Carrie Underwood – “Last Name”

i agree that it’s the best single from carnival ride so far, but there are far more substantial substantial songs. as long as they release “just a dream next” i wont be too disappointed.

I’m a huge Randy Travis fan, but I could never really get into “I Told You So.” It always bored me to death. I haven’t heard Carrie’s version though. If Randy couldn’t do it for me, I doubt that Carrie can…no offense to Carie, by the way. I respect her talent and I recently finally bought her first album.

Definitely one of my favorite songs on the record. I love the way she leans into the chorus. Call me a fool if you must.

Not surprisingly I don’t give a rip about Carrie or anything she sings or does. On the other hand I do really like Ashley Monroe who will be competing on Prairie Home Companion this Saturday in a talent contest! I apologize for the off topic shameless plug, but Ashley’s career needs all the help it can get these days since she was foolishly dropped by Sony-BMG Nashville.

Here are the details from Ashley’s MySpace website:
“Ashley Monroe Live on NPR
March, 15 2008 on Prairie Home Companion Radio Show, Live from the Fitzgerald Theatre in Minneapolis, MN

This is a long running “live radio” show on Public Radio and I’m a finalist in their “Talent Showcase” for people in their 20’s. Please listen in between 5-6 PM CST (Nashville Time) and vote for me!!! You can listen online at http://www.prairiehome.org ”

Carrie has already conquered mainstream country radio, its true singer/songwriter talents like Ashley that really need the publicity these days…..

PS – Forgive me for being off topic here, but how else could I let you 9513 Ashley fans know about this since it’s so last minute…..

Hi,
“So Small” spent 3 weeks @ #1 on the BILBOARD HOT COUNTRY SONGS CHART.
“All-American Girl” spent it’s 2nd week @ #1 this week.

Both are impressive but it was obvious both were going to #1 because it’s CARRIE! But I think with “Last Name” it will go to #1 for 2 reasons:
It’s CARRIE! and IT HAS POTENTIAL!!!!! I expect it to spend a while @ #1. It’s ALREADY #64 on Country Mediabase w/ 51 spins and it doesn’t even go for adds until APRIL 7th. THIS HAS “BHC” sucess written aall over it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This will most likely cross over to TOP 40!!!!!!!!!!! and be HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LUV this song and I think this will be huge and she deserves it after SS and AAG only spent radio time on Country! GO CARRIE!!

she will release Just a Dream after the Summer and it has grammy potential but it’s NOT a summer type of song, Last Name is

JAD is very good but it’s also very sad so releasing it in the summer would not be smart.
Upbeat is what they are going for and it’s going to be number 1 as will Last name

This is my least favorite on Carnival Ride. The song is a discount brand of Before He Cheats. It’s odd that they tapped this one for the next single.

I am going to step away from the song for a moment and make a general comment in regards to most of the message boards. It seems to me that many of you posting on here are not too keen on mainstream country singers. Is it because these particular singers are overrated (as in constant rotation amongst radio) or because their songs have little integrity (as in the songs just suck)? Something to think about.

Point taken, Brady.

CCF….no wonder you’re not a Carrie fan, you’re an idiot.

[Brady: There's no need for that. Anything else will be removed.]

Last Name is a great song and folks will love it. Don’t know why people can’t allow different flavors in the country genre.

TJK,

A #1 ranking, on any chart, does NOT attest to artistic integrity or talent at all, but in how much clout the artist or their label has with radio. Last summer was the exception, when anomalies like “Good Directions,” “Moments,” “Lost in This Moment,” and “Find Out Who Your Friends Are” (though only because of Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney) made it to the top. Basically, if a song reaches #1 within its first twenty weeks, it’s a sign radio is in love with the artist, not the song, so the ranking is by no means a good indicator of the song’s actual quality.

