Gary Allan Cover; 1100 Springs’ “Great American Trainwreck”; Ricky Skaggs’ G-Run In a Mason Jar

As for Carrie’s special, I pretty much agree with USA Today’s Brian Mansfield’s comments: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/idolchatter/post/2009/12/a-few-notes-on-carrie-underwoods-holiday-special/1?loc=interstitialskip

Carrie’s special was so good last night. It showed off her powerful vocals yet again. Also, it showed off her personality and you could tell she was having a lot of fun. My favorite special guest was Kristen Chenoweth. She was amazing, and I would definitely love to see Kristen play Dolly one of these days. I do think there could have been a bigger section dealing with Christmas songs, although everything sung was very well done. “O Holy Night” was indeed one of the best performances of the night. I loved the opening skit of the behind the scenes footage of her in American Idol. That was hilarious. My least favorite thing in the show was when Carrie was trying to find her sister a date. That didn’t work out too well. Other than that minor detail, this was a great variety show and she ended it so well with a remarkable performance of “Change”. I so hope that will be one of her future singles.

Carrie Underwood & Dolly Parton – “I Will Always Love You” duet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRPVcWKrqy0

Carrie Underwood’s Holiday Special had an average of 8.5 million viewers. That’s very good considering the last attempts at a variety show by Rosie O’Donnell and the Osbournes did terrible.

Brody: The few holiday songs, including the phenomenal “O Holy Night” was included in the second half.
Also, I’m pretty sure her bikini pictures did not overshadow her special, not by a long shot.

I watched the Underwood special with an open mind. I give Carrie props for being able to poke fun at herself and for seeming very genuine. I actually liked her duet with Brad and wish they’d do an entire album of classics, even if they’re not necessarily the most traditional. I wish more Christmas music had been included. It seemed that they just put it in in the last 15 minutes, which was disappointing to me, since I mostly watched for the “holiday” part of the show.

While it really wasn’t something I’d personally view again, I think that Underwood fans rightfully have reason to be proud of the show, as she comported herself very well and gave others a chance to shine in the process.

I agree with Vicki, however, that some of the awkwardness could have been avoided considering the people who were likely involved behind the seens.

Now, I didn’t watch Carrie Underwood’s special, but I did check out a couple of the clips, and again I’m reminded of how great she is at singing country songs. That her handlers have wrangled her into shriekingly-awful performances of one of the worst catalogs of pop songs ever assembled is truly one of Music Row’s worst murders.

I’ll echo Leeann regarding her ability to cover traditional country. The whole duet in two separate cities idea seemed forced – although Brad should be a pro at it, since he does something similar with a video screen Alison Krauss at his live shows – and took away the entire chemistry idea behind doing a live duet at all. But Carrie seemed infinitely more comfortable and natural singing that tune than doing the awkward choreography in “Cowboy Casanova.”

“Ever heard of Taylor Swift, Evie?”

Great, now this will turn into another TS vs CU catfight.

Carrie Underwood has a great voice – no doubt. But she is one of the least interesting people I’ve ever heard; and, everything that comes out of her mouth is poorly articulated fluff. I can’t imagine sitting through two hours of it…

For me the first hour didn’t run smooth. First, she should have come out with a rousing Christmas song,”Santa Baby” or something. Then go into the whole “Play On” stuff. I think what hurt it was not having the Carrie-David Cook Van Halen Rocker that I heard was extremely done well. Legalities kept it off the program but it would have broken up the two back to back ballads. The dog talking skit was the best skit but many of the others bombed. I thought ok, these Fox big wigs came to her and asked her to do this special. So why didn’t they back up this novice with some good advice?

Hey, it sounds like Randy Houser’s touring with Jamey Johnson has had a positive musical impact on Randy’s next album! Its the “mystical power of Jamey J.”…

I’m looking forward to the “Crazy Heart” film. If its half as good as the trailer it should be a hoot. Stephen Bruton’s involvement could only have helped the project’s musical integrity.

That Colt Ford video for “Mr. Goodtime” is a bit of mindless fun. Colt has a redneck schtick that seems to be working, well on drunkard party-yahoos anyway.

Absolutely terrible album art on that new Gary Allan record. Not that I really care about that, since I don’t even get hard-copies of albums anymore, but hopefully he reconsiders.