Heart & Soul (Eric Church album)

Heart & Soul is the seventh studio album by American country music singer-songwriter Eric Church. The album was split into three separate albums: Heart (released on April 16, 2021), & (released exclusively as a vinyl record to members of his fan club, called the Church Choir, on April 20, 2021, then released as digital on August 19, 2022) and Soul (released on April 23, 2021). The album was released by EMI Nashville, who have been Church's label home since 2011's Chief. It was preceded by the singles "Stick That in Your Country Song", which received a nomination for Best Country Solo Performance at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, and "Hell of a View".

Heart & Soul
Studio album by Eric Church
Released	April 23, 2021 (2021-04-23)
Recorded	2020
Genre	Outlaw country country rock
Length	85:47
Label	EMI Nashville BigEC
Producer	Jay Joyce
Eric Church chronology
Desperate Man (2018) Heart & Soul (2021)
Singles from Heart & Soul
"Stick That in Your Country Song" Released: June 25, 2020 "Hell of a View" Released: November 9, 2020 "Heart on Fire" Released: July 12, 2021 "Doing Life with Me" Released: June 13, 2022

Background

In a short video to fans on January 21, 2021, Church officially announced the triple-album which would be released in April. He revealed that he wrote and recorded the majority of the songs for the project during a 28 day trip to the mountains of North Carolina in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. In an official statement, Church explained: "I've always been intrigued when a song is born in a writer room -- there is a magic that happens there. I wanted to put that in the studio form. So, every day, we would write a song in the morning and we would record the song that night. Doing it that way allowed for the songwriters to get involved in the studio process and the musicians to be involved in the creative process. You felt a little bit like you were secretly doing something that was special, and you knew it [...] You started going, 'Hmm, wait 'til the world finds out about this."

Of creating a triple album, Church stated that "The interesting thing about this process is that Jay kept asking me the last three or four days, 'Are we done?' And at that time I didn't know what the project was. I kept saying 'God, this is going to be really hard. There's a lot here. Is this a double album? And if it's a double album, how do we leave out these five or six songs?' I am the hardest critic on making sure every song deserves to be on the record, and I beat this thing to death going, 'This can't be that good.' But, it was just a special, special time and a special, special project that I think will be among our best."^[1][2]

The second of the three releases, & was available as a vinyl exclusive to members of Church's official fan group, the Church Choir.^[3] & was released to CD and digital/streaming platforms on August 19, 2022.^[4]

Track listing

Adapted from Rolling Stone Country.^[5]

Heart

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Heart on Fire"	Eric Church	4:18
2.	"Heart of the Night"	Church Travis Hill Jeff Hyde Jeremy Spillman Ryan Tyndell	3:18
3.	"Russian Roulette"	Church Casey Beathard Monty Criswell	3:57
4.	"People Break"	Church Luke Laird	3:21
5.	"Stick That in Your Country Song"	Davis Naish Jeffrey Steele	3:48
6.	"Never Break Heart"	Church Luke Dick	3:48
7.	"Crazyland"	Church Laird Michael P. Heeney	2:39
8.	"Bunch of Nothing"	Church Hyde	3:29
9.	"Love Shine Down"	Church Beathard Steele	2:46
Total length:			31:24

&

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Through My Ray-Bans"	Church Barry Dean Laird	4:33
2.	"Doing Life with Me"	Church Beathard Steele	3:15
3.	"Do Side"	Church Beathard	3:34
4.	"Kiss Her Goodbye"	Church Beathard	3:52
5.	"Mad Man"	Church Beathard	3:58
6.	"Lone Wolf"	Church Hyde Tyndell	3:40
Total length:			22:52

Soul

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Rock & Roll Found Me"	Church Beathard Driver Williams	4:08
2.	"Look Good and You Know It"	Church Travis Meadows Jonathan Singleton	3:12
3.	"Bright Side Girl"	Church Clint Daniels Scotty Emerick Hyde	3:02
4.	"Break It Kind of Guy"	Church Beathard Dick	3:45
5.	"Hell of a View"	Church Beathard Criswell	2:55
6.	"Where I Wanna Be"	Church Beathard Spillman Tyndell	4:05
7.	"Jenny"	Church	3:19
8.	"Bad Mother Trucker"	Church Beathard Dick Spillman	3:24
9.	"Lynyrd Skynyrd Jones"	Beathard	3:42
Total length:			31:31

