Carrie Underwood Cry Pretty Tour Vancouver 2019

Laura and I loved the Carrie Underwood Concert.

The warm up bands Runaway June and Maddie and Tae were really good.  They both had number one hits. The Runaway June threesome were like a young Dixie Chicks in a way but uniquely themselves.  Great music. Such fun and vitality. So young. Then Maddie and Tae were great with duets and just so energized. They described doing what they loved with their best friend.  

Then Carrie Underwood exploded onto the stage.  What an incredible voice! What a beautiful woman! What a spectacular entertainer!  I’d heard her sing a duet with Vince Gill How Great Thou Art and fell in love with the purity of her voice. The song is an all time favourite. My mentor Bernie played it for me once on his banjo when I needed a little inspiration.  

Laura and I were so glad we came. Good seats in Roger’s Arena.  With Go Canucks Go banners I had that feeling of being back in the high school gymnasium.  There’s that home town queen quality to Carrie accentuated by being in a space where I normally attend hockey games.  Carrie would be right at home having had the good sense to marry a hockey player. 

A tremendous use of the stage space with she and musicians circling the whole space or cutting across or being lifted on high. Alice Cooper might have been consulted on the effects.  I loved the lights and fire crackers and bubbling dry ice.   I loved the banjos and violins in the band too.   

The whole night was new country and had me thinking of Linda Rondstadt, Olivia Newton John or Crosby Stills Nash and Young.  New Country Rock. More bang less twang.
I loved her song with  ' the man upstairs’.  One or two god reference songs and the rest standard country female fair, guys doing them wrong, girls crying. But a really impressive number for the memorial.  Fast paced. Awesome.  I loved that she showed a family album up on the screen, her and husband and kids. I loved too that she said she didn’t like the  all the drinking songs in country and that they wanted to be more uplifting. Thats really my problem with JR Country. Always some guy in a bar meeting some girl in skinny jeans and getting drunk.  It only differs from radio rock in that the urban rock crowd are drinking and doing dugs while the country songs are about drinking and going to jail. I prefer pick up trucks and dogs.  But Carrie’s music and show had real class.  I loved the life she celebrated.  Her songs have real depth. 

I loved when she brought on all the other girls from Runaway June and Maddie and Tae and together they did tributes of the leading country singers who’d gone before to pave the way for all of them.  I loved the Dolly Parton cover but when they sang Shania Twain the arena erupted with cheers and applause.  Canadians love their stars.  

It was a magnificent performance.

At intermission before Carrie Underwood and her band had  come on. I'd gone out into the circular lobby.   I was impressed by all the incredibly beautiful young women in boots and short short jean skirts. The guys who were there were smug and smart.  This was the highest density of beautiful young women I’d seen outside a church.  The guys at monster truck rallies shouldn’t be surprised they’re single.  

Laura loved the costumes.  “Feminine,” she said.  ‘Not afraid to be a woman and glamorous too.”  

She is beautiful and talented but the voice really was worth hearing.  The whole show was a sensation. Thank you Carrie Underwood and all.