My review on Carrie's I Told You So (feat Randy Travis)

There has always been talk among fans of country music about the changing sound of the genre; and the seemingly lack of appreciation today's artists have of the past. In comes Carrie Underwood to release a 5th single from her album, Carnival Ride, sending a clear message where her heart lies. While the move was deemed a risk at the time, it shouldn't be any surprise, in retrospect, since she has consistently shown her respect for old school country music throughout her career.

Throughout her very short career thus far, Underwood has been able to showcase her versatility, by reinterpreting George Michael's "Praying For Time", the Pretenders "I'll Stand By You"; and yet maintain her commitment to older school country music. Some of her best live performances have taken stage at the Grand Ole Opry (Tammy Wynette's Stand By Your Man") and this stunning vocal of a Randy Travis hit. It's no wonder the Grand Ole Opry decided to request her to sing this song and have Travis sneek up on her towards the end to extend an invitation to the historic institution.

A year after that emotional evening where Underwood and her fans shed tears of joy, she returns to the studio along with Travis to deliver a stunning duet. Initially, one may think their voices are so different; yet their voices blend oh so smoothly together. Underwood effortlessly switches between her flawless high notes and soothing harmonies; while Travis lends a more mellow, mature voice to the track.

This combination between voices from country greats from 2 eras is a must have for all music lovers!

Dynamite Carrie Montage

Dynamite Carrie Montage


Click above to view my 10th Carrie Underwood Montage!

Dancing Queen Carrie Montage

Dancing Queen Carrie Montage


Click above to view my 9th Carrie Underwood Montage!

more animated GIFs

7th Carrie Montage

Remember When Carrie Montage


Click above to view my 7th Carrie Underwood Montage!

New Hobby: Animated GIFs!

OK, i have picked up on a new hobby, making animated GIFs. a great way to remember the great Carrie moments. Happy Thanksgiving to all. And thank you to Miss Carrie Underwood for being Carrie!!!

6th Carrie Montage

Sold to Carrie Montage


Click above to view my 6th Carrie Underwood Montage!

5th Carrie Montage

How do you spell C-A-R-R-I-E montage


Click above to view my 5th Carrie Underwood Montage!

4th Carrie Montage

Wonderful (Tonight) Carrie Montage


Click above to view my 4th Carrie Underwood Montage!

3rd Carrie Montage

What Carrie Does For You Montage!


Click above to view my 3rd Carrie Underwood Montage!

2nd Carrie Montage

Rocking Carrie Montage!


Click above to view my 2nd Carrie Underwood Montage!

My very first Carrie Montage!

Unbelievable Carrie Montage!


Click above to view my pvery first Carrie Underwood Montage!

watch this space

i havent updated this in ages, but watch this space... something new will be coming up!

Jeff’s AC second concert review

Carrie sang the same songs as she did the night before, except she added Whenever You Remember. She was definitely less nervous and didn’t forget the words to the songs, although I think SCOM was a lil different, I can’t quite put my finger to what exactly though. The crowd was MUCH better, although we were still told to sit down when we got up for SCOM lol. the sound crew also worked out the kinks with her mic so there wasn’t any problems with that last night. For her encore, the crowd rushed to the front of the venue and security gave up telling people to go back to their seats lol. carrie had a cute greenish floral short dress and jeans. Her style is just so cute!

I recall reading what another country artist, jack ingram, say about carrie as a performer: he said she is just so raw and real, and I think that is really a great description. I’ve seen most of the big country acts in concert, and Carrie is definitely the most real. With her cute banter in between songs, you really get the sense that she enjoys performing on stage and she treats her fans like friends. And of course, that voice of hers. Tonight, she talked about the recording process for DFTRM, that it was done when she was on tour with AI, and how that was the first time she really was away from home, and she got really homesick and how the song hit her. At this moment the crowd gave her a big “awwww!” and she also said that she thinks the song was recorded in seattle, and how she was bawling and squalling (the crowd gave her another “awww!”) when she was recording the song and somehow mark bright managed to make something out if it!

