Carrie Underwood

Lots of photos of Carrie onstage at the American Idol Season 7 Grand Finale, which was held at the Nokia Theatre on May 21, 2008 in Los Angeles, California.

Enjoy!

Carrie Underwood took home the award for Female Vocalist of the Year at last night’s 43rd Annual Academy Of Country Music Awards, which was held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Congratulations, Carrie!

For a complete list of winners, click here.

Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley, who are both nominees for multiple awards, will perform a special tribute to country music legend Eddy Arnold during the 43rd Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, which will be broadcast live from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas tonight {Sunday, May 18, 2008} at 8:00 pm on CBS.  

New photos!  Carrie arriving at the 43rd Annual Academy Of Country Music Awards: 

Carrie Underwood will be performing in Reno, Nevada on May 21 at the Reno Events Center.

Prior to the Reno show, Carrie will be in Colorado Springs, Colorado on May 13, Casper, Wyoming on May 14, Bozeman, Montana on May 15 and at Country Thunder USA in Waxahachie Texas, on June 1.  

More pics from the 2008 CMT Music Awards on April 14, 2008 in Nashville, Tennessee.  Enjoy!

Carrie Underwood performs during day 3 of Stagecoach, California’s Country Music Festival, held at the Empire Polo Field on May 4, 2008 in Indio, California.

Lots more pics below.  Enjoy!

Hi Everyone - it’s Tina with more fabulous Carrie Underwood news!

Carrie will be performing at the 43rd Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, where she’s also nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year. The awards will be televised live from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on Sunday, May 18th at 8:00 PM ET/PT on CBS.

Also look for Toby Keith, Kellie Pickler, LeAnn Rimes, Taylor Swift, Brooks & Dunn, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood and others to pitch in, whle Kenny Chesney and George Strait will perform their duet “Shiftwork” from Chesney’s album, “Poets & Pirates.” This will be the first time the pair have performed this song live. Both Chesney and Strait are nominated for multiple Academy of Country Music awards, including Entertainer of the Year.

If you missed the list of nominess, click here to visit the official site of the Academy of Country Music.

GAC has an article about Carrie Underwood performing with Motley Crue last Friday Night:

“August 15, 2007 — Carrie Underwood is a big fan of ’80s rock bands, so she and some girlfriends couldn’t resist going down to see Motley Crue lead singer Vince Neil in concert at Nashville’s Wildhorse Saloon last Friday night, WKRN reports.

Carrie also couldn’t resist jumping on the stage and singing with Vince. She sang along on the song “Kickstart My Heart,” which contains a profane word at one point, but she refrained from singing that word. ”

They also have a link to a fan video of the performance.

 Here are the upcoming video airtimes for Carrie Underwood today on GAC:

06:27 PM - “Wasted”

Ok, this is a few days old but it took a while to surface. Former Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach has issued the following statement in regards to Carrie Underwood’s cover of “I Remember You” on ‘American Idol’:

 ”Wow! It will never cease to blow my mind when another successful artist covers one of my tunes. Here is the ‘American Idol’ herself, Carrie Underwood, doing [SKID ROW's] ‘I Remember You’.

“Never in my wildest dreams could I ever have imagined, coming up with this song in a New Jersey garage and recording it in the studio that 20 years later it would live on in an arena stage being sung by a country artist in the USA while I am still singing it myself on stages worldwide.

“Carrie Underwood, if you ever read this, ROCK ON and congrats on all your well-deserved success! You are very talented and I am 100% honored that you are singing this song!! Sounds incredible and I wish you all the best!!”

 There is also footage of Carrie Underwood performing the song recently at a concert.

Thats a pretty nice statement for Sebastian Bach to make. he was one of the most famous rockers of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s as a member of Skid Row. The band was famous for songs such as “I Remember You” and “18 And Life”.  You can check out the entire article here.

GAC also has an article on Carrie Underwood’s new single “So Small”:

“Carrie Underwood has released the first single from her much anticipated sophomore album. “So Small” is one of several tracks on the upcoming project that Carrie co-wrote.

Of the new single, Carrie says,”‘So Small’ is a feeling song that talks about how people invest so much of their time and energy into things that aren’t really important. And you don’t really realize that until it’s too late.

