Seven-time GRAMMY® Award winner and three-time ACM Entertainer of the Year Carrie Underwood will bring her new album, My Savior, to life with “My Savior: Live From The Ryman,” a virtual live concert performance from the iconic, Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN, also known around the world as the “Mother Church of Country Music.” Underwood will be performing the gospel hymns she grew up singing for this special concert event, which will stream live globally on her official Facebook page at 11:00 AM Central Time on Easter Sunday April 4th, with donations benefiting Save the Children. The free event will feature special appearances by CeCe Winans, the best-selling and most-awarded female gospel artist of all time, who duets with Underwood on “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” and singer/songwriter Bear Rinehart, frontman of the rock band, NEEDTOBREATHE, who joins Underwood to sing on another traditional hymn, “Nothing But The Blood Of Jesus.” Southern gospel and harmonica legend Buddy Greene and 10-time CMA Musician of the Year Mac McAnally, both of whom played on the album, will also appear with Underwood.
My Savior consists of covers of some of Underwood’s favorite traditional gospel hymns in a unique pastiche of musical styles from classic country to folk, bluegrass, and gospel. The album will be released globally on CD and digital March 26, 2021, and on vinyl April 30. My Savior is co-produced and arranged by Underwood and GRAMMY® Award winner David Garcia, with whom she co-produced her critically acclaimed 2018 album Cry Pretty, her seventh album to be certified Platinum or Multi-Platinum by the RIAA. Garcia is a multi-platinum selling, four-time GRAMMY® Award-winning record producer and songwriter.
“This is an album I have always wanted to record and I’m thrilled to be able to bring these uplifting, inspirational songs to life in this special way,” says Underwood. “It means so much to be able to bring this event to people in their homes on a day that holds so much meaning for us spiritually and to be able to raise much needed funds and awareness for the incredible work of Save the Children as we celebrate the importance of family.”
Fans can RSVP via Facebook here and “My Savior: Live From The Ryman” will remain exclusively on Facebook for 48 hours.
Donations accepted throughout the streaming event and for 48 hours after, will benefit Save the Children, which works in over 100 countries to ensure that children grow up healthy, educated and safe. In the U.S., Save the Children reaches children through early education, literacy and child hunger programs, helps prepare children for emergencies and responds when disaster strikes. To date, Save the Children has supported 30 million people affected by coronavirus around the world, including nearly 12 million children, making sure they have enough to eat, can access healthcare, can continue their education and are protected from violence. Before COVID-19, 1 in 7 children in the U.S. faced food insecurity, which has now increased to 1 in 4. Since March 2020, Save the Children has delivered nearly 21 million meals to kids in need across the U.S. For more information, visit www.savethechildren.org.
“When I set out to choose these songs, I wanted to include the beautiful, familiar hymns I grew up singing in church,” says Underwood. “There are several songs I have performed in the past, like ‘Softly And Tenderly,’ ‘How Great Thou Art’ and ‘Amazing Grace’ that mean so much to me and I knew immediately we needed to record for the album. This music shaped who I am as a person and is the foundation of my career as a recording artist. I feel so blessed to get to share these songs with generations of people who love them as I do, as well as others who might be experiencing them for the first time.”
Other tracks on My Savior include beloved hymns “Nothing But The Blood Of Jesus,” “Blessed Assurance,” “Just As I Am,” “Victory In Jesus,” “O How I Love Jesus,” “Because He Lives,” “The Old Rugged Cross” and “I Surrender All,” all of which will be performed live by Underwood and her band and background vocalists on the legendary Ryman stage. The event will also feature a string ensemble and gospel choir.
Pre-orders of the My Savior CD, vinyl and limited-edition t-shirt/CD boxset are available here. Pre-orders from physical retailers are available here. Digital pre-orders are available now here. Underwood’s video trailer for My Savior can be seen here.
Originally built as the Union Gospel Tabernacle in 1892 by Captain Tom G. Ryman, the iconic Ryman Auditorium is a National Historic Landmark, considered the “Mother Church of Country Music.” The former home of the Grand Ole Opry features stunning stained-glass windows and century-old wrap-around church pews that embrace the house’s spiritual roots, enhanced by cutting-edge technology.