I got to meet her (again) after the show, and she is really just such a TOTAL SWEETHEART. We talked for a bit and she really talks to her fans like how I would imagine she would talk to a friend. She really looks you in the eye, and I was just being spellbound looking into her eyes throughout. Gosh, she really has expressive and beautiful eyes. At the end, I was just totally melted and forgot to say something I wanted to tell her lol. she signed my pistons hat, so that means my boys will be winning the championship!

Oh yea, before I forget. Don pulled a don again. I wanted him to make things up to me for screwing my pic with carrie the night before, so he was supposed to take a pic again. Well, when I was 2 people away from meeting carrie. I realized don was panicking. His camera went out!!! “Change batteries” LMAO. I was like dude, theres no time to change the batteries and I shoved my camera into his hands. Then I go and talk to carrie and at the end I asked if we could take a pic and we both looked at don and he had already taken a pic of us!!! What the heck! He took a candid pic of us talking lmao.

Jeff’s AC first concert review

So, the excitement had been building up for some time. This would be Carrie’s first FULL concert since new year’s eve. Would she sing new songs from her album, would she sing new covers?

This is a really small venue, it holds about 1500 people. Finally, the time came and carrie came out wearing this REALLY cute dress (or was it the combination of cute carrie and the cute dress that made it REALLY cute? Lol). it was blue with white trimmings at the bottom. She also had her extensions out and her hair kind of straight. Very cute! Carrie sang her usual set list, but she added ISBY and took out WYR. I was recording ISBY on vid when my cam ran out of batt halfway through! I muttered a choice word as my camera shut down lol. She also did her 2 G&R songs. She said those who didn’t recognize those 2 songs, she would say “shame shame” to them lol.

The show was on May 25th and carrie made it a point to say it was her second anniversary of her win on that show! She also said since this was her first concert in a long time she was nervous, and thanked the fans for supporting her to calm her nerves. Carrie actually forgot the words a couple of times, the one during DFTRM was really noticeable! I think that got her flustered a lil! Shes such a cutie though. When she sang TNB she sat on a stool at the beginning and her left leg was shaking uncontrollably! God bless that girl’s heart! I think she was really nervous she would forget the words to that one! She also did her usual sentimental speech for she dedicated JTTW to the fans.

The show ended in a bit of a downer as carrie’s mike went off. Like when she did her runs at the end of SH, and at the beginning of IAICA. The fans sang the beginning of IAICA for her lol.

After the show, we heard she was signing at the merch table. OMG is all I have to say. Carrie underwood is the reigning FVOTY, grammy award winner, 6x platinum artist, and she is still doing this for us??? Granted this is a small venue and she was staying over for the night, but STILL. Her dedication to her fans never ceases to amaze me. Of course, without expecting her to sign I never planned what I wanted to say to her this time lmao. So I had to think of something while in the line. I did bring a pic I got of her and brad singing WL, just in case she was signing. I had gotten Brad to sign that one already so I was just delighted that I could get carrie to sign that one too!

So I go up to carrie and she really is such a sweetheart. She talks to her fans like friends. Youd never think you are talking to the reigning FVOTY, grammy award winner, 6x platinum artist. She asked me how I was and flashed me her signature smile. I said good and I handed her the pic of her and brad. She was like “wow! You got brad to sign this!!! Ok what is this he scribbled here?” (I had brad put my name on it) and carrie pointed at his scribbled ‘jeff’. Before I could answer her she was “OHHH! That’s ‘jeff’! brad has horrible pen-manship!” at this moment I asked her if she could take a pic with me and we posed. This is where our good friend Don came in and did his magic. This is what went down:

Don: *presses button on cam*
Jeff: *happy that his pic with carrie is taken*
Carrie: I think you turned that off!
Keith: C’mon now, you shouldn’t be doing this, you’ve done this so many times!
Don: *looks down at cam trying to figure what the heck he did*
Jeff: *panics and brain goes up in smoke. Whatever he wanted to say to carrie went down the toilet*

So carrie went back to talking to me and I just nodded and smiled without saying anything other than ‘thank you’. She also said she misses Brad. At this moment I realize don is beginning to take another photo of us and carrie is looking at me and I had this weird look on my face and I go “um carrie?” and the girl is so smart, she realized that don was trying to take another photo but the timing was kinda off so both of us had weird expressions on it!

