Carrie Underwood has long made her Christian faith public with songs like “Something in the Water,” “See You Again,” and “Temporary Home,” along with her incredible performance of “How Great Thou Art” for the Academy of Country Music in 2015. However, it was not until 2021 that Underwood released her first Christianity-themed album, a Gospel album called “My Savior” that came out in March of 2021.
In the album, Underwood uses childhood memories to craft a compelling series of songs about faith-related topics, singing about everything from attending her rural, Baptist church in small-town Oklahoma to sitting in the pews and taking in Sunday sermons to singing some of the classic hymns from the church’s old hymnals with the country congregation, hymns such as “Amazing Grace” and “How Great Thou Art.”
Speaking about the album to GRAMMY.com, Underwood noted how the gospel songs for “My Savior” brought back many powerful childhood memories for her, telling the outlet, “It’s so great for me because I feel like in recording them, even now I can still feel myself sitting in the church pews next to my parents, hearing my mom sing harmonies and hearing other voices singing in the congregation.”
Continuing, she added that the memories and the music sparking them creates a warm blanket of emotional comfort for her through those memories and the emotions they spark, saying that she hopes the others listening to the album feel the same way. She said, “I feel like that just still rings in my ear and it’s wonderful, but more importantly, it provides a feeling of comfort and inspiration that hopefully other people can feel as well when they listen to these songs.”
She then noted that creating the album was also great because it reminded her of home, somewhere she rarely was during the chaos of 2020 and her busy career before that chaos. She said, “Making this album felt like home, and I haven’t been home since Christmas of 2019. I haven’t seen my dad in so long, so it was nice in the middle of the unsureness and chaos of 2020, first to get to make the Christmas album and then to follow it up with more songs that just felt like home.”
Further, speaking about the importance of doing a faith-based project and how it helped her soul in a way she hopes it helps others, Underwood said, “I feel like the answer to all of our problems is Jesus, and like you said, it’s not a secret where I stand. And this has been good for my soul. I feel like hopefully when people listen to it, it’ll inspire. It’ll bring some peace, and hopefully some good, positive feelings.”
Then, adding when she feels most connected to Jesus while singing, Underwood said, “I’ve been singing my whole life, even before I knew that this [was] going to be what I do. I’m a bird. I sing. It’s what I do. When I sing songs like this, I definitely feel connected. With the Christmas album, too. I loved getting to be in the studio and sing in more intimate settings, because when there [are] people in front of you, you’re worried about, “What do they see? What do they hear? Are they happy? Do they like it?” You want to put on a good show. But in the studio there’s nobody else there, it’s just me and God in the room, and I get to just sing to Jesus.”
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