''Chief'' is the third studio album by American
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
artist
Eric Church
Kenneth Eric Church (born May 3, 1977) is an American country music singer-songwriter. He has released nine studio albums through Capitol Nashville since 2005. His debut album, 2006's '' Sinners Like Me'', produced three singles on the ''Billboar ...
. It was released on July 26, 2011, via
EMI Nashville. The album produced five singles, including Church's first two number one hits on the US ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
''
Hot Country Songs
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States.
This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...
chart—"
Drink in My Hand
"Drink in My Hand" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Eric Church. It was released in August 2011 as the second single from his 2011 album ''Chief''. The song became Church's first number one hit on the US ''Billboar ...
" and "
Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originato ...
", as well as the Top 10 hits "
Creepin'" and "
Like Jesus Does
"Like Jesus Does" is a song written by Casey Beathard and Monty Criswell and recorded by American country music artist Eric Church. It was released in January 2013 as the fifth and final single from Church's 2011 album '' Chief''. It was also his ...
" and the Top 20 "
Homeboy". On June 20, 2012, the album was certified triple Platinum by the RIAA, for having shipped over 3,000,000 records.
As of April 2017, the album has sold 1,957,700 copies in the United States.
The album received a nomination for
Best Country Album
The Grammy Award for Best Country Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality albums in the country music genre. Honors in ...
at the
54th Grammy Awards
The 54th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 12, 2012, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles being broadcast on CBS honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2010 through September 30, 2011. LL Cool J hosted the ...
and won
Album of the Year at the
CMA Awards
The Country Music Association Awards, also known as the CMA Awards or CMAs, are presented to country music artists and broadcasters to recognize outstanding achievement in the country music industry. The televised annual presentation ceremony f ...
and
ACM Awards
The Academy of Country Music Awards, also known as the ACM Awards, were first held in 1966, honoring the industry's accomplishments during the previous year. It was the first country music awards program held by a major organization. The academy ...
. In 2020, the album was ranked at 419 on
''Rolling Stone'''s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.
Critical reception
Upon its release, ''Chief'' received generally positive reviews from most music critics. At
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which assigns a
normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an
average
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...
score of 77, based on 9 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
reviewer Thom Jurek gave it 5 stars out of 5, saying that it is "defiant, well-conceived, and more carefully executed than it sounds, with some excellent songs".
In a review for ''
Slant Magazine
''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...
'', critic Jonathan Keefe stated that "It just doesn’t make a hell of a lot of sense to champion traditional country music while singing over hard-rock arrangements and occasionally Auto-Tuned vocal tracks. That’s not to say he doesn’t do a lot of things, particularly with his songwriting and with some risky production choices, awfully well here. Chief doesn’t make him a country music Jesus, but it does back up a good deal of his braggadocio."
''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' placed the album at number 19 on its Best Albums of 2011 list.
Commercial performance
The album debuted at number one on the US
''Billboard'' 200 and the
Top Country Albums
Top Country Albums is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The 50-position chart lists the most popular country music albums in the country, calculated weekly by Broadcast Data Systems based on physical sales a ...
chart, selling 145,000 copies in its first week of release. In its second week, the album fell to number two on the Billboard 200 while still remaining at number one on the Top Country Albums chart. The album was certified Platinum by the
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
(RIAA) on June 20, 2012, and
triple platinum
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
on August 31, 2016 for combined sales and streams of over three million
units
Unit may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* UNIT, a fictional military organization in the science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''
* Unit of action, a discrete piece of action (or beat) in a theatrical presentation
Music
* Unit (album), ...
in the United States.
As of August 2017, the album has sold 1,957,700 copies in the United States.
Track listing
Personnel
Adapted from AllMusic.
Musicians
* Stephanie Chapman – background vocals
* Eric Church – lead vocals,
Dobro
Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar.
The Dobro was originally ...
, acoustic guitar, electric guitar
*
J. T. Corenflos – electric guitar
*
Joanna Cotten
Joanna Cotten (born in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American country music singer. Cotten's debut single, "The Prize," peaked at number 60 on the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs chart. Cotten recorded 21 songs for an unreleased album for Warner Bro ...
– background vocals
*
Shelly Fairchild
Shelly Fairchild (born August 23, 1977) is an American music recording artist. Signed to Columbia Records in 2004, she released her debut album ''Ride'' in early 2005. It produced the single "You Don't Lie Here Anymore", a No. 35 on the ''Bi ...
– background vocals
* Steve Fishell –
lap steel guitar
The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of playing a traditional ...
,
pedal steel guitar
The pedal steel guitar is a Console steel guitar, console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all s ...
* Jason Hall – background vocals
* Lee Hendricks – bass guitar
*
Jedd Hughes
Jedd Hughes (born in Quorn, Australia) is an Australian singer, songwriter, session musician, and record producer.
Early life
Hughes grew up in Quorn, where he grew up listening to his father's country records. He won a local country music ...
– acoustic guitar, banjo,
mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
* Jeff Hyde – acoustic guitar, banjo, background vocals
* Jay Joyce – acoustic guitar, electric guitar,
12-string guitar
A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 strings in six courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lower four courses are tuned in o ...
, Dobro,
synthesizer
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
* Jaime King – background vocals
*
Luke Laird
Luke Robert Laird (born May 4, 1978 in Hartstown, Pennsylvania) is an American country music songwriter and producer. He has written over 20 number one ''Billboard'' singles, including Carrie Underwood's "So Small", "Temporary Home", and "Und ...
– acoustic guitar
*
Alfreda McCrary Lee – background vocals
*
Beverly Ann McCrary – background vocals
*
Regina McCrary – background vocals
* Pat McLaughlin – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, background vocals
*
Giles Reaves Giles Reaves is a multi-instrumentalist sound artist and audio engineer who has composed albums of space music. His most recognized album, ''Sea of Glass'', 1992, peaked at #11 on the Billboard Top New Age Albums chart.
Biography
Reaves got his ...
–
vibraphone
The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...
*
Jonathan Singleton – background vocals
*
Bryan Sutton
Bryan Sutton is an American musician. Primarily known as a flatpicking acoustic guitar player, Sutton also plays mandolin, banjo, ukulele, and electric guitar. He also sings and writes songs.
Biography Early career
Sutton's grandfather and ...
– acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin
* Ryan Tyndell – background vocals
*
Charlie Worsham
Charlie Worsham (born September 1, 1985) is an American country music singer, songwriter and actor. He is signed to Warner Bros. Records. Charlie is currently a member of Dierks Bentley's tour band. He is a former member of the band Old Crow Med ...
– electric guitar, mandolin
* Craig Wright – drums, percussion
Technical
* Arturo Buenahora, Jr. – executive production
* Joanna Carter – art direction
* Jason Hall – assistant, engineer
* Michelle Hall – art production
* Scott Johnson – production assistant
* Jay Joyce – production, engineer, mixing
* Andrew Mendelson – mastering
* John Peets – photography
* Matt Wheeler – assistant
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Decade-end charts
Certifications
References
{{Authority control
2011 albums
Eric Church albums
EMI Records albums
Albums produced by Jay Joyce