After the meeting, I checked the photo with don, and im like dude, you just screwed me up there! He was talking photos for others as well, and we were checking the pics. Well, he only got the pic of me and carrie! Luckily for the others I was taking a pic of them! Don’t get don to take a pic of you and carrie the next time. he will ‘pull a Don’ lmao. Im sure the others will back me here.

Despite her nerves, carrie’s voice just keeps getting better and better. She totally nailed SWG and apart from forgetting the words, she sounded really good on DFTRM. Im bummed my cam went out when I was recording ISBY. I do have pics and a vid of wasted. Of course, It was nice getting to meet carrie again. Shes just so down to earth and seriously, if not for me thinking she is so pretty, I could easily have a conversation with her like I would have with a friend. She looked really cute with that dress and her hair without her extensions! As you can tell, she talked a lot more to me than I talked to her lol. she really likes brad a lot too. She is just too amazing, as a singer and as a person. She gives back so much to us, and no wonder we all love her so much!!!

The concert year in review

So, this was my last concert for Carrie’s first tour, and let me get a little sentimental here. what a great first year it has been for her, and for me as a fan. A year ago, carrie was thrust into a whole new world with a lot of uncertainties. I think many of us were hoping she would be accepted into the industry as an artist and not just a contest winner. A year ago, I think she would never have imagined being invited by the king of tours, Kenny Chesney, and the best guitar player in the world (and one of the nicest guys in the world), Brad Paisley, to be on their tours. It doesn’t get any bigger than those 2. they obviously recognize her as a talent. Thank you, Mr Chesney and Mr Paisley!

Her touring year could hardly get any better. Apart from the brief period at the end where she caught a bug, she performed consistently at show after show, doing over a hundred shows as us fans packed the auditoriums and stadiums. She has often said how amazed she is at Kenny chesney’s consistency; she sure is very consistent herself. Has she ever put on a bad show, or even an average one? Every single show, she has poured her heart and soul into the performance as she is living her dream, and us fans feel proud as we watch her grow, but still remain the sweetheart that we saw the very first time we saw her on TV.

Some of the memories from the past year:

1) her very first country show last December, when she opened for leann rimes and martina mcbride. It was a gutsy move, on her part, to open for those 2 huge voices. Carrie not only held her own, but she got me hooked

2) the debut of patience and sweet child of mine at the NCAA final 4 in Indianapolis. I remember I got a shock! Lol. it was just 4 months after the show in Detroit, and she grew so much from her first show. I remember staring at Richard in shock as she completed those 2 songs, saying “did she just sing that???”

3) The power going out during the concert at the Fowlerville fair. Nothing could have prepared carrie for that! The whole crowd was stunned in silence as IAICA got interrupted. Carrie tried to entertain the crowd by telling some stories, and I wouldn’t have minded the power being out for a little longer.

4) The concert that still stands out to me in terms of atmosphere and electricity is the concert at the Missouri state fair. Wow. The crowd was absolutely rocking, and carrie felt it and gave the most outstanding concert of concerts. You could tell she loved performing for this crowd. Still easily #1 in my book.

5) All the different firsts I did just for carrie, like being on my knees for a few afternoons as I made my very first concert sign. I would never have dreamt, just over a year ago, that I would make one. Thankfully, carrie got a kick out of it . Also, driving those insane distances to see her in concert. The furthest venue ive driven to is about 450 miles away. Wow lol.

6) Carrie’s randomness. She really goes off tangents talking, and she is just so endearing; and she says she’s bad at talking. Some of the random chatter: “mark, is that yogurt behind you? Why yogurt? Let’s have pizza and chocolate!” and after one of her SCOM performances, she yelled: “school dismissed!!!”

7) I got a HUGE and pleasant surprise at the brad paisley concert in Columbus ohio, where our carrie made her debut for Whiskey Lullaby. I had forgotten how much I had loved this song when I first heard it. I had attended a brad concert before carrie joined him on tour, and I recall brad playing the video of Allison Krause singing her part on the screen. Imagine my surprise! Carrie was pretty star struck singing with brad, it was so cute. Of course, she did a stunning job and would continue to sing with brad for the rest of the tour.