I say this being somewhat of a Carrie fan, and somewhat a fan of this song. But when it hits #1, it won’t be because it’s a good song. It’s because it’s Carrie Underwood, who can chart higher with an iTunes charity single that wasn’t officially released to radio, than the most recent singles by Big & Rich, Tracy Lawrence, Clay Walker, Terri Clark, and many others.

i love all of Carrie’s singles.yes,her songs are country and i know some people hate country music but her songs are meaningful.jesus take the wheel and so small are really inspiring songs.Dont forget to remember me and All American Girl are songs about family which also are inspiring.Before He Cheats,Wasted,and Last Name are about relationships and i think most people can relate to those songs.

and to those people who bash Carrie,her songs and country music,well please try to be more respectful.thank you.:)

Carnival Ride is an awesome Cd. I would like to see Just a Dream released right now, but Last Name is a very good country song. Country Radio plays country mainstream songs and Carrie will probably get another number one. If it ain’t mainstream you better make it maintrearm if you want to sell CD. People need to know their audience. and Carrie knows her audience. Other types of country such as outlaw, Texas, BlueGrass are not in the mainstrem and never have been. Country music came from the hills of West Virginia, Tennessee and spread out to country towns. At one time it was called Country and Western but Western was not as well liked a pure country. It is funny now how the hard core western acts say they are country. George Strait is country but Miranda is outlaw western. I think that is why she doesn’t have an audience. You have to play to the real country people in small town american. Not just in Texas.

I think the country music genre was born out of the Bristol Sessions in the 20s.

Lynn, I have yet to find a single negative newspaper review from any city where she’s had a concert this year so I find your remarks very suspicious. In fact, the reviews have been exceptional, here’s a recent one from Omaha:

The lucky 16,000 fans at the sold-out Qwest Center this last Friday got to see two of the hottest acts on the country scene today. Underwood opened the stage clad in a gorgeous blue ball gown to a screaming crowd. A quarter of the way through the performance, Underwood slipped out of her formal number into a more revealing mini skirt, later as her band played on, as Underwood changed into jeans, a t-shirt, and a sparking vest.

Towards the end of her set Underwood sunk below the stage, and rose again in a silver jacket to sing the Gun’s N’ Roses hit- Paradise City. Underwood sang this number as well, if not better than Axl himself. If Underwood returns in the future, it is a show not to be missed, if not for the light and laser show alone. This country princes is a package deal- beautiful body, great voice, and an amazing show.

Celine Dion does that, she’s hard-core country right??

OK, here’s one from Albany NY:

Underwood just won her third Grammy Award, for best female vocal country performance for her smash hit “Before He Cheats.” She took a breather from her co-headlining tour with Keith Urban to perform on the Grammy Award show.

And she’s cut away again, this time to headline her own “Carnival Ride” tour, which rolled into the Times Union Center for a sellout show on Tuesday night. It was technically a sellout; the venue’s top tier was curtained off.

It didn’t matter, because the 6,500 or so fans that came out were loud and delighted to catch Carrie live.

Underwood owned the place, from the last second of the pre-show digital countdown until she finished up about 90 minutes later. Fans screamed, cheered and attempted to sing along with Underwood, which was no easy task.

Underwood was amazing, her soaring voice growing stronger with every minute. Tottering out in 4-inch high heels, Underwood sounded as if she was straining a bit vocally at first, fighting the volume of her band � which sounded more hard rock than country on “Wasted” and the show-opening “Flat on the Floor.”

But she started singing once the tunes and the band turned country, which made all the difference. It set the tone for the rest of her performance, which crossed the line from impressive to stellar whenever she sang ballads. Underwood vocally embraces a ballad, she caresses it, and the result is simply gorgeous.

Her version of “Jesus, Take The Wheel” � which she sang wearing a long blue gown � would have been a showstopper if she hadn’t followed it with a new ballad called “I Know You Won’t,” which stopped the show � just seven songs into her set!

She sounded a bit like Patsy Cline as she crooned the pretty ballad “I Told You So” and sounded lovely on “So Small” and “Don’t Forget To Remember Me,” strumming an acoustic guitar as she sang.

I should say for me to express my opinion….hit send to quickly….

“And to compare Carrie to Patsy Cline — dont even get me started�.”

I agree…that’s a little over the top! There will NEVER be another Patsy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bob..
I don’t deny that the families of the military suffer greatly and deserve our support. Heck, my husband is a tractor trailer driver, gone for a week at a time. I couldn’t do what those families do. Absolutely, they deserve a voice.

