Saturday, January 5, 2013

NC's Church just misses Top 10 tours of 2012

It's always nice to see North Carolinians doing well and Granite Falls native Eric Church has had a very good year. In addition to his recent Grammy nominations for the track "Springsteen" (he's up for Best Country Solo Performance and Best Country Song), Church's "Blood, Sweat & Beers Tour" was named 11th best selling tour of the year in Pollstar's Worldwide Ticket Sales Chart with 765,000 tickets sold. This puts him in the company of Springsteen himself (who came in second to Madonna) as well as Coldplay, Roger Waters, Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson THE IMMORTAL World Tour, Cirque du Soliel, Metallica and Dave Matthews Band. Only Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney's Brothers of the Sun tour and Jason Aldean ranked higher among country artists.

The CMA winner, who was also the only country artist mentioned in "The New York Times'" best concerts of 2012 list, called his inclusion "incredible."

"I distinctively remember playing for eight people just over two years ago in a club in Texas," he said in a statement from his publicist.

He can expect his ranking to rise next year since he's joining Chesney's "No Shoes Nation" for its stadium dates. If you missed Church on tour - he played Time Warner Cable Arena in November - you'll be able to get a taste when he releases a live album later this year.

(Photo credit Jim Sutter)