8) Getting to meet the fantastic people on this board! There are too many to name, but seriously, some of you guys are a riot! Lol. thanks for being a great part of these memories

9) last but not least, my encounters with this amazing young lady. wow. can anyone be any sweeter (and any more gorgeous as well?). she is just so personable and never fails to smile at her fans. ive had my fair share of encounters, being part of the insanely long lines to get those precious few seconds with carrie. No complaints here for sure. Ive met her a number of times, but it took me till my n’th attempt when I managed to finally spit out what I had planned to say to her all along. I still remember her laughing and her eyes having this incredulous look when I told her I had planned to say that all along. certainly many great memories from those meetings and I can never thank her enough for staying back hours after each show to meet the fans. to top it all off, she actually called me by my name during my last encounter, wow! i still cant believe it till this day. oh yea, for my second to last encounter, she actually michieviously took my sharpie from me and made sure i wouldnt remember asking her for it.

My WV concert review

So, a few days after the concert, I decide to write my review, thanks to finals and all that. Im probably nuts for even going to this concert even though I have finals lol.

First off, stupid mapquest screwed me royally so I end up taking about 45 mins longer to get to WV than planned. Don was getting nervous since I was holding on to his ticket and I wasn’t in WV till after 6. apparently, he had a deal with heather and sara. He should have more confidence in me I say.

It was quite funny, as I bumped into perry during the intermission and she mentioned how she saw me in my car on 77 speeding pass her… speeding is a bad habit that I need to kick.

Now on to the concert. Carrie came out with her new shorter hair, and I think im in love with the new style. She looks so girl-next-door. Wow, can i say i LOVE it? I was concerned that with her illness how she will do tonight. But wow, she was full of energy and her voice was almost perfect. She did cough after songs and her talking voice was a little raspy, and she had a couple of bum notes, but if this had been my first carrie concert, I wouldn’t have guessed she wasn’t feeling well. She was lively performing, jumping and moving all over the place. The crowd actually didn’t stand up for much of her set, but boy was it a LOUD crowd. I had people behind me screaming into my ears the whole time lol. the atmosphere was just great! Def one of the best crowds ive been a part of.

She did talk about how Tom Hanks talked to her in DC, and how impressed she was with his demeanor. I guess it takes a truly humble person to recognize another humble person. Carrie mentioned a couple of times how great a lady her mom is. She again said what a wonderful year it had been for her, and she just wrapped up the time well wasted tour with brad paisley the night before. At this moment, the crowd starts cheering and carrie interrupted the applause “no! no! don’t clap! I’m sad its over!” (or something like that). Im sure she had a blast touring with brad and was absolutely thrilled to sing whiskey lullaby with him.

After the show, I met numerous people from the board: lynn, renee, rob, jen, perry & mom, and “the chauffer”, who are all super nice people. I hope I didn’t miss out on anyone.

Some Tidbits from my trip to Oklahoma

This trip was just an awesome experience, getting to meet some of the okies and other CFers, and to see carrie back in her home state. I even tried some fried okra lol. She certainly was very happy to be back home and it showed in her performances. Its been a crazy few days since I got home from OK. I’ll just add some comments on top of the reviews.

OKC show
1) the crowd was just electric for our girl’s homecoming. I think the crowd was just as loud, if not louder, for carrie than for mr paisley
2) jake owen, who opened before carrie, hollered to the crowd “for all you cute Oklahoma girls out there!” the crowd went nuts. He continued “I know we got one backstage (referring to carrie)!” surprisingly, it seem not many in the audience got who he was referring to and was pretty much silent in response to that comment.
3) Miranda pointed out to me where mrs underwood and one of carrie’s sisters were sitting. I took a peek and then decided to hide. I somehow got nervous lol.
4) Carrie did talk quite a bit more during this show compared to the other brad paisley shows. As I said, it was really nice seeing her happy!
5) As you all have seen, she was in a stunning all black outfit, with black boots. That girl just keeps getting hotter! I say red, brown, black and green are the best colors on her.
6) It seems by now people know that she does the duet with brad on whiskey lullaby, and the crowd was already ready to explode even before she reached the steps. Those 2 need to record a duet together one day. At the end, brad said “carrie underwood ya’ll! Be proud of her here!”

