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Eric Church performed the full “Evangeline” album, then 22 songs with choir and orchestra.Church framed “Evangeline” as a human rebuttal to AI, using horns, strings and a choir.The show emphasized live craft over spectacle: hand-drawn video, raw vocals, no encore.FORT WORTH
It’s fitting that country star Eric Church’s latest album “Evangeline vs. The Machine” was recently released as an IMAX concert movie event. Throughout his career, Church’s music has had the “one for them, one for me” feel of a film auteur. For every “Drink In My Hand” or “Smoke a Little Smoke,” there’s a “Devil, Devil” or “Mr. Misunderstood.” He’s equally at home creating hits within the Nashville machine and making concept albums about the need to destroy said Nashville machine.
Even his bigger hits have a sightly askew view to them; “Give Me Back My Hometown” is not some rah-rah ode to Small Town America, it’s a breakup song about seeing your ex everywhere you go. “Johnny,” a new cut from “Evangeline,” is not about the Man in Black, but about the Georgia boy with a golden fiddle.
Church played to a packed Dickies Arena crowd in Fort Worth Friday, Feb. 27. Here are three big takeaways from the night.
🔥 In case you missed it…
Fighting AI with humanity
Church played the eight-track “Evangeline” album in its entirety to kick off the night, followed by 22 more songs consisting of hits, oldies and covers. Church and his “Strings and Things” choir and orchestra played for nearly three hours.
The biggest highlight of the night for members of the Church Choir, as his fans are called, was seeing new arrangements for old hits like “Smoke a Little Smoke” and “Homeboy,” which both got choir intros. Breakup song “Cold One” got a trombone solo in the middle of it. The joy of everyone on stage was infectious.
Church himself didn’t address the audience until 10 songs in, saying that was because this tour is all about letting the music speak for itself: “Real music, with real people writing real songs.”
Later in the night, Church explained his reason for writing the “Evangeline” album, saying that he saw how “AI-driven” the world is becoming, and needed to make something that showcased human art. That’s how you end up with a country-rock album that also has French horns, string sections and a gospel choir.
Elsewhere in the night, Church embraced humanity in other ways. The video backdrop (this is an arena show, after all) featured hand-drawn animation of various “machines” being vanquished by humans, giving way to pictures of landscapes for some songs. Later in the show, Church laughed when he flubbed some words during a duet with longtime vocal partner Joanna Cotten. AI can’t replace live performance.
Paying tribute to Texas icons Guy Clark and Willie Nelson
Midway through the show, Church brought out opener Stephen Wilson Jr. to perform two covers: “Desperados Waiting for a Train,” written by Texan Guy Clark, and “Seven Spanish Angels,” made famous by Willie Nelson and Ray Charles.
Church and Wilson played the songs as photos of Clark, Nelson and Charles appeared on the video screen behind the stage.
According to setlist.fm, this section of the show is reserved for songs that relate to whatever city Church is playing. For example, Tulsa got J.J. Cale’s “If You’re Ever In Oklahoma” and Kansas City got Roger Miller’s “Kansas City Star.”
Church made full use of Dickies Arena
Whether it was the curved screen video backdrop that felt like a movie theater screen, the inventive wide angles on the camera that showcased the whole stage from mid-crowd or the most lighting rig movement of any concert I’ve seen at Dickies, Church made sure to use all the arena space to his advantage. He also covered all his ground on stage, even with the full band.
Church has been selling out arenas for decades and knows how to work a crowd. Dressed in a tan leather jacket, a scarf, jeans, boots and his signature Ray-Ban sunglasses, he didn’t need to do much to get the crowd to start moving. Whether it was a quiet song from his first album or his latest single about how “machines control the people, and the people shoot at kids,” the crowd was rapt.
By the end, there was no encore, and Church and his band left the stage to the tune of the “SNL” goodnights theme song. After nearly three hours of rock, country and everything in between, it was a quiet ending, but fitting for a night that was designed to fly in the face of any sort of predictive algorithms.
Church knows how to make a hit, but he has fun subverting those hits, too.
ERIC CHURCH SETLIST, DICKIES ARENA, FORT WORTH TEXAS (FEB. 27, 2026)Hands of TimeBleed on PaperJohnnyStorm In Their BloodDarkest HourEvangelineRocket’s White LincolnClap Hands (Tom Waits cover)Desperate ManStick That In Your Country SongSmoke A Little SmokeHomeboyMr. MisunderstoodGive Me Back My HometownCreepin’Desperados Waiting for a Train (Guy Clark cover) [with opener Stephen Wilson Jr.]Seven Spanish Angels (Willie Nelson and Ray Charles cover) [with opener Stephen Wilson Jr.]Chattanooga LucyHell of a ViewSpringsteenDrink In My HandRecord YearCold OneRound Here BuzzPledge Allegiance To The HagDrowning Man (with Joanna Cotten)Like Jesus Does (with Joanna Cotten)These Boots (solo)Sinners Like Me (solo)Through My Ray-Bans
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Jake Harris is the Service Journalism Editor for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He has spent nearly 10 years working as a digital producer across newsrooms in Texas. He mainly writes about pop culture and local North Texas happenings and occasionally writes concert reviews.