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American Idol star Carrie Underwood covers GNR
(04-09-2006) Underwood: Country Thunder's idol
By Cathalena E. Burch
Arizona Daily Star
FLORENCE - Every time country music newcomer Carrie Underwood strode down the runway at Country Thunder Saturday evening, a throng of fans a few hundred deep abandoned their seats and swarmed the wooden plank.
Underwood has that effect on people.
In just about a year, she's gone from the girl who dreamed big to the girl who realizes even bigger.
In the time since her "American Idol" win in 2005, Underwood has become a superstar in the wings: Her concerts, like her appearance on the final day of Country Thunder 2006, bring die-hard country fans together with people who would've sworn a year ago that they'd never, ever pay to see a country show.
This summer, she's on the road with Kenny Chesney, but you can bet there will be a fair number of folks in those sure-to-be-sold-out audiences drawn there by the 23-year-old beauty.
They'll be there to hear her sing about heartache and joy with a voice that's soothing and familiar, yet so refreshing and new it'll take you by surprise.
Perhaps that is what Underwood did best in her hourlong show Saturday, opening for the four-day festival's closing night cast of superstar men: Phil Vassar, Travis Tritt and Brooks & Dunn.
We weren't expecting her to be so confident with nary a hint of cocky assuredness when she got frisky and covered Guns N' Roses' hits "Patience" and "Sweet Child O' Mine."
She shed her country innocence, picked up the mic stand and struck a rocker's pose that wasn't too convincing, but was certainly entertaining.
She did a good job of nailing that classic "aye, yah, yah, yah" Axl Rose line in "Child," although she couldn't quite pull off his whine.
Covering other artists is something newcomers do to fill the blanks between the songs fans might know and others they've never heard. Underwood probably is erring on the safe side, assuming that since her debut album, "Some Hearts," has only been out since November, not many folks are familiar with her music.
She probably thinks they are only familiar with her multi-week No. 1 debut single, "Jesus Take the Wheel," and the song she sang over and over and over again on "American Idol," the ballad "Inside Your Heaven." (When she sang that song stripped down and acoustic, you could hear the applause and cheers swell from the back of the festival grounds.)
But Underwood has sold more than a million copies of the album in the five months since it was released. Chances are pretty good that hundreds if not thousands of folks among the more than 35,000 packing the festival Saturday had heard her songs, knew the words and weren't shy about singing along to the rocking "Wasted," the ballad "I Just Can't Live A Lie" or the inspirational "Don't Forget to Remember Me," her new single.
And when she sang her No. 1 hit "Jesus Take the Wheel," and started down that runway, the fans were like flecks of metal drawn to a magnet. Superstars have that effect on people.
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