The fourth season winner of American Idol is Carrie Underwood. The woman that brought you hits like “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” Before He Cheats,” and “Remind Me,” Underwood is back with her fourth studio album titled “Blown Away.” The first single released off the album is “Good Girl.”
The second track off the album is titled “Blown Away.” It is about a troubled soul. A young woman is become troubled by her father issues. A tornado coming though the town that she lives in also stresses her out. She wants to see the house that brings her all the trouble in ruins.
The third track off the album is titled “Two Black Cadillacs.” It is the story of a man that is entangled in a relationship with two women. It is a dark vision of two women scorned by the man they loved. All the people talk about what a great guy he was but they know the truth. They decide to get back at him without even knowing each other. It is a story of the ultimatum betrayal.
This is a darker album than we are all used to for Carrie Underwood. She is showing her darker side in writing this album. It is not all the fun loving songs similar to that off of her original three albums. “Blown Away” is a great album that is filled with heartache, and other emotions that we all feel on a daily bases.
This CD deserves a 5 out of 5.
Credit – The Hornet
*You can download Carrie’s interview on the website or read the transcript here*
Since winning American Idol in 2005, Carrie Underwood has become one of the most popular country artists in the business. At the age of 29, she is tied with country legend Reba McEntire as the Female Country Artist with the most number one hits on the Billboard charts. Not bad for a girl from Checotah, Okla.
Blown Away, which comes out this Tuesday, is Underwood’s fourth record, and it’s a little darker than her previous work. In a line on the title track, Underwood sings, “There’s not enough wind in Oklahoma to rip the nails out of the past.”
“The song is a story about a girl and her father,” Underwood explains. “The song describes him as a ‘mean old mister’ — and you can kind of make that as bad as you want it to be. The daughter can feel a storm coming, and she just wishes it would wash her past away, and in doing so, take her father along. So it’s a very deep, dark story.’
“To be able to explore that side and kind of have a little more drama, a little more ominous weather going on in the album, is really nice,” she adds.
Carrie Underwood speaks with NPR’s Guy Raz about the making of Blown Away, her Idol audition, and why she still drives the same Ford Escape she did before she was famous.
Credit – NPR
With her ultra-feminine style, marriage to hockey star Mike Fisher and a career studded with tender chart-topping ballads including “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” “Mama’s Song” and “Temporary Home,” it’s easy to imagine Carrie Underwood doodling hearts on notebook paper while curled up on her couch watching Jennifer Aniston’s latest romantic comedy.
That scenario isn’t going to play out in this lifetime.
“Somebody help me, I don’t relate,” says Underwood, seated in a hotel room at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas the day before theAcademy of Country Music Awards. “I’m not into the mushy-gushy, cheesy love stuff.”
“She’s imminently more complex than most people give her credit for,” adds Underwood’s friend and longtime producer, Mark Bright. “Her taste runs very opposite of that beautiful and real sweet exterior that she has.”
She doesn’t even like songs about love.
“When you get one of those songs that’s absolutely amazing, then you should sing about love,” she says. “But 95 percent of love songs to me, I’m like, ‘It’s a chick flick in song form.’ ”
In reality, her personality is more in line with her sassy Grammy-nominated “Before He Cheats” and her latest anti-love up-tempo “Good Girl” from her new album, Blown Away, which hits stores Tuesday.
“The problem is people think they do know what you would like … and it’s like, ‘No, you don’t know me at all,’ ” Underwood says. “But it’s nice to surprise people and do things people wouldn’t expect you to do. Who wants to be predictable?”
Album showcases songwriting
Underwood eschews the expected on the wildly diverse Blown Away and early on displays her affection for what Bright calls “unusual, weird twists.”
The album’s title track is a dramatic, highly produced, up-tempo number about a daughter who locks herself in the cellar, leaving her drunken, abusive father on the couch to be swept away by a tornado. “Two Black Cadillacs” unveils the story of two women — a wife and a mistress — who secretly work together to end the life of their cheating man.