About Carrie Underwood:
Carrie Underwood emerged from the promise of her 2005 American Idol win to become a true multi-format, multi-media superstar, spanning achievements in music, television, film, and as a New York Times bestselling author and successful entrepreneur. She has sold more than 64 million records worldwide, recorded 27 #1 singles (14 of which she co-wrote), and has seven albums that are certified Platinum or Multi-Platinum by the RIAA, all while continuing to sell out arena tours across North America and the UK. In September, Carrie released her eighth album, My Gift, her first-ever Christmas album, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Country, Christian and Holiday charts in its first week and marked her eighth straight release to debut at #1 on the Billboard Country chart. My Gift also debuted #1 on the UK country chart (her fifth #1 on the chart) and #1 on the Canadian country chart. Additionally, HBO Max began streaming “My Gift: A Christmas Special From Carrie Underwood” in December, an exclusive, all-new musical holiday special, with Carrie performing songs from My Gift with a full orchestra and choir. She announced her next album, My Savior, will feature beloved gospel hymns and will be released March 26. She starred as Maria von Trapp in NBC’s Emmy®-winning blockbuster, The Sound of Music Live!, hosted the CMA Awards for 12 consecutive years and returned last Fall for her eighth season as the voice of primetime television’s #1 program, NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Underwood has won over 100 major awards including 7 GRAMMY® Awards, 15 ACM Awards including three for Entertainer of the Year (the first female in history to win twice and, as of 2020, the only female ever to win three times), 22 CMT Music Awards where she continues to hold the record for the most award wins ever for the show, 7 CMA Awards, and 15 American Music Awards with her 7th win for Favorite Female Artist – Country and 6th win for Favorite Country Album for Cry Pretty, breaking the AMA record for Most Wins in the Favorite Country Album Category. Carrie is a proud member of the Grand Ole Opry and is the most followed country artist on Instagram and most followed female country artist on Twitter, Facebook and TikTok. She has built a successful business portfolio inspired by her passion for health and fitness. She is founder/lead designer for her fitness and lifestyle brand, CALIA by Carrie Underwood, which was launched in 2015. In March 2020, HarperCollins/Dey Street books published Carrie’s first book, FIND YOUR PATH: Honor Your Body, Fuel Your Soul, and Get Strong with the Fit52 Life, a fitness lifestyle book in which she shares her belief that fitness is a lifelong journey, providing a common-sense approach to staying active, eating well, and looking as beautiful as you feel, 52 weeks a year. That same month, Carrie also launched her new fitness app, fit52, which is a holistic wellness platform designed to encourage and support users on their personal wellness journey with constantly evolving and updating workout “paths,” available on the App Store and on Google Play. In January 2021, she expanded her lifestyle portfolio with an equity partnership with BODYARMOR Sports Drink.
Carrie Underwood (Ryman Show) OC: …extra special. :56
“We wanted to do something special for this album. I think the album itself is very special and I feel like we all need to experience some live music, you know. So, we started thinking about where to perform it and when I think of country music and church and places that are special to me, I think of the Ryman Auditorium. There’s something so special about it. It is an auditorium, but it feels like church, I mean for many reasons. It’s just so beautiful and has such a spiritual feel to it anyway. So, we thought of bringing this album to life and what better day to stream that on than Easter Sunday. So, I’m just very excited. I’m always excited to sing but when you get to do something that’s very intimate and something that feels like home, which again I feel like this whole album feels like home, to do it in a place that feels like home is just going to be extra special.”
Carrie Underwood (charitable aspect of Ryman Show) :35
“My whole goal in doing an album like this, as well as My Gift, is to like put positivity into the world and make people maybe look up, you know? And to do that I feel like if we’re looking to do positive things in the world. Let’s help people along the way. I’ve worked with Save the Children in the past and they’ve just been a wonderful organization that does a lot of good things for kids in the world. It’s an honor to get to work with them again and do positive things.”