My point is that I think the song is very calculated. I think SheDaisy’s song of a few years ago “Come Home Soon” was far more sensitive. And they don’t shout it.

Brandon Rhyder’s song Mr. Soldier contains the following verse where the families are remembered–Brandon says it far better than I could, and better than I think Carrie does:

I pray for your strength, I pray for your safety
I pray for your momma, I pray for your daddy
I pray for your sisters, I pray for your brothers
I pray for your wife, your husband your sons and your daughters
You may not come home to accolades, you may not come home to parades
But just the same, mr. Soldier, I have a prayer for you

Of course it is. Please read my post.

In the same way, we all care about child abuse victims, cancer patients, etc. many of us here roll our eyes I the thought of another cancer/child abuse song that doesn’t bring any new perspective on the patient
s/victim’s plight. It all comes across very surface level, and very repetitive of a message that has been heard before. It sounds like a ploy for the soccer moms, without any lyrical depth.

My issue isn’t the subject matter, my issue is that lyrically, the song is like a sledge hammer when a more gentle touch would have a deeper impact.

For Bob, you are probably right–I’d probably feel less strongly about an acoustic version of the song with just Carrie and a guitar. The over production adds to the perception of melodrama. I just wish they would have had the guts to focus on a quieter version of the song.

Loretta Lynn likes Carrie:
http://www.lorettalynn.com/letters/index.html

CCF…Conversely just because your website promotes ‘classic country’ doesn’t mean I have to like it. Actually I do since I grew listening to Don Gibson, Marty Robbins & Johnny Cash. Don Gibson’s “Oh Lonesome Me” is still one of my all time favorites.

On Opry life tonight Randy Travis invited Carrie to become the Opry’s newest member.

Interesting Cindy. I get the exact opposite reaction from Just A Dream. But then I’ve held too many young widows while they tried to figure out just exactly what the lyrics in JAD say:

Baby why’d you leave me
Why’d you have to go?
I was counting on forever, now I’ll never know
I can’t even breathe
It’s like I’m looking from a distance
Standing in the background
Everybody’s saying, he’s not coming home now
This can’t be happening to me
This is just a dream

At first they are shocked and “can’t even breathe”. It’s all “just a dream”. The ceremonies end, people leave, and they are alone. Who holds them then? Who pays attention to them then? Who brings them back from that “looking from a distance” surrealness? We do. Their families do. Forever. Funny how that works. While America is shopping at the mall. I for one appreciate Carrie’s take on a tough sitrep. It takes years of help and support for these young widows to heal. I bet they “get it”. Love the song, love the lyrics.

This JAD is actually quite explicit in it’s understanding and comes from a been there done that point of view lyrically. But I guess Lynn’s screamer could never be sensitive enough to deliver such a poignant song although she nails the feelings and functions to a T. Just another calculated money maker from a non-talented unethical (and that’s what you are calling her – unethical) Nashville Row chosen one eh? Good thing the guys and gals in Iraq didn’t feel that way when she calculatingly went there with the USO. With no press or fanfare. Just went ’cause By God it was the thing to do. But then they were a captive audience eh? They lined up for hours to meet & greet ’cause there just wasn’t anything else to do, right? And what can you say about Africa with the whole Idol Gives back calculation. $78 million raised in that one. For charity. I say string her up by her toes. Imagine the gall of doing all these calculating things. For free even. That’s some serious calculatin’. What a phoney!

Guess lyrical depth is in the eye of the beholder huh? Kinda’ hard to figure out how I could possibly understand this song since I’m not a soccer mom but there ya’ go!

Man! y’all are really getting predictable in these comment threads!

