Carrie Underwood And Fans Donate To American Heroes

Carrie Underwood made a significant donation to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation of $420,316. The money was  raised by her fans who bought tickets to her 43-city arena tour, "The Denim & Rhonetsone Tour." This contribution will go directly towards supporting America's heroes and their families.

Carrie said, "I'm so proud of the fans that came out to the tour and making this donation possible. They have always shown up to support great organizations like Tunnel To Towers, making the world a better place while coming out to see us."

Since early in her career, Underwood has designated a portion of ticket sales from her tours to support worthwhile charities and organizations. She continued that tradition by arranging for a donation of $1 from each ticket sold for her recent tour to be contributed to The Tunnel to Towers Foundation, an organization committed to providing mortgage-free homes to Gold Star and fallen first responder families with young children, and building specially adapted smart homes for catastrophically injured veterans and first responders.

Frank Siller, the CEO and Chairman of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation said, "We are overjoyed and profoundly grateful for this kind gesture. Carrie's substantial donation, supported by her loving fans, will directly influence the lives of many of our nation's heroes and their families."

The Tunnel to Towers Foundation pledges to utilize 100% of this donation towards its cause, forgoing the usual allocation for administrative costs. This means every single dollar of this generous contribution will aid in providing mortgage-free homes to families of fallen first responders, Gold Star families, and catastrophically injured veterans and first responders.

Underwood recently announced that she has added 18 new shows to her "Reflection: The Las Vegas Residency" at Resorts World.

Tickets and a limited number of VIP packages and upgrades to this new set will go on sale to the public on Monday, September 18, 2023, at 10 a.m. PST.

Carrie said in a statement about playing Vegas, "I love being on the road and coming to the fans where they live, but it will also be fun to get to do multiple shows in one place where people will be able to come to get that concert experience and have some fun in Las Vegas at the same time."

The Deluxe Edition of Carrie's Denim & Rhinestones album will be out on September 22, featuring six new tracks, including her current single, "Out Of That Truck."

Country music often focuses on small-town people and their love of the land and fellow people in their hometowns. There have been many songs in the country over the years paying homage to the small town and hometowns, including Miranda Lambert's 2007 song "Famous In A Small Town." Eric Church scored a hit in 2014 with "Give Back My Hometown."

Miranda's 2007 song's lyrics include, "Whether you're late for church / Or you're stuck in jail / Hey, word's gonna get around / Everybody dies famous in a small town / Well, baby, who needs their faces in a magazine? / Me and you, we've been stars in this town since we were seventeen."

Carrie Underwood also sings of the charm of small towns in her 2012 chart-topper "Thank God For Hometowns," and it is hard to forget one of Montgomery Gentry's biggest hit over twenty years ago in 2002, "My Hometown."

The Cambridge Dictionary defines small towns as "small social groups where ordinary people live." The US Census Bureau determines a small town with a population between 25,000 and 50,000. It is slightly smaller than the average suburb, which is defined as a community within an urban area with between 30,000 and 70,000 residents.

What is fun in country music today is that many of today's big stadium headliners, like Luke Combs and Morgan Wallen, play for crowds bigger than the populations of the towns they were born in. As we pay tribute to hometowns, we look at five country superstars playing to audiences each night bigger than their hometowns.

As of 2021, Huntersville has a population of roughly 60,000. That is just a bit less than the crowd size Luke plays for each night on his stadium tour. Combs is now in New Zealand playing for big crowds overseas.

Morgan is playing for audiences each night on his stadium tour for crowds more than forty times the size of his hometown. In 2020, the population of Sneedville was just 1,315.

Lainey's hometown is tiny, with a population of just 211 reported in 2021. Wilson is now on her own headling arena tour playing for crowds of more than 10,000 people, and she just wrapped Luke Combs stadium tour as an opener playing for crowds over 60,000 each night.

Eric is from a very small town with just under 5,000 (4,927) as of 2021. Church is currently on his "Outsiders Revival Tour," playing outdoor arenas with more than twice his hometown's population at each stop.

Carrie often talks about her hometown being Checotah, Oklahoma, which has a population of 2,043 as of 2021, but she was actually born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, with a population of 36,790 (2021). Either way, opening for Guns N' Roses on their "World Tour" like she has last week (8/6) and a few more times this month, she is playing for packed rock crowds of over 60,000.