The three-song collection features live covers of Eric Church & George Strait, along with a previously unreleased original
Country music maverick Chase Rice has surprised fans with today’s release of a special three-song EP, Live From Chief’s. Captured during his recent acoustic underplay shows at Chief’s on Broadway on February 13-14, the project highlights Rice’s raw, unfiltered artistry in a way that fans rarely get to experience at his larger arena shows.
The project opens with two standout covers: fellow Asheville-area native Eric Church’s “Carolina,” one of the first songs Rice was inspired to learn to play on guitar during his college years at UNC, and George Strait’s iconic rodeo hit “I Can Still Make Cheyenne,” which itself inspired the EP’s third song.
The previously unreleased “Cowboy Goodbye,” a yearning song co-written by Rice with Oscar Charles and Foy Vance during a recent post-Red Rocks retreat in Colorado, serves as a pivotal moment for his next studio album – the oft-teased Eldora expected later this year. The first song written for the highly anticipated follow up to recent independent success Go Down Singin’, “Cowboy Goodbye” reflects on the sacrifices that come with the pursuit of music and the longing for something more.
“I love my life; I love my job; I love what I get to do for a living – but I’ve given up a lot to do it,” Rice shares in the live recording’s introduction, reflecting on the deeply personal parallels between the life of a touring musician and that of a true cowboy. “I don’t have a family yet – that’s the goal – but that’s one of the main things that I’ve given up to do this thing… Since I was a little kid, I always wore the cowboy boots, I always wore the cowboy hat and the cowboy way of life was always just kind of in my mind.”
Co-produced by Rice and Charles, the EP features an intimate, stripped-down sound with Charles on drums and background vocals, Jonathan Sherwood on bass and Tori Allen on fiddle. Recorded at two back-to-back sold-out shows at Chief’s just a few weeks ago, these performances were part of a unique two-night residency where Rice celebrated his artistic evolution.