Visit to Checotah
What struck me was that there were more cars in the town than I expected. Got to see Eufala Lake, the mcdonalds, walmart, the single stoplight, the drive through convenience store, the high school… I’ll put the pics up soon. It actually wasn’t as small as I envisioned.

Tulsa Show
1) This is probably the first solo show ive seen of hers for some time. She has changed the lighting on stage, and the new lighting actually makes taking photos really difficult. Our seats were pretty far back but we were thankful that buff managed to hook us up with a pair of tickets. Thanks buff!
2) Carrie was really really happy and it showed in her performances. I thought she gave her best rendition of DFTRM ive ever heard in concert
3) The crowd was really pumped for BHC. The cute little boy next to me was screaming the words out, wearing his cute little cowboy hat. Yes carrie, us guys sing the song too!
4) The amazing thing about carrie is that she keeps making me love songs that I originally didn’t care for. I heard WYR in concert for the first time and I was just blown away by the concert version. WOW. A note to the producers for her next album, that girl has major vocal talent, that’s for sure.

Jeff's Fort Wayne review

This is my third brad and carrie concert, and compared to the crowd at the 2 previous shows, this crowd was pretty sleepy! I was amazed at the previous shows how most of the crowd stood up for the entire duration for carrie’s set. At first I was a little disappointed for carrie since that wasn’t the case here, but even when brad came out, a good number of the audience still sat on their seats! I think I was one of a handful who actually stood up for both carrie and brad for the entire duration of their sets!

Who would have guessed that the 2 CF peeps who got tickets through brads club would end up sitting next to each other? Lol. Robin and I had our seats together. Maybe brads club has some sort of tracker or something

It was interesting how the local station came out before the show is announce some promos. They were going to play nothing but brad and carrie songs after the concert, and they were going to give away a pair of tickets for the CMAs to see “Brad and Carrie”. It really seems that all the promo for this tour is about the both of them.

Maybe she had her vacation, but carrie’s energy was unbelievable. She was all over the stage working the crowd as usual, and was even hopping along to her songs. You can see that in some of the vid I recorded

The new backup female singer, nikki, was pretty interesting, from the little that I noticed (since my eyes were glued on carrie for the most part ha!). she really seems to be enjoying herself on the tour, and sported what I call the “nerdy secretary” look (hair tied up, dark-rimmed glasses). During SCOM when carrie hollers for the crowd to get on her feet, nikki ditched the glasses and let her hair down. when carrie left and returned to take her usual spot between nikki and Ashley, nikki was like “look at my hair!” and carrie was like “aaahaaa nice!”

She now changes the order of her set list, switching wasted and BHC, so right after kicking butt with SCOM she keys cars with BHC and the crowd remained wild! She was really really sassy on BHC.

i was amazed to see that many people sit down during brads set! I still am lol. Anyway, at the beginning of his set, the sound people were screwing things up. Sometimes, you’d hear his voice OK, then suddenly it goes soft, and back to OK again. This went on for the first few songs. Grrrr!

They sang whiskey lullaby together again (looks like it’s a staple now!). this time I had no screaming carrie-hater beside me. In fact, the lady next to me went nuts when carrie appeared! Its quite cute how when carrie makes her way towards brad, she seems star-struck to be singing with brad. At the end of the song, you can see brad say “yea! That was great! You did great!” to carrie, and they hugged and brad got his crowd to show her love. It’s typical carrie that she seemed kind of embarrassed having brad have his crowd applaud her as she tried to get them to applaud him. Brad finished off by saying “carrie underwood everybody! The coolest American idol ever! Absolutely!”

Meet and greet (with brad. No not carrie lol!)
I won a M&G pass to meet brad through his fan club. This was my 2nd time trying for the pass and I must say im fortunate to have won one at my second attempt. There were 4 winners through his fan club, 2 from the local radio station and another 4 (im not sure how they got it!). it was quite funny as the 2 girls who won won the M&G through the radio station were wearing “I <3 Carrie” shirts, and they asked if carrie would be coming out to sign, but it seems she had already left the venue. What was interesting was that while we were waiting, we were actually next to carrie’s dressing room!

