Not going to lie, part of me is absolutely dying at the fact that I’m interrupting my now seemingly long-in-the-tooth New England vacation photo-a-thon to post about something completely unrelated. I initially envisioned myself being finished with my New England posts by Halloween, but here we are in what’s essentially mid-November and I still have FOUR MORE to go! OOF! Nonetheless, when considering the sheer importance of Carrie Underwood in my life and the fact that “Where 69 Meets 40 There’s A Single Stoplight Town” has been one of my biggest blog hits of the year, I felt this post was worthy of interruption.
On Monday, November 7 Melissa, Nancy, and I all went and saw Carrie on her Denim & Rhinestones Tour at the Enterprise Center in beautiful downtown St. Louis and let me tell you what, we had a rockin’ good time! I’ve seen Carrie four times now throughout her career and there’s no doubt about it, like a fine wine, she only gets better with age.
Obviously as her career progresses she adds more and more hits to her name, so coming up with a setlist with such a legendary catalogue can be quite a challenge, but Carrie gave us a song set that kept us rockin’ all night long and everyday since! Needless to say, the entire show left me Blown Away!
Jimmie Allen, who I had literally never heard of until that night, was Carrie’s opening act. While I don’t typically care about country music in any capacity, I was really enjoying his set. I wouldn’t probably choose to listen to any of his songs, but if they came on the radio, I definitely wouldn’t change the station either. He was full of energy and pretty extraordinary dance moves as he breezed through his forty-five minute set. While I didn’t know any of the songs, PLENTY of others in the crowd did as I saw and heard PLENTY of people singing along. Good for Jimmie. His setlist included: Be Alright, Make Me Want To, This Is Us/All My Life (cover of K-Ci & JoJo’s late 90’s R&B anthem and this one I definitely did know and belted out every word), a bunch of snippets of covers, Gone, Good Times Roll, Pray, Best Shot, Down Home, and the one everyone super loved: Freedom Was A Highway. Jimmie’s energy was the perfect kickoff to what Carrie would bring to that same stage some forty minutes later.
Fortunately for Melissa, Nancy, and I, we were in the General Admission area down on the floor by the stage. This means standing room only, but we were as close to Carrie (or just about any other artist) as we’d ever been. Come to think of it, there was one time we were fourth row at Céline Dion in Vegas, so that probably put us closer with her crescent moon stage setup, but nonetheless, Monday night, we were close! Thank goodness too! With energy like that on stage I would’ve been out of my seat all night anyway!
Carrie opened with her 2012 #1 smash hit, Good Girl, and she showed us all then that this was going to be one hell of a rockin’ good night! As soon as that song winded down she went into one of my absolute favorites of hers, Church Bells! My goodness was I living my best life – right there alongside everyone else! This song is such a banger that it’s impossible not to sing-a-long with! This live rendition was somehow even more earth-shattering than the studio one! Undo It was next and I’ll be honest, I like it, but definitely don’t love it, so for me this was a nice follow-up to Church Bells because that one got me all sweaty and excited, so I needed a cool down track and Carrie definitely delivered me the goods. She knows me so well.
Her brand new single, Hate My Heart, off her brand new album, Denim & Rhinestones, followed suit and I was pleased that plenty around us knew every word just as we did. Again, I really like this song, but there are some real jams on her new album that I think would’ve made better second single selections, but nonetheless, I’m sure they’ll get their release. Another absolute favorite of mine, Cowboy Casanova, came next and let me tell you what, EVERYONE in that place was going crazy! During the “whoa-oh-ohs!” it was deafening and that’s what I like to hear (or not hear, depending on your true view of the word deafening in this situation!) She slowed it down for us all with her Jason Aldean assisted duet from last year, If I Didn’t Love You, and again, everyone was living their best life. Jason was shown on the screens playing the piano and singing his part while Carrie dominated that stage with this grandiose ballad that sent chills up and down my spine.
Wasted came next and ever since her debut album way back in 2005 this has been one of my favorites. I definitely teared up a little in this one, but only slight tears merely for the fact that after all these years she’s still performing this absolute firecracker of a song. I just love it so much and it reminds me of the winter the album, Some Hearts, came out and how I had that album on repeat for months! She Don’t Know from her new album came next and she introduced it by sharing a cute little story about how they wrote this one in the studio. I love nothing more than when artists talk during their concerts and Carrie is definitely a talker! Love her for that! She was elevated into the heavens for one of the biggest hits of her career, Blown Away! She stood there on that platform as lightning flashed all around her and just wowed us yet again with the production value of the show and her voice. I swear this woman is ethereal!
