Eric Church was one of the many featured performers during ACM Presents: Our Country on Sunday, April 5, and he used the opportunity to debut a new song, “Never Break Heart.” Wearing a beanie and glasses, Church delivered the acoustic performance from a music room in his home, which was paneled in wood.
“Don’t let fear steal your brave heart / don’t let doubt take your faith heart / it’s OK to cry, but don’t never break heart,” Church sang during the song’s chorus. Before his performance, Church reflected on the coronavirus pandemic and shared that the toughest thing for him has been the unknown aspect of the crisis. “The hardest thing about this for me as a dad, as a husband, as business leader, as a citizen, has been the unknown. I believe we fear the unknown,” he said. “But after some thought and a lot of prayer, here’s what I know. I have hope and you should have hope.”
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“Since the beginning of time people have gathered,” Church continued. “They’ve gathered for fellowship, they’ve gathered for worship, they’ve gathered for prayer, they’ve gathered for song. They’ve gathered for communion, they’ve gathered for grief. But they’ve gathered, and we will gather again. The important thing to remember is to not fear, to be brave, and to endure. That’s what this song is about.”
During Sunday’s special, Church joined a number of artists including Miranda Lambert, Luke Bryan, Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood and more in delivering acoustic performances from their homes. The broadcast aired in place of the ACM Awards, which were originally scheduled for April 5 but have been postponed until Sept. 16 due to the coronavirus.
Church’s last album was 2018’s Desperate Man, and it’s unclear whether “Never Break Heart” is from a new project. In February, the man known as “The Chief” to his fans revealed at the Country Radio Seminar in Nashville that he had recorded 28 songs in 28 days. “For me, it’s as far out there as I’ve gotten … I couldn’t shut it off,” he said, via the Tennessean. “For three or four days, I wasn’t sleeping, because I was in the studio all night and getting up in the morning. I couldn’t turn it off. … it really opened up some great stuff, creatively.”