Anyway, there were 10 of us so this wasn’t like the carrie M&Gs at the merchandise booth (understandably so!) lol. We were let in one by one to have our time meeting the man. All I can say is I am blown away by his sincerity and appreciation for his fans. I was about to open my mouth to say something when he shook my hand and said “hey jeff!” and really looked me in the eye. He asked me if I liked the show, which of course I said yes. I let him know what a dream come true it is for me to meet him and I got him to sign a pic of him and carrie singing whiskey lullaby from Cincinnati and also the album cover for Time Well Wasted. I got him to sign on his side for the WL pic since im hoping to get carrie to sign her side one day lol. what was funny was the pic had a black background, but he signed on the guitar with his black pen. Now, as usual I asked if he could personalize it for me, and he was like “ok sure! but now I need your silver one since ive run out of space on the guitar!” I then told him what an awesome CD he had and he thanked me for liking it and supporting him and coming out to the show, and said how much he appreciates us fans.

We then took a pic (one of his band members took it. His club is awesome. They don’t allow you to use your camera, but they will have the pics up on the fanclub for ordering. Word is they only charge you for shipping). he put his arm round my shoulder, so im about to put mine round his and the wretched wall got in the way so I touched his butt! Lmao! Thankfully, I never had a situation like this with carrie, if not I’ll be sitting in jail!

I thanked brad and he thanked me again. I almost forgot to say what I had planned to say to him since I was so blown away by his humility and sincerity. So as I was a bout to step out I said “hey brad, congrats on the baby and all the best for the CMAs!” he smiled and thanked me again. I think what I spoke to him is probably about as much I have spoken to carrie all these times combined!

Seriously, brad is so down-to-earth, sincere and appreciative, I couldn’t believe it. I had always admired him for putting out great country music. But now seeing how he treats his fans and carrie, and getting a glimpse of him as a person, I am just wowed. Carrie couldn’t be on tour with a better person!

Jeff's Combined Reviews --- Ohio double header (Columbus and cincy)

Combined reviews. Warning: SUPER LONG

Great Great Show! If you love carrie and you love good country music, this is the ticket you must absolutely get!!! I was really happy when it was announced that brad paisley had invited carrie to tour with him, since he is prob my fav male country artist. I also thought all along that personality-wise they would fit in nicely since brad has this really dry and dorky sense of humor. This is definitely the best ticket out there right now.

Columbus Ohio Sep 29

Jake owen opened the show. I think he actually started like 15 minutes early and played about 25 minutes. He was pretty good.

Carrie’s set
Now as you all know, carrie has this new stage set up with the steps, and the intro to Y&B is longer and really sets the scene for a rocking show. Actually kinds of reminds me how dierks Bentley starts out his show when he starts with lots of leavin left to do…

So carrie came out on the top of the steps, the crowd went wild. There were pretty huge sections of the crowd that stood up immediately (mostly the side sections, btw I was row 15 DEAD center )

Now, onto the group that was seated next to me. There was a guy with his gf and also I assume his gf’s parents. Guess what, the guy kept shouting “yeah carrie! Woohoo!” lol he was really enthusiastic for carrie! On my other side was this guy and his mom. Throughout her set, I could hear the 2 guys next to me go “ooh and aaah!” each time she hit those notes. They really were jamming to her set!

Carrie received GREAT applause for each of her songs, and especially for DFTRM, SCOM, BHC and JTTW. EVERYONE was on their feet for SCOM and BHC. (she did BHC after SCOM) I actually recorded the crowd reaction after SCOM and I can assure you, none of what you hear is coming from me! You really can hear the guy with the gf, he really enjoyed the rocker chick lol (http://download.yousendit.com/675CF14A1BFC87B9)

So after carrie goes off stage, the guy next to me (the one with the gf and her parents) started shouting “WE want MORE!!! WE want MORE!!!” the gf’s dad was like hey we have brad coming up, and the guy says to him “NO! I WANT more HER!!!” lol it was hilarious, esp the look on the gf’s face

Lyss and perry found me during the intermission. I was checking the pics in my cam when I heard my name. always nice meeting members of the board!