“We’re all guilty of it, as I know I am, of just letting silly things get in the way,” she continues. “The smallest thing can almost ruin my day, and at some point I realize, ‘Good gracious, Carrie! What are you doing?’ I have a great life, and we need to remember the things that are truly important.”

Co-writers of the song are Luke Laird and Hillary Lindsey, who co-wrote three tracks on Carrie’s debut disc, Some Hearts, including the chart-topping “Wasted” and “Jesus, Take the Wheel.” Carrie’s yet-to-be-titled new CD also reunites her with producer Mark Bright, who helmed seven tracks on Some Hearts. ”

Here are the upcoming video airtimes for Carrie Underwood today on GAC:

 02:46 PM - “Before he Cheats”

 05:56 PM - “Wasted”
 

I’ve just finished watching the ABC two-hour special “CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock” which featured performances from this year’s CMA Music Festival in downtown Nashville. Among the footage shown was Martina McBride’s uplifting rendition of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”, pre-teen music prodigies performing onstage with Big N Rich, and Dierks Bentley giving fans a personal tour of the CMA Music Festival. The show featured performances by Bentley, Big N Rich, and McBride, as well as Kellie Pickler, Taylor Swift, Alan Jackson, a powerful duet with Reba McEntire and Kelly Clarkson, and Brad Paisely, among others.

Carrie Underwood was shown as the next to last performer, looking physically striking and sounding spectacular. Dressed in a short, tight black dress (which looked brownish maroon in the light), black high heels and huge hoop earrings, Carrie Underwood belted out a powerful version of “Wasted”. The camera cut to the audience a few times and showed fans dancing, singing, and really getting into the performance. Carrie Underwood’s voice sounded splendidly on point, with her murderously long holding of the word “Wasted” bringing an end to what may have been the best performance of the night. After Carrie Underwood’s breathtaking performance, Miranda Lambert closed the show (or the special rather) with a racy, sexy version of “Kerosene”.

All in all ABC’s coverage of the CMA Music Festival was optimal as far as trying to capture and edit a multi-day event into only two hours. They did a good job giving equal time to performers, fans, and performers interacting with fans. The quality of the show looked really nice and professional, and the showflowed along smoothly in an upbeat kind of way. Let’s hope that they will continue the tradition of covering the CMA Music Festival next year.

TWIN LAKES, Wis. — Finally, Dierks Bentley got the audience he deserved.

Roughly 30,000 rowdy, ready, loud and proud country fans showed up to adore him at Thursday (July 19) night’s Country Thunder USA concert in Twin Lakes, Wis. After years of climbing up the gig ladder from honky-tonks and clubs to college arenas and county fairs, Bentley has now landed at the top. And this festival, which pulls fans from all over Wisconsin, Chicagoland and the entire Midwest for five days straight, is a nice place to land.

Bentley didn’t start his set until just before 11 p.m., so his 20-song set went well past midnight. As he put it, “Our job is to be the first guys to jump on the bar and get the party going.” His stories about life on the road gave his long list of hits some breathing room. And his vocals have been aging nicely: a little grittier, maybe, but strong and full of the distinctive sound that give his show such range. You can hear a longing in his soul on “My Last Name” and “Come a Little Closer” and yet still hear him getting his flirt on in songs like “Cab of My Truck” and “Domestic, Light and Cold.”

When he wasn’t singing, he was talking. Telling a story about judging a recent Hooter’s bikini contest in Las Vegas, he explained, “It’s just a job. It’s what we do for a living.” He went on to say that it’s difficult to explain the things you see from the stage, so he wrote a song about it. “That Don’t Make It Easy Lovin’ Me,” made the crowd feel like he’d written a song all about them. With his full band behind him, and the standard-issue black T-shirt and jeans, Bentley made the most out of every minute while playing for such a massive audience.

The seats at the festival were still filling when Carrie Underwood took the stage before Bentley, but she sang like she was doing so for a sold-out crowd. (The general admission lawn was just about at its capacity, while many of the much pricier reserved seats stayed empty all day and night.) The audience sang along on her mega hits like “Jesus, Take the Wheel” and her opening number, “Young and Beautiful.” But they seemed less sold on her sporadic tributes to Guns ‘N Roses. She spent much of her hour and a-half show dancing up and down the catwalks off the stage, touching fans and even stopping to sing to a little girl. While some of her peers are suffering from the tolls of the road, her powerful voice shows no signs of shutting down.