“Before you knew it, we had this soap opera going on,” Underwood recalls of writing the song with Josh Kearand Hillary Lindsey. “We don’t really say how they do it. It still leaves a lot to the imagination. And they meet for the first time at the funeral. It was hard. It was like, how do they meet? How do they know about each other? How do they kill him? Working all of that out was really fun.”
Bright says “Two Black Cadillacs” “put me on the floor the second I heard it.” He describes Underwood as “a very accomplished songwriter,” a skill he feels is showcased on Blown Away.
“She’s just very, very deep musically,” Bright says. “On this album, she was able to musically convey that. We just had the time to look under every rock and pull those ideas out. It made for a much more complete, honest, real record.”
Underwood co-wrote eight of the 14 songs on the album, including current single “Good Girl,” the “Unanswered Prayers”-type song “Good in Goodbye,” which she wrote with Ryan Tedder and Lindsey, and the driving country jam “Cupid’s Got a Shotgun,” which she wrote with Kear and Chris Tompkins, and that unofficially features Brad Paisley on guitar.
“She texted and said, ‘Will you play guitar on a song?’ and I said, ‘I’ll do my best,’ ” Paisley recalls. “They came over and I sat there and played a couple of guitar solos in the song. I had a ball and played some really crazy stuff, and I said, ‘Well, I just killed this song’s chances of being a single.’ ”
Credit – The Tennessean
As with the last three records, Carrie is planning on doing the TV circuit to promote Blown Away here are her upcoming TV appearances so make sure you set your DVR’s.
Monday April 30th – Good Morning America (Exclusive Interview)
Monday April 30th – Live On Letterman & The Late Show With David Letterman
Tuesday May 1st – Good Morning America (Performance)
Tuesday May 1st – iHeart Radio Live Performance (Webcast)
Thursday May 3rd – American Idol
Wednesday May 9th – The Ellen DeGeneres Show
Thursday May 10th - Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Tuesday May 15th - Dancing With The Stars
Sunday May 20th - Billboard Music Awards
Carrie will also make appearances across various programs on the CMT, GAC, VH1, and MTV networks throughout the month of May
Credit – CMIL
On her first three albums, Carrie Underwood has sounded like an “American Idol” champion — big songs, big voice, a scope of superstar event even before she could justify the designation. It worked, of course; Underwood is unquestionably the most successful of the show’s 10 winners and has just as successfully transitioned into a performer whose “Idol” past is more footnote than front of mind at this point.
On her fourth album, however, Underwood flexes some new artistic muscles, exploring fresh musical nuances without sacrificing the mainstream-ready formula that’s allowed her to capably straddle the pop-country divide. Produced by Underwood’s career-long aide de camp Mark Bright, “Blown Away” puts together a solid mix of rock (“Good Girl”), polished pop (“Blown Away,” “See You Again,” the Mutt Lange-written “Who Are You”) and some Kenny Chesney-worthy island fare (“One Way Ticket”), with just enough twang to hold her post co-hosting the Country Music Association Awards. And CMA partner Brad Paisley shows up to do some fierce pickin’ on the rootsy “Cupid’s Got a Shotgun.”
Underwood’s performances this time, meanwhile, are marked by restraint; the serial belter — who co-wrote eight of the 14 tracks here — has embraced greater dynamic range, delivering the melodies rather than forcing them. A good case in point — “Leave Love Alone,” a rootsy, feel-good tune that sounds like Underwood is singing on the front porch and not trying to shout it out to the next state. It also helps that “Blown Away” features some clever and compelling stories, including a heart-rending reference to aging and dementia (“Forever Changed”) and a couple of sly and twisted revenge tales in “Two Black Cadillacs” and the title track. She’s already sold plenty of records, but this time the champ turns in a real winner.
3 stars
Credit – The Oakland Press
Check out a new photo of Carrie at a Vitamin Water shoot/commerical, by clicking the preview above! Looks great! Hopefully we will get to see the finished product soon!