Brad’s set (with carrie and WL)
Now onto mr brad paisley. This is my second time seeing him. He really is great fun. Great guitar player, and plays just awesome music. He has his guitar picks on the mic stands and he throws the picks to the crowd. When a mic stand runs out of picks, he has someone bring the stand backstage to put more picks on it lol. He went nuts throwing the picks to the crowd! He has some really cool and funny computer animations that he made which get played on the screen as he performs.

He talked about the ohio state buckeyes being the #1 ranked team in the nation. He was like “buckeyes huh?” and the crowd went nuts. Being a Michigan wolverine, I had to control myself lol. Then brad goes “I’m from W-w-west Virginia…” (west Virginia is the 4th ranked team) and the crowd isn’t sure whether to boo him or not lol. Then brad goes “maybe we’ll meet in the championship game!”

Brad had carrie sing whiskey lullaby with him. you can tell carrie was really nervous. 1) maybe she was concerned about not forgetting the words, 2) it really is one of the greatest duets, 3) I recall her saying she thinks brad paisley is a cutie, some time back when she just won AI right? I understand that, I think carrie is a cutie and I get all nervous around her all the time lol. The crowd went nuts when she appeared on the top of the steps singing the first few lines of her part. This song was sung acoustically and she sounded beautiful, despite the nerves. You can see her fidgeting a little, touching her hair and scratching her nose etc. I was surprised that they managed to work this out this early in the tour.

i thought what was really cool was that brad seemed to sense carrie's nerves. so when she walked over to him during the song, you can see brad looking her in the eye and giving her a nod and look of encouragement, like a big brother to his little sister, y'know. i have a younger sister and that couple of moments when he was encouraging carrie, kinda reminded of me and my sister... lol. ok back to carrie. so at the end, brad pats her on the shoulder and smiles to convey "good job", carrie gives a kinda sheepish smile, but the crowd goes nuts. brad then gives a shout out "carrie underwood ya all!" as carrie runs off the stage. gosh, even running off the stage she looks cute lol.

What a show… now on to Cincinnati…

Cincinnati 30 sep

My tickets for this show were ordered through the brad paisley fanclub, so I picked them up at will call. Now, I knew this venue had like 5 rows in the pit and I was expecting my seat to be in rows 2-6 FROM the pit, but lo and behold, I was IN the pit! Wow brad really looks after his fans. When carrie sets up her fanclub, I hope she takes a cue from mr paisley since he really does look after his fans. Till this day, I have yet to hear a brad paisley fan complain about their seats from the fan club.

The local radio station was having some kind of karaoke contest, with people singing songs by jake, carrie or brad. When the girl started to “belt out” JTTW, I ran to my seat for cover...

Got to my seat. Pretty neat. 5th row in the pit slightly off center. Met perry again as she and her friend were seated in front of me. I think I tortured them later when I was singing with brad paisley lol. a while later, I saw someone familiar walk right across me as she made her way to her seat. I stuck out my hand and probably surprised/shocked Hil

Jake started the show again. Some of the ladies loved him, and there was this guy who kept shouting “jake I love you!!!” there were pockets of the crowd on their feet for him.

So during the intermission, hil came over to chat a little, and what do you get when 2 moderators of cf meet up? Yea, they discuss the days pressing issues, ie is carrie’s band too loud. We both agreed that from our seats it was a little difficult to follow most of jake’s songs, but hil mentioned she went to the back of the venue during part of jake’s set and she could hear him pretty good from there. Interesting…

Carrie’s Set
Now onto carrie’s set. I thought the Columbus crowd was great, well that was NOTHING compared to what Cincinnati had in store for miss carrie. The entire crowd was on their feet throughout her set (ok I noticed a small section sitting during one song but that was it I think). This is only the 2nd time I have ever been on my feet the entire duration of a carrie set. Unbelievable energy. Even better energy than more than half of the carrie solo concerts for sure

The crowd was rocking, and you could hear them sing along to DFTRM, SCOM, BHC and JTTW. Being in Cincinnati, the crowd went nuts during JTTW “She was driving last Friday on her way to Cincinnati”

Brad’s set (with carrie and WL)
Brad talked about football again. “bengals huh?” and the crowd went nuts. He then admitted that he grew up as a browns fan and the crowd heartily booed him! Lol I couldn’t believe it. Ahhh ohio politics!

