Time sure passes fast when you're having fun. Or when you're making history. Or, in Carrie Underwood's case, when you're doing both.
It just seems like yesterday that Underwood - a fresh-faced gal from Muskogee, Okla. - was standing wide-eyed on the stage as winner of the fourth season of "American Idol" with a world-wide TV audience looking on and cheering her on. It's doubtful that anyone watching that night - including Underwood herself - had an inkling of the meteoric rise she would have in country music and how she would transform herself from her very real down-home-girl image into a sophisticated, multi-talented global superstar.
Now, through Underwood's new "Greatest Hits: Decade #1," set for a Dec. 9 release, her fans can take a 25-song journey with her from country star newbie to one of the genre's most successful artists. The songs, like the album's title indicates, span the first decade of her career. The two-CD set also includes four of her songs in never-before-released versions.
Not only do the songs on the new album pay tribute to where Underwood has traveled musically in the last ten years, two new songs on the album also show were the superstar is headed in the years ahead. The new songs - her current smash single "Something in the Water" and "Little Toy Guns" - provide a revealing glimpse at the musical road in front of her.
"Something in the Water," written by Underwood, Chris DeStefano and Brett James, is about baptism and being "washed in the blood." The song describes someone who reaches a desperate situation and realizes that they need God for salvation.
"It's really kind of a joyous, uplifting song about changing your life for the better and kind of having that 'a-ha' moment, to waking up and your life being different from that moment forward," Underwood explained on a recent "Today" show.
Underwood, who kicked off her country music career with the mega-hit "Jesus Take the Wheel," has never shied away from expressing her deep Christian faith in her songs. "Something in the Water" is a clear demonstration that she is not going to hold back on celebrating that faith in future songs.
Not a lot is known about the other new song on the greatest hits package, "Little Toy Guns," because the album release date is still more than a month away. The song's lyrics haven't been made public either. However, since the song was written by two of the writers who penned "Something in the Water" - Underwood and Chris DeStefano - you can rest assured the song will be a insightful window into some aspect of the superstar's psyche.
Underwood returns Nov. 5 for the seventh consecutive year as co-host, along with Brad Paisley, of the televised CMA Awards show. Not only will she be hosting, she is also a three-time nominee. Since she is expecting her first child with NHL star Mike Fisher, co-host Paisley has already indicated that there will definitely be pregnancy and baby jokes aimed at Underwood during the show.
In her first ten years as a performer, Underwood has garnered more than 95 major honors. She has 18 No. 1 singles, co-writing nine of them, and she racked up sales of more than 64 million records worldwide.
Last year, 44 million viewers saw her star she as Maria von Trapp in NBC's holiday mega-event "The Sound of Music Live!" The three-hour show was recognized with an Emmy.
Here's the track listing for "Greatest Hits: Decade #1:"
Disc 1
1. Something in the Water
2. Little Toy Guns
3. Inside Your Heaven
4. Jesus, Take the Wheel
5. Don't Forget to Remember Me
6. Before He Cheats
7. Wasted
8. So Small
9. All-American Girl
10. Last Name
11. Just a Dream
12. I Told You So (feat. Randy Travis)
Disc 2
1. Cowboy Casanova
2. Temporary Home
3. Undo It
4. Mama's Song
5. Remind Me (duet with Brad Paisley)
6. Good Girl
7. Blown Away
8. Two Black Cadillacs
9. See You Again
* 10. How Great Thou Art (with Vince Gill) [Live from ACM Presents: Girls' Night Out]
* 11. So Small (writing session worktape 1/24/07)
* 12. Last Name (writing session worktape 1/22/07)
* 13. Mama's Song (writing session worktape 2/5/09)
* (Never-before-released version)
"Greatest Hits: Decade #1" will be available for digital pre-orders on Nov. 4. You can preorder a physical copy here: https://smarturl.it/amzcarrieunderwood.