Am I predictable Brady? Ya’ think? Heh! Now you know why I usually only read the posts and don’t bother to venture into the comments. I’m hell to argue with though! ;-)

I know a couple of those photos well Brady. They were from when the boys brought home 2dLt Cathey. The one of the young Marines draping Old Glory on the casket outside an airplane while passengers watch is one of them. My son was with him (literally) when he was KIA (2d Battalion 2d Marines – OIF3). He was killed kicking in a booby trapped door on a kick & search but managed to use his body to shield two of his Marines from most of the blast. I could give you a link to the “unofficial” website I kept for four years or so with the history of the 2d Lt’s platoon/battalion and the birth (after his being KIA) of his newborn son but you know it wouldn’t sit well with some folks around here. All that blood and dying for oil and stuff. You can e-mail me and I’ll give you the link and you can follow the stories of some real American heroes if you’re into that sort of thing. Did you happen to read the story that went with those photogs? He was one hellova’ Marine that one was. One of 26 the battalion lost during that stretch. *sigh*

The 2d Lt’s Lovely Bride is the epitome of JAD. She just ripped my heart out but she found her inner strength. You just wish you could carry the pain for them if you can understand that. What a wonderfully strong young lady she turned out to be and her beautiful son is the spitting image of his daddy!

Here’s a poem written by Butch Howard about that Pulitzer Prize photo’s subject. Let the bashers go after these lyrics! Just how off topic shall we go? :-o

For 2nd Lt. James Cathey, Katherine and their unborn child. – Butch Howard

The plane touches down from a land far away.
The flag draped coffin moved from the cargo bay.
Handled with more than loving care,
Six of his brothers in arms are there.

Waiting nearby, his young wife feels
The new life inside her turn.
She never wanted a reunion like this.
Her young heart now broken and churned.

In his letter he said he would be home soon.
Their baby was due by the first New Year’s moon.
What a beautiful time it was going to be.
Their family of two was about to be three.

As his body lay in state upon the funeral bier,
She asked to spend this last night with him there.
The Marines made a bed for her right next to him.
She played some music, his favorite hymns.

A young Marine stands watch over his fallen brother.
An unborn child waits in the womb of his mother.
In the church where they married, a short time ago,
Mother, child and the father he will never know.

The men who serve their country with honor
And face death every day for years,
Are not alone in their suffering and pain.
Their families will pay with a lifetime of tears.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k258/moon_river_poet/DaddysHome2.jpg

April 10, 2006

Just to put my two sense worth in, which isn’t worth much, I bought Carries Carnival Ride album last night. I know, it took me long enough, huh? Anyway, I flipped to Just A Dream, because I was curious about the controversy on this thread about it. I’m gonna have to say that this song makes perfect sense to me. I know for a fact that if I was in that situation, I would feel exactly like the woman in the song. We don’t focus on the families of the soldiers nearly enough. Of course, losing our soldiers is extremely heartbreaking, but the story doesn’t end after their deaths. It continues with their families who should not be expected to suffer in silence.

Carrie Underwood should have Her JUNK on some Pop station …She sure ain’t COUNTRY…She sounds like an OLD DRUNKEN BAR-FLY !!! AND I’llBET SHE DON’T EVEN KNOW HER OWN NAME !!! PATHETIC !! “AMERICAN IDOL MY A..

Hey, my dear, this place is all about our opinions, so if we do not like Carrie we are more than able to express our opinions, so get over it –

I think last name is a decent song, but the punchline to the joke is the same as that in “I Don’t Even Know Your Name” by A. Jackson. So the humor is a bit worn out for me.

As Brady points out, Carrie seems unaware that she’s telling a joke. It doesn’t quite work.

But in some cases, a singer being ignorant that he/she is singing a novelty song can work. Consider the hilarious “She Left Me for Jesus” by Hayes Carll. In that song, the humor comes from the fact that the audience knows something Carll doesn’t know. But Carll doesn’t sing it completely straight, either; the lyrics suggest the narrator is ignorant of Jesus, but Carll’s delivery suggests to me that he is faking ignorance of Jesus, perhaps as a defense mechanism. That song as a “is he putting us on, or not” vibe, wheras the Carrie song comes across flat.

And that’s the sad thing: Carrie has 5 times the innate vocal ability that Carll has, but Carll seems to use what he has to much better effect. If Carrie can somehow improve her interpretive skills, she could become an outstanding artist.

