Country music’s maverick, Eric Church, is giving fans a front-row seat from the comfort of their own homes. Today marks the release of Evangeline vs. The Machine Comes Alive (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) via MCA, a 19-track live album that complements the IMAX® exclusive concert film of the same name. The limited theatrical engagement, which began Feb. 11, continues with an additional showing tomorrow, Feb. 14—tickets available now at IMAX.com/EricChurch.
The live project captures Church performing his critically acclaimed eighth studio album Evangeline vs. The Machine in its entirety, before seamlessly moving into reimagined catalog favorites. This performance, recorded live at Nashville’s Pinnacle, the first ever live album captured at the venue, features an expansive ensemble: a six-piece band, four-piece horns, four-piece strings, an eight-piece choir, and standout vocalist Joanna Cotten. An official performance video of “Springsteen” from the Pinnacle is already making waves online.
“The thing about the IMAX film is it freezes a moment in time,” Church told CBS Mornings earlier this week. “I’m going to get older; those fans are going to get older, but we froze that moment in time forever musically. If I want to watch a sporting event tonight… if I want to go to the game, that’s great. If I don’t, I’m going to watch it on television. You can’t do that with concerts, right? I can’t just tune in to who’s playing in Cleveland tonight. So, concerts are a little bit different that way, and that’s why the IMAX film mattered.”
The release of the film and live album comes as Church continues his Free the Machine Tour, a critically lauded run that has captivated audiences nationwide. Relive Magazine described the D.C. show as “less like a concert and more like a film unfolding in real time,” while The Music Universe declared, “if you can see only one country music concert in 2026, it needs to be the Free the Machine Tour…there will not be a bigger, fuller all-live sound on the road this year.”
Across the Midwest, critics echoed the acclaim. The Minnesota Star Tribune hailed Church as “country music’s most courageous and unpredictable superstar – both musically and culturally…The concert, like Church’s career, was about conviction not convention, about evolving, not standing pat, about the moment, not tradition.” The Green Bay Press Gazette praised the performance as “so nuanced, so sneaky sophisticated, so good that the sum of its parts was as great as the whole…an artist who increasingly transcends the boundaries of today’s country to be one of music’s more electrifying live acts – period.” And Cleveland.com summed it up simply: “Country music’s iconoclast did it again.”
With the Evangeline vs. The Machine Comes Alive album and IMAX concert film, Church has ensured that his groundbreaking tour isn’t just a fleeting moment on stage—it’s a landmark musical experience fans can revisit anytime.