Carrie Underwood Fans

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Last Carrie song you heard?

Farawayhills

Well-known member
I think Keep It Country (Europe's only dedicated Country Music TV channel) is giving Carrie pretty good support - though my impression is that much of that is due to the young female presenters who host some of the shows.

I mentioned Shauna McStravock above - a young singer from Northern Ireland - who has a Carrie clip on her Facebook page. She closed her show today by screening in full Carrie's performance of "How Great Thou Art", with Vince Gill's accompaniment and guitar solo. This emotional performance, with audience reaction, shows Carrie at her best, and I think would be well received by this channel's audience.

As a guide to what is well received in today's dedicated Country market in the British Isles, this is a recent release by Shauna McStravock herself (the song is associated with the late Linda Hargrove, and is also the title of a girls-only Country Music talent competition, which has been held annually since the 1980s). Stylistically, I'd regard it as generally quite Pop-Country, but also leaning more Traditional than Carrie or her American market today usually expect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXol-GyhlIQ

That channel's audience tends overall to be more Traditional-leaning, and less Americana-leaning than the internet stations, or some of the BBC's flagship shows. (I'm using Americana there as a stylistic term, veering towards progressive Roots music, and Traditional as the older radio style of "core" Country). Neither the Traditional nor the Americana styles would be the areas Carrie is most associated with at home - but, as I don't believe she would be willing to present as a Pop artist to gain more international support, she would probably aim for somewhere between those approaches - neither of which automatically think of her as one of "their" artists.
I think everyone respects her, and admires her vocal range - but don't always find her music a particularly natural fit for their playlists. Through her live performances here, and internet streaming, Carrie has wider support, going beyond people who would normally listen to Country - but gaining actual airplay here has often been more difficult. That is why the support of the younger women (whom that channel give prominent spots to in their scheduling) is likely to be particularly important in demonstrating her blend of traditional awareness with often quite daring innovative approaches.
 

txacar

Well-known member
Heard Just a Dream in the grocery store this afternoon. Heard Remind Me in a Mexican restaurant bar tonight. Her vocals on JAD are impeccable and so beautiful.
 

Farawayhills

Well-known member
Another snippet of news from the Country Music channel that screens in the British Isles - Sandy Kelly (a classic Country vocalist) hosts the show "Sandy's Favourites", and this evening she screened a clip from the Linda Ronstadt tribute concert that Carrie took part in. Although, unfortunately, it wasn't Carrie's Different Drum solo (to which I'm not sure if they would have the re-broadcast rights), it was still good to see Carrie singing with the legends, and standing right in front of Waddy Wachtel, and clapping to his guitar solo.

As a digression, it reminded me of how much I'd love to see more of Carrie covering classic songs - a side of the female Country tradition that she's good at, but seldom seems to explore. As an example of what I mean, this is the host, Sandy Kelly, performing "Sweet Dreams" (a Nashville Sound classic, written and first recorded by Don Gibson, and later made famous in a version by Patsy Cline.) I think Carrie has a voice made for material like this, which would fit well as an occasional extra recorded track or concert show piece.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9nw7IUjIlU
 

Farawayhills

Well-known member
"How Great Thou Art"

Shauna McStravock used it as the climax of her "Shauna's Country" TV show for Good Friday, following Donna Taggart's "Jealous of the Angels", and closing the show, apart from the fade out with Joey and Rory's Bluegrass version of "Ill Fly Away".

She said she always received many requests to play it, and I think it was a very fitting choice for the day. A particular point is how emotional Carrie gets, when she pauses for Vince Gill's guitar solo. It's relatively rare for headline chart artists to show such appreciation of lengthy instrumental passages, and I think this proves how immersed in the song she was. This performance deservedly got a standing ovation, and I believe will always rank as one of her best
 

Farawayhills

Well-known member
Carrie's videos got a full show on Keep It Country TV in the UK & Ireland today. The show is called "The Golden Hour", and it plays back to back videos from the same featured artist.

Unfortunately, I only caught the second half of this broadcast, but the last six videos played were TH, JAD, LTG, DL, SmBr, JTTW.
 

Farawayhills

Well-known member
Carrie's duet with Dolly, of "I Will Always Love You", from, I think, 2009, was chosen as the closing video tonight on Big T's Real Country.(Big T Campbell has been playing Country Music here as a radio DJ for over 30 years, and now also has an hourly show on the TV channel, recently renamed as Spotlight TV.)
His experience is significant - the "Real" in his show's title implies that he aims to pick material that he considers classic. Dolly obviously fits that bill, but Carrie would be the youngest artist in the playlist, and the fact that he picked the duet, rather than other Dolly performances, shows recognition of her feel for the genre's ethos.

I think Carrie demonstrates that in this performance by the pure clarity of her delivery, and the slightly slower tempo than might have been used in a solo performance - this gives prominence to the song, allowing the lyric and melody to get full attention, and Carrie shows a real gift for expressing additional emotion by small changes in intonation, which are significant, but not overstated. The song was originally meant as Dolly's "goodbye" to Porter Wagoner, and shows the conflicting emotions of regret and realism in striking out alone. Understanding the context, and letting the song speak through the singer, is not straightforward, and can't be successfully achieved by power singing alone. Carrie has almost certainly known the song for most of her life - but it's particularly impressive at this relatively early stage in her career. What I particularly liked in this duet was the way the two artists echoed each other's lines - in a way that showed a real mutual respect. Along with Carrie's occasional other "classic" covers, it shows a side of her talent that is too often rather overlooked.
 

Momin

Well-known member
Carrie could easily have power-sung it but, as fond as she is of that form of singing, she really does know when to hold back and bring a softer touch to certain songs. I think she is especially mindful of that when she is singing classics/older songs/songs she grew up listening to. She largely keeps power-singing a feature in her own songs.
 
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