Carrie Underwood releases her new studio album, Cry Pretty, on Friday (September 14th), and she says there was a lot of personal and professional growth between her 2015 Storyteller album and this new collection of songs, which she co-produced with David Garcia.

“There was definitely a lot of growth for me as a person – emotional growth and spiritual growth and my family. And I feel like just kind of taking more ownership in my thoughts and my feelings and my wants and my creative abilities and just taking more ownership over all of those things and wanting that to translate into this album,” says Carrie. “I like to take time between projects. It’s like when do you have time to live the life you’re writing about? It’s so important to me…Whatever I’m doing, I want to completely immerse myself in and that includes living a life, and I just feel like that’s so important. And for me as a mom and as a wife and as a friend and daughter and all of those things, it’s just important to take a minute to live a life worth writing about.”

Carrie has scheduled several appearances in promotion of Cry Pretty. She’ll perform on NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Thursday (September 13th) followed by the Today Show Summer Concert Series on Friday (September 14th), CBS Sunday Morning (September 15th) and The Ellen Show (September 19th). On September 20th, she will receive her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and will perform at the upcoming iHeart Radio Music Festival on September 22nd in Las Vegas.