Eric Church has released a raw, but glorious acoustic version of his current single, “Heart on Fire.”
It’s just Church and his guitar as he yearns for a long-ago love. We know love is a consistent theme in country music. And in this tune, Church dropped in references to some great pop and rock songs, including “All Shook Up,” “American Pie,” “Paradise City” and “New York Minute.”
Have a listen to Eric Church and his acoustic performance. Then read on for more about how the song came about and the fun way Church performed it in the original music video.
In This Acoustic Version, Did You Catch All the Eric Church Nods to Other Classic Songs?
Here’s the first verse. You can spot at least two of the old songs (hint, they’lre by Elvis and Don McLean).
“Roosevelt Road was too rough for my old truck. Yeah, she’d shake and she’d shimmy like Elvis singin’ “All Shook Up.” But you can’t blame a boy for going, drive it like you stole it fast, with your window down, brown hair blowin’, look at me like that.
“A turned up radio, but the static was heavy. Couldn’t make out any words but “take me to the levee.” That look on your face was full of wild desire, soakin’ my soul in gas and settin’ my heart on fire. Heart on fire, heart on fire, heart on fire.”
Church and his collaborators holed up in the North Carolina mountains for four straight weeks in early 2020 to come up with the songs for his triple album, “Heart & Soul.” It truly was a marathon writing session. Playing on that heart theme, Heart on Fire was the first song he wrote. And it inspired all the other songs. Church released the album this time a year ago.
“Every day I would get up, or actually every night I would stay up most of the night writing songs,” Church said last year in an Apple Music Country interview on Today’s Country Radio.
“I’ve never had anything creatively that was that, just soul lifting. And it was a lot of fun to do.”
Earlier this week, he moved into the No. 1 spot on the MusicRow Top Songwriter Chart with the performance of “Heart On Fire.” He’s probably performing that song a lot since he’s in the middle of his The Gather Again concert tour. Next stop — Boise, Idaho.
Music Video Took Us Back to Days of VHS Tapes
Most folks probably have seen the music video of “Heart on Fire” at least once. Or, maybe they’ve seen it dozens of times. That’s because the Church team gathered all the videos made by the country music superstar and spliced them together for Heart on Fire. It’s like a trip down Church memory lane.
“Basically, we’re gonna take all of the old videos, all the way back from ‘How ‘Bout You’ all the way through now,” Church said. “And you’re gonna see me in that video but the mouth is going to be different and it’s gonna be ‘Heart On Fire.’”
Get your VCR ready and note the difference between Eric Church in this acoustic version and the raucous one released last year.