Before Underwood, Keith Anderson came out for an hour, doing the songs that have made him — and other artists — such fan favorites. He opened with “XXL” and “Podunk” but quickly changed gears when it was time to get sentimental on “Lost in This Moment,” the No. 1 song he wrote for Big & Rich. The highlight of Anderson’s set, though, was when he brought out a few good men from the military and sang “Sunday Morning in America” while the soldiers walked the catwalks to shake the hands of the fans. When it was time for “Pickin’ Wildflowers,” a half-dozen dancing girls in jeans and half-tanks joined Anderson on the catwalk to pack a little more heat into the already-sexy song.

Country rockers Trick Pony had a chance earlier in the day to show off new lead singer Aubrey Collins. Dressed in pigtails, short overalls, knee-high athletic socks and heavy eye make-up, she hardly fit the image of a female country vocalist — which may be just how she likes it. Collins’ voice was certainly just as non-traditional throughout their set, even though the band had some stellar talent on traditional country instruments such as stand-up bass and banjo.

Nashville Star winner Chris Young took the stage earlier with his own solid tunes like “Beer or Gasoline” and “Drinkin’ Me Lonely.” He had been to Country Thunder before when he was just 18 and opening the show for Chris LeDoux.

Newcomer Sarah Buxton had an aggressive set of her own, doing the hippie cowgirl thing with her raspy vocals and folk-style songwriting. Her rendition of “Stupid Boy,” which Buxton wrote and Keith Urban recorded, sounded nothing like Urban’s version. There’s something less pathetic and more empowering when Buxton does it her way.

But the stand-out guy during the afternoon had to be Luke Bryan. It’s hard to say who was happier: Bryan (to be sharing a festival bill with Anderson, Underwood and Bentley) or the crowd (to be hearing genuine country music full of lyrics about life). His success as co-writer of Billy Currington’s No. 1 single, “Good Directions,” immediately established his credentials as a songwriter. But then his own single “All My Friends Say” and a cover of Conway Twitty’s “Lay You Down” had fans asking over and over, “Who is this guy, and why haven’t I heard of him before?” When you find a Georgia native who’ll sing honestly about hog-wrestling, hot-wiring tractors and curing hams, you can’t let him get away.

Country Thunder USA continues through Sunday (July 22), when Kenny Chesney will be closing the festival with tourmates Pat Green and Sugarland.

Source: CMT

On Monday, July 23, 2007 ABC will broadcast “CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock“. The two-hour special will feature performances from the CMA Music Festival in Nashville. This year’s CMA Music Festival took place from June 7-10, and has recorded it’s largest turnout ever with 191,000 fans showing up for the event. This will be the third time ABC has filmed and broadcast the CMA Music Festival.

Scheduled footage will include performances by Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Big & Rich, Brooks & Dunn, Sara Evans, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, Martina McBride, Brad Paisley, Kellie Pickler, Rascal Flatts, LeAnn Rimes, Sugarland, Taylor Swift, Josh Turner, Carrie Underwood, Reba McEntire, and Kelly Clarkson.

The CMA Music Festival features artists performing exclusive televised songs, but also focuses on the interactions between performers and their fans. This country music extravaganza will document the journey and experience of several fans. Some come to enjoy the music, some come get a glimpse of their favorite singer, but all leave with satisfaction. And a few lucky fans get surprised beyond their wildest dreams. You can watch ABC’s premiere of the CMA Country Music Festival on Monday at 9:00 PM EST/8:00 PM CST.

Carrie Underwood is scheduled to perform on the second annual CBS show “Fashion Rocks“, which will kick off New York’s Fall Fashion Week by celebrating the best in fashion and music.”Fashion Rocks” is a celebrity concert event that honors the relationship between music and fashion. The event is set to take place at Radio City Music Hall and will feature Carrie Underwood and Tim McGraw, among others.

This year’s edition of “Fashion Rocks” will air Friday, September 7, 2007 at 9PM EST/8PM CST on CBS.