Personnel

Credits adapted from Taste of Country.^[6]

• Casey Beathard – acoustic guitar, background vocals, handclaps
• Jim "Moose" Brown – piano, organ
• Jeff Cease – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, slide guitar, handclaps
• Eric Church – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, lead vocals, handclaps
• Joanna Cotten – background vocals, handclaps
• Luke Dick – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, steel guitar, handclaps
• Jason Hall – background vocals, handclaps
• Jaxon Hargrove – handclaps
• Lee Hendricks – bass guitar, handclaps
• Jeff Hyde – acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin, background vocals, handclaps
• Jay Joyce – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keyboards, organ, programming, synthesizer, tambourine, background vocals, handclaps
• Billy Justineau – piano, mellotron, organ, synthesizer, synth bass, handclaps
• Jimmy Mansfield – handclaps
• Rob McNelley – electric guitar
• John Peets – handclaps
• Jonathan Singleton – background vocals
• Brian Snoddy – handclaps
• Bryan Sutton – acoustic guitar, dobro, mandolin, resonator guitar
• Jeffrey Steele – acoustic guitar, background vocals
• Kenny Vaughan – acoustic guitar, electric guitar
• Driver Williams – electric guitar, handclaps
• Charlie Worsham – acoustic guitar, banjo, electric guitar, mandolin, handclaps
• Craig Wright – drums, percussion, background vocals, handclaps

Charts

Weekly charts Heart Chart performance for Heart Chart (2021) Peak position Australian Country Albums (ARIA)[7] 6 Canadian Albums (Billboard)[8] 10 Scottish Albums (OCC)[9] 27 UK Country Albums (OCC)[10] 2 US Billboard 200[11] 5 US Top Country Albums (Billboard)[12] 3 & Chart performance for & Chart (2021) Peak position US Billboard 200[13] 83 US Top Country Albums (Billboard)[14] 12 Soul Chart performance for Soul Chart (2021) Peak position Australian Country Albums (ARIA)[15] 6 Canadian Albums (Billboard)[16] 9 Scottish Albums (OCC)[17] 25 Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[18] 55 UK Country Albums (OCC)[19] 3 US Billboard 200[20] 4 US Top Country Albums (Billboard)[21] 2

Year-end charts Heart Year-end chart performance for Heart Chart (2021) Position US Top Country Albums (Billboard)[22] 75 Soul Year-end chart performance for Soul Chart (2021) Position US Top Country Albums (Billboard)[22] 56

References

1. "Eric Church Announces Three-Album 'Heart & Soul' Series -- And They'll Be Here Soon". Billboard.
2. Gokhman, Roman (April 12, 2021). "REVIEW: Eric Church sets his heart on fire on genre-breaking triptych". Riff Magazine. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
3. "Eric Church Drops '&' Album Exclusively to Church Choir Fan Club Members". Outsider. April 20, 2021. Retrieved May 31, 2022.
4. "& - EP by Eric Church on Apple Music". Apple Music. Retrieved May 31, 2022.
5. Hudak, Joseph (January 21, 2021). "Eric Church Is Releasing Three New Albums". Rolling Stone.
6. "Eric Church Confirms Plans for a Triple Album, 'Heart & Soul'". Taste of Country.
7. "ARIA Report" (PDF). ARIA. April 26, 2021. Retrieved April 30, 2021.
8. "Eric Church Chart History (Canadian Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved April 27, 2021.
9. "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved April 24, 2021.
10. "Official Country Artists Albums Chart Top 20". Official Charts Company. Retrieved April 24, 2021.
11. "Eric Church Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved April 27, 2021.
12. "Eric Church Chart History (Top Country Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved April 27, 2021.
13. "Eric Church Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved May 4, 2021.
14. "Eric Church Chart History (Top Country Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved May 4, 2021.
15. "ARIA Report" (PDF). ARIA. May 3, 2021. Retrieved April 30, 2021.
16. "Eric Church Chart History (Canadian Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved May 4, 2021.
17. "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
18. "Swisscharts.com – Eric Church – Soul". Hung Medien. Retrieved May 2, 2021.
19. "Official Country Artists Albums Chart Top 20". Official Charts Company. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
20. "Eric Church Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
21. "Eric Church Chart History (Top Country Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved May 4, 2021.
22. "Top Country Albums – Year-End 2021". Billboard. Retrieved December 12, 2021.