ERIC CHURCH GIVES VINYL RECORDS A VOICE IN HIS LATEST CHART-TOPPING HIT, 'RECORD YEAR.'

Artist: Eric Church

Eric Church is celebrating his seventh No. 1 single with “Record Year” this week. The song, which Eric co-wrote with Jeff Hyde and is still hanging at the top of the country charts, showcases a guy trying to deal with his heartbreak and get over lost love by keeping busy while drinking and listening to old albums. As the song progresses, he lists several great artists such as Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, George Jones, Waylon Jennings, New Grass Revival and James Brown.

For Eric, he turns to vinyl when he wants to really listen to music and escape for a time. “For me, with vinyl, it’s escapism. I mean, we make music so rushed now. It’s so frenetic. I never view music that way. I’ve always viewed it as a way to escape from what’s going on,” says the North Carolina native. “For me, when you put a needle in vinyl, you’re committed. You’re in. You’re in until that’s done, and then you can either flip the record or try something else, but you’re in. And I think that that escapism, that getting away from the world, is something that I think society is longing for.”

Eric takes his “Record Year” to Detroit Lakes, Minnesota at the WE Fest tomorrow night (August 4th) and to Watershed Festival in Quincy, Washington on Saturday (August 6th).

Eric Church (vinyl) OC: …that we have. 1:04
“For me, with vinyl, it’s escapism. I mean, we make music so rushed now. It’s so frenetic. I never view music that way. I’ve always viewed it as a way to escape from what’s going on. When it’s 99-cents download now, [laughs] all these things that go one with how we consume it, it’s just weird to me. For me, when you put a needle in vinyl, you’re committed. You’re in. You’re in until that’s done, and then you can either flip the record or try something else, but you’re in. And I think that that escapism, that getting away from the world, is something that I think society is longing for. I also think from a quality standpoint, there are a lot of people out there that forgot how good vinyl, or the way that it was recorded, sounds. We’re so much in earbuds and iPhones and all these ways we listen, we forget that music was more than just a backbeat or more than just 120 bpms; it’s emotional, dynamic. I think that vinyl is the best interpretation that we have.”