picked up five nominations for this year’s CMA Awards. The nods include Male Vocalist and Album of the Year for Mr. Misunderstood (produced by Jay Joyce and Arturo Buenahora, Jr., as well as Single of the Year for his recent No. 1 hit “Record Year,” Song of the Year for “Record Year,” which was written by Eric and Jeff Hyde and Music Video of the Year for “Record Year,” which was directed by Reid Long and John Peets. He now has a total of 22 career nominations since his first in 2011 for New Artist of the Year.
The 50th Annual CMA Awards will be broadcast live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena November 2nd at 8pm ET on ABC.
Audio / ERIC CHURCH EXPLAINS WHY HE SURPRISED EVERYONE BY RELEASING HIS CMA-NOMINATED ALBUM OF THE YEAR, MR. MISUNDERSTOOD, WITHOUT ANY BUILDUP.
DownloadEric Church (MM album) 1 OC: …album was. :41
“I didn’t expect inspiration to really strike the way it did. I mean, I certainly didn’t sit down and expect to write an album or have an album, but it happened that way. When it happened, all of it happened in about 30 days, I thought it was a crime against that inspiration to when it fell out like that to just put it on a shelf for a while. So, we decided to, instead of what most people do which is based around hype which is to let the label have the product and let the media or our critics, we decided to let the fans have it first. So, snail mail, we sent out about 80,000 of the vinyl and CDs and really let the fans be the mouthpiece for what this album was.”
Audio / Eric Church says records were always what he turned to in times of trouble or distress, and that he would find the solution in a “stack of vinyl,” like he sings about in “Record Year.”
DownloadEric Church (Record Year) 1 OC: …our career. :43
“Well, it was kind of the start of the album for me. I mean, when we put out the album, it was a surprise and ‘Mr. Misunderstood’ was the first song, ‘cause it was the album title. But for me, the record always started with ‘Record Year.’ I’m a vinyl fan back before it was in vogue, like it is now, but I can remember, there’s a line in the song that talks about ‘slowly planning my survival/in a three-foot stack of vinyl,’ and I remember, whatever it is that I had to get over or get past or get through, I remember records being my refuge during that time. It was a song, and it IS a song that I’m proud of and I think it’ll be one of the bigger ones in our career.”