I really enjoyed his set again. He truly is great. Everyone needs to see him live just as I say everyone needs to see carrie live.

Now, I knew carrie had a show in Massachusetts the next day so I was wondering if she would stay behind to sing WL with brad. This time I had my cam recording the start of WL. And when it came to allison’s part, carrie came out onto the steps again! And the crowd just went berserk! She was much more confident this time, its just amazing what a difference a night makes. She stayed on the steps longer this time and they really sounded beautiful together. Carrie really did justice to allison’s part of the song. It was just hauntingly beautiful. They really need to record a duet one for one of their albums. They both took turns to get the crowd to applaud each other at the end, and you could see carrie was really happy as she clapped her hands and smiled really brightly (which looks cute as usual). The crowd gave a rousing ovation and brad gave carrie her kudos “carrie underwood ya all!!!”. And they cheered heartily as she bounced off the stage. It really is just so awesome, for me personally, to see 2 of my favorites respect and care for one another.

Now, onto my video capture. As I mentioned the crowd gave her so much love, but unfortunately, the one hater in the crowd was standing next to me! She wasn’t around during carrie’s set and when carrie appeared she was screaming “why does she have to ruin everything???!!!” and unfortunately that was caught on my recording. I want to make it clear that the crowd really loved her and it was just my luck to have the lone hater next to me. Its really sad for her since she was so biased she already had her opinion formed even before carrie opened her mouth. Its her loss for not being able appreciate the beautiful harmony of brad’s and carrie’s voices.

General comments (similar things for both shows)
She didn’t talk as much as she does when she is the headliner. She did thank brad for having her tour with him. She also dedicated DFTRM to the moms and daughters in the crowd, and thanked the audience for putting where she is today before singing JTTW.

Seriously, I have never seen this much love for an opening act before. The thing about carrie, is, most of her songs that she performs have not been released to radio, and for the crowd to enjoy every one of them is just phenomenal.

Brad performed his new single, She’s Everything. It’s the first time ive seen him perform it and it was awesome. Probably would be another #1 hit for him. I also really liked and was touched with When I Get Where I’m Going. He paid tribute to some great people who have passed away: dale earnhardt, Ronald Reagan, JFK, elvis, steve Irwin, buck owens etc

Interestingly, brad also thanked the crowd for giving him this wonderful job, and then went on to perform Easy Money.

My only complaint is that since brad has recorded so many great songs, some of his great hits were never performed, like We Danced and He Didn’t Have to Be.

i was surprised that brad actually got carrie to sing allison krause's part. when whiskey lullaby was recorded, i recall brad saying he invited allison since he thought she was the greatest living female vocalist. its pretty awesome he thinks this highly of carrie. i thought that carrie did sound a little like allison during the duet. its also interesting to note that during carrie's My Music Mix on GAC showing all her favorite videos, the video for this song was in that list as well

final thoughts
what an amazing weekend, seeing carrie open for one of my other favs. Again, I have to pimp for this show. There really is nothing stopping you from getting this ticket.

About the band, I think the chemistry is working out great.

Sometimes, we get newspaper reviews that don’t put carrie in a very positive light. All I have to say is this. That review is the opinion of one person, while its blindingly obvious almost all of the brad paisley crowd loved her. I think the opinion of 8,000 (or however big each of the venues are) brad paisley fans speak louder than one newspaper reporter.

What was more incredible, to me, was seeing how brad wants to help carrie, like any big brother would for his little sister. The way he encouraged her when she was obviously nervous performing with him really touched me. And that obviously settled her nerves the next evening. Its just wonderful seeing 2 great, genuine, humble talented country artists tour together and it is also amazing to witness the admiration and respect they have for each other.

Columbus pics

Cincinnati pics