Sinners Like Me

Eric Church’s notorious bad-boy attitude was already firmly in place on his debut. He evokes Steve Earle on the waltz-time title track, matching melodic poignancy with maverick mythos, and adds a dash of Waylon Jennings on country-rocking stomp “How ‘Bout You.” Church serves up a rough ‘n’ ready salute to the original country outlaw on “Pledge Allegiance to the Hag” and shows his storytelling knack with the Springsteen-worthy, steady-rocking pregnancy-scare tale “Two Pink Lines.” Not a bad place to start at all.

At a time when country music was sliding deeper and deeper into a soulless pop rut, Capitol Records Nashville took a chance on North Carolina native Eric Church and his hard-edged music.

Sinners Like Me doesn’t capitalize on Eric Churchs distinctive writing with an identifiable sound.

Eric Church sings the first four lines of the first song as if he's been embodied by Toby Keith, talking about the Middle East, gas, and mama's apple pie...