If we were all wowed by the production value on Blown Away, it was nothing next to the jaws-on-the-floor feeling we all had when she performed Burn! Carrie lit that stage up! Literally! She was standing in a hoop of fire and it was just incredible! The heat beneath her feet was nothing next to the pyrotechnics coming from her voice because she was belting this banger out with every beat of her heart! This is my second favorite song off her new album and I PRAY it gets a single release at some point! This shit is a hit! Cry Pretty was next and again, this is one I really like, but not necessarily love, but I seemed to be in the minority because everyone around us was singing their hearts out! She then climbed about a floating swing that took her to the B Stage to perform the first single off her new record, Ghost Story. The performance was just mesmerizing as she performed above us all in such an effortless manner!
On the B Stage she tore up Two Black Cadillacs, which is another one of my favorites of hers. In case you couldn’t tell, I have a lot of favorite Carrie Underwood songs! This song is just such a jam! Her entire 2012 Blown Away album was my shit, but especially this track! Garden from her new record was next and slowed things down a bit. She introduced it with a cute and timely story about life during the pandemic. I love how kind-hearted and genuine she is. She’s honestly the best! Jesus, Take The Wheel, her very first non-American Idol hit ever, came next and I don’t think there was a single person in the entire Enterprise Center who wasn’t singing along! I didn’t remember reading this one on the setlist I had looked up, so I was pleasantly surprised to be hearing it! She gave us How Great Thou Art next, which was sung beautifully. Carrie is a very religious and spiritual individual and her gospel album is honestly incredible. Not really my genre, but she could sing anything and it’d go #1 in my heart.
Crazy Angels took her back to the main stage as she got aboard that floating swing again and floated across. Jimmie Allen returned to the stage to perform my favorite track off her album of the same name (and tour) Denim & Rhinestones. Jimmie and Carrie had some pretty cute and incredible choreography that just kept a smile on my face the entire time. I’d never seen Carrie dance like this before and she was having so much fun doing so. It just made me so damn happy to see! Flat On The Floor from her 2007 Carnival Ride album came next and while I love this song, I thought it was an odd inclusion because it was never even a single! Just a jam off the album, so again, what a pleasant surprise! Poor Everybody Else followed and this is another one off the new record that I enjoy, but it’s not Burn or Denim & Rhinestones! Last Name had the place TURNT! I mean people were dancing and singing like so many times before, but the energy just seemed more abundant at this point! Probably because everyone had been having the time of their life for about ninety plus minutes and couldn’t believe how many damn hits Carrie has that she keeps pulling them out of her hat this far into the show!
One of my absolute favorite songs closed the show, Something In The Water. There was definitely water in my eyes because this song just gets me! I love it so damn much and Carrie sang it so perfectly! I had plenty of tears and goosebumps! Definitely a gospel-tinged track that could have fit perfectly on her 2021 My Savior gospel album with its sample of Amazing Grace. I just cannot get enough of this song and the music video that was released alongside it back in 2014. Tears and goosebumps, that’s all I’m going to say! TEARS AND GOOSEBUMPS!
Her encore kicked off with a cover of Guns N’ Roses, Welcome To The Jungle! Carrie has been performing with them quite a bit lately, so this was no surprise to hear, but let me tell you what, she definitely gave it her all and held her own against what is surely a difficult song to sing! I was loving her rockin’ that stage like she’d been performing rock music her entire career! It was just awesome and she looked like she was having the time of her life, which was fitting since we all were. The last song of the night came as zero surprise to anyone who has ever heard a single song of hers, Before He Cheats, her man slamming anthem that has dominated the pop culture pantheon since its single release back in 2006. This is Carrie’s, My Heart Will Go On. The same way Céline closes all her shows with that showstopper, Carrie has done the same with it and why wouldn’t she? She may have garnered bigger hits since, but this was the one that really made her a superstar. It always remains the perfect ending to what has always been a perfect show.
Like I said, this was my fourth time seeing Carrie live and no doubt about it, this was the best one yet! She makes it seem so easy and effortless up there and her voice is just incredible. Few people can sound as perfect live as they do on the record, but she’s definitely one of them. A true Disciple of Céline for sure, which is obvious as ever with her outfit and production choices. You can tell Carrie and her team definitely attended Céline’s Courage World Tour, which again, why wouldn’t they have!?! It was an outstanding achievement in cultural dominance, much like Carrie was herself the other night in the town (yes, St. Louis!) that she auditioned for American Idol in and truly launched her legendary career.
As always, THANK YOU so much for reading! I appreciate you greatly! PLEASE feel free to leave me a comment below as I LOVE reading and responding to them! I’d LOVE to hear what your favorite Carrie Underwood song or memory is! I have so many of my own, but please, share with me yours! I’ll return soon with Day Six from our New England vacation, but until then, I wish you all, all the best!
