Concert review: Carrie Underwood credits, rocks Oklahoma in Hall of Fame show
Comments 4
Buzz up! By George Lang Published: September 18, 2009
-- was in her element and in the biggest venue within a 30-minute radius of her hometown, Checotah. As the most successful champion in the history of "" and the proud owner of the best commercial track record of any country artist in the past five years, her induction Thursday into the Music Hall of Fame was always a near-certainty. But her total investment in delivering a great show indicated that nothing was being taken for granted. She was, after all, nearly a half-century younger than the two other musicians, Rocky and , who were honored that night. So, in front of 3,500 fans assembled in the Muskogee Civic Center, Underwood proved why she was worthy of the honor.
Featured Gallery
Multimedia
Photo
Frisco, who plays keyboards with and sits in regularly with red dirt music legend , displayed his classic key style when he backed up Skinner on ' "Restless Spirits" and performed his own composition, "The Blues For You." And Ramona Reed, a Talihina native who duetted with on "Little Girl, Little Girl," took the stage with and members of the Playboys and wowed the audience with her still-impressive range on "Cowboy Sweetheart" and "I'm Tired of Living This Lie." Even if all this was prelude to Underwood's headliner performance, Reed and Frisco underlined the esteemed club of great talent that the 26-year-old Underwood was joining that night. Underwood arrived humble, but ready to rock the rafters.
"I just want to say that there's absolutely no way that I could be where I am and go wherever it is that I'm going, if I hadn't been here first," Underwood said as she accepted her induction. "I love where I come from, and being a part of this amazing thing with so many other talented artists and musicians is truly one the biggest honors I've ever had the pleasure of being a part of ... and if you don't mind I'd like to sing a couple of songs." With that, Underwood launched headlong into "Last Name," her huge, power chord-infused hit from 2007's "Carnival Ride," and she sent every note to the back of the room.
This was a set of wall-to-wall hits, and Underwood followed "Last Name" with "Wasted," "All-American Girl," and the single she co-wrote, "So Small." During that song, one of her heels slipped into a crack in the stage and she lost the shoe, but she never lost focus, playing the rest of her set barefoot and knocking out the audience with a rousing cover of 's "Home Sweet Home." That reference to Underwood's return to familiar territory was not the only one: she sang one for the old hometown, "I Ain't In Checotah Anymore," before delivering a blast of new music: "Cowboy Casanova," the first single from her upcoming disc, "Play On."
With its electronics and hard-edged guitar sound, "Cowboy Casanova" is likely to join "Last Name" and her final song of the evening, "Before He Cheats," as a signature crossover single for Underwood, and while the audience was hearing something unfamiliar, they did not need convincing. Fans brought flowers to the stage and showered Underwood with the applause befitting a big star who clearly loves to spend quality time back home.
No comments:
Post a Comment