Carly Pearce at Opry 100 red carpet: ‘When I was 5 years old I told my parents I wanted to sing at the Opry’
Carly Pearce at Opry 100 red carpet: ‘When I was 5 years old I told my parents I wanted to sing at the Opry’
Carly Pearce has never shied away from honesty, but her new single “Church Girl” opens up about faith, setting the tone for her most vulnerable era yet.
“The inspiration just for this new chapter of music for me is to be bolder,” Pearce said. “I’ve always been a vulnerable songwriter and singer, but I wanted to push what I was singing about and what I wrote about.”
Faith, she explained, has shaped her since childhood, but navigating it as an adult has been more complex. “Church Girl,” written by Cameron Bedell, Seth Ennis and Carter Faith, became a mirror for her own journey.
“I’m a Christian and always have been,” she said. “And I think that with being a Christian, it can cause a lot of questions throughout your life that you deal with at different moments. This song is very reflective of my journey as a Christian and what I know to be true that so many other people are probably feeling.”
Pearce recorded the track because she believes the world needs its message of more love and less judgment now more than ever.
“I want people to know that if they are coming to my shows, that whatever emotion you’re feeling, whatever part of your journey you’re on, religion can be a journey and faith can be a journey, that you are welcome and you are accepted,” she said.
The line that anchors the song is found in the bridge: “If God is who he says he is, then I don’t think you’re cursed, girl.”
Pearce said it’s her favorite.
“To me, it’s about what I know Jesus to be is he walked with everybody. He was absolutely kind and open to everybody,” she said. “Don’t hide. Be you. He loves you.”
The song is the third taste of what’s to come in her latest era. Fans who went to the last Hummingbird World Tour concert at the Ryman Auditorium in May heard a song she wrote about ring shopping with her assistant Sydney. She also released “Dream Come True” in November, a single pulling back the curtain on the cost of chasing ambitions.
When it comes to the palette of this chapter, Pearce said it’s bold and unapologetic.
“There’s a lot of lace,” she said. “We’re in our lace era. I’m going back to my roots, going back to Kentucky, going back to the origin of where I come from and where my dreams started. There’s a lot more to me than a breakup song, and I feel like you’re really going to see that vulnerability, whether it’s funny or, you know, very bluegrass. It’s just very unapologetic across the board.”
Bryan West is a music reporter at The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow him on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.
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