28 Songs in 28 days: Eric Church's new album is "as far out there as I've gotten"

Wearing regular glasses instead of his signature shades, The Chief gave the keynote address at Country Radio Seminar in Nashville on Thursday. The theme was "Chasing Creativity," and he certainly did that with his new project. 

"It was time to do something nuts," he admitted.

To that end, Eric and his band took over a restaurant in the mountains of North Carolina that's closed in the winter, moved all their recording gear in, and set a goal of writing and recording 28 songs in 28 days. 

"I would write a song in the morning, and we'd cut it that night," he explained.  "For me, it's as far out there as I've gotten. But I think by getting that far out there, it really opened up some really great stuff, 'cause I was really locked in creatively: My antenna was up."

"Looking back on what came out of it, it was exactly what had to happen," he explained. "Everybody had to be uncomfortable, including the producer, the band, the writers...they had no clue what they were in for.  I think all that is what made it great."

Asked how many of those 28 songs are actually good, Eric said he's trying to determine that now, but he thinks, "a lot." 

He then played one of the songs, which is either called "Jenny" or "Jenny Let's Go."  He explained that it was inspired by the people who kept on telling him during the recording process that the generator -- which they called a "genny" -- wasn't working.

No word on when we can expect Eric's new music, which will be the follow-up to 2018's Desperate Man.