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Underwood rocks country crowd at state fair
By RYAN CORMIER, The News Journal


HARRINGTON -- In a year with Daughtry as the lone rock act at the Delaware State Fair, Carrie Underwood made quick work of injecting a little more rock 'n' roll to the country-heavy line-up.

Underwood broke out a surprisingly faithful cover of Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child O' Mine" halfway through her 75-minute set Saturday night, leading to the unusual scene of thousands of mothers and grandmothers clapping along to one of Axl Rose's greatest hits.

"Axl who?" called out Craig Crawley, 48, of Milford, after the song, which got one of the biggest crowd reactions of the night.

What a week it's been for Underwood fans in Delaware.

On Tuesday, it was announced that the 24-year-old would release the follow-up to her smash debut "Some Hearts" in October.

And Saturday night, the country-loving "American Idol" winner treated a sold-out crowd to a breezy 17-song set, playing all but one song off her debut album, but stopping short of previewing any new songs from her forthcoming sophomore effort.

The audience was unusually sedate throughout most of the performance and Underwood seemed to notice. Early on, she told the audience, "Anything you feel like doing, go ahead as long as you don't hurt anyone around you."

Even though fans remained seated for most of the show, the crowd reveled in her repertoire of feel-good, sentimental anthems.

Feel-good sells, and Underwood knows it.

She's distanced herself a bit from her biggest crossover single, "Before He Cheats," in which she sings, "And he don't know that I dug my key into the side of his pretty little souped-up four-wheel drive/Carved my name into his leather seats."

The song stands out on the album as the only track with any bite, squeezed between religious-themed tunes like "Jesus Take the Wheel" and "Inside Your Heaven." In her self-penned biography on MySpace, Underwood wrote about "Before He Cheats": "I do not condone the destruction of anyone's property, and I have never at anytime keyed anyone's car."

Considering that, there was no reason to think she'd rock the boat too much at Saturday night's concert. And she didn't except for the Guns 'N' Roses song. Her two other covers were familiar: the Pretenders' "I'll Stand By You" from this year's "Idol Gives Back" special and "Alone" by Heart, which she covered on her winning season of "American Idol."

Aside from a fiddle player, it would be hard to tell Underwood was a country act if you didn't know beforehand. With loud, screaming guitars from her six-piece dominating for most of the night, it's easy to see why she has crossed over to the pop charts.

On Saturday night, while discussing her sudden rise to superstardom, she made quite an understatement after recalling her years of trying to break into the music industry and failing before deciding to try out for "American Idol."

sucked.