Carrie is not a country singer. She’s a pop singet and an overrated one at that. She has not been good for country music, because the AI fans that she has “brought over” don’t know the difference between pop and country and that will only further weaken the genre. Artists like this are the reason I no loner listen to mainstream country radio. I did catch her performance of “Last Name” on the ACMs the other night and thought both the song and her performance of it were abysmal. Why does she have to scream her way through every song and why is she singing pop songs on a country awards show?

It won’t happen with “Last Name”. It lost the bullet at #9 on the country singles chart. That’s got to be her lowest-charting single to date.

Good. I’m glad to hear that “Last Name” will soon be on the pop charts where it belongs. It certainly never belonged on the country chart – or the ACM show, for that matter.

Anna: Is that rise a sustainable one or a bump? Because with a 60 percent sales drop from her last album she is going to be hard pressed to convince her label to put too much more money behind this one.

Garth, the Eagles and Taylor have all outsold Carrie this year, just based on a quick review of the current Billboard chart.

Because the industry took another 16.25 percent loss last year and they don’t have a lot of extra money laying around. And they have to really look at whether or not this album would return another million dollars spent on its promotion.

I’m not a business genius but if I managed money the way that Nashville does I wouldn’t even be able to afford the big box on the in the good alley.

Chris,

“Stormy” is just a fool. They don’t understand true economics of the music business and when you give them good facts (about the time difference adding to sales equasions), they use their ‘hatred’ for an artist to try and shoot down your responses.

Oh, and I didn’t follow the last sentence either.

Matt: I don’t need to understand, I just need to be old enough to remember back to a the year 1994 when TLC released an album called Crazysexycool which spawned 3 top 10 hits and sold 11 million copies. However, as a result of the massive publicity budget on that album, TLC filed for bankruptcy a year later.

What’s irrational is the way Underwood fans circle the wagons and try to discredit anyone who refuses to bow and worship at the altar of Carrie.

Chris N. Because the story of Carrie Underwood is the story of mainstream country in its entirity.

The reason Carrie is so polarizing is because she is so successful. If Carrie was not selling out every venue she plays, if she was not selling millions of CDs, and if she was not winning every music award in sight, nobody would be talking about her on these boards. The irony is that if Carrie was just another low-profile female country singer, she would have few detractors. The fact is that Carrie is an extraordinary talent, singers like her don’t come along very often and country music is lucky to have her.

RazorX… gotta disagree. She is an amazing vocalist. There are some songs she screams on a bit, but she hits her notes and has a great emotional and vocal range. I’m not crazy about most of her songs, but I do think she is something special as a pure singer.

North Texas: Since when does commercial success attest to quality?

NorthTexas, by your definition, everything played on country radio today is quality music. Taking things one step further, other genres of music are better than country because more people listen to them. Right?

Call it elitist if you want, but people who are just getting interested in country music because of artists like Carrie have no clue what country music is all about — not through any fault of their own, but because there really isn’t any place they can go to hear real country music. They tune into a “today’s country” radio station and think they’re getting the real deal, when nothing could be further than the truth. This blurring of the lines between genres is not a good thing!

“This blurring of the lines between genres is not a good thing!”

Bet folks said the same thing when Johnny Cash’s “Ring Of Fire” crossed over to the pop charts back in 1956!

“And why won’t those stations play female artists? Is it because of the shortage of females who are currently doing real country music or is there some other reason?”

Here’s a quote from Lon Helton, editor and publisher of the trade publication Country Aircheck:
“The country music audience used to be split 51 to 49 female to male, and now it’s skewing about 57 percent female. There’s a theory that women really like to see male artists,”

The fact is that the majority of the country radio listeners are female and they overwhelmingly buy and request songs by male artists.

“NorthTexas, is that quote from Lon Helton about country radio in general”

Don’t know but I’d guess in general.

“In the pop world, who do they think is buying all those Celine Dion CDs?”

Gay men?

Razor, when it comes Underwood we will just have to agree to disagree.
If she had came along 30-40 years ago I bet she would have been an outstanding traditional country singer.

Carrie Underwood is on a roll and it doesn’t look like she’s going to take a break any time soon!