Underwood’s latest effort gets personal

After a stunning Grammy Award performance, Underwood is taking her show on the road.

	Carrie Underwood With Hunter Hayes WHEN: 7:30 p.m. March 8 WHERE: Santa Ana Star Center, 3001 Civic Circle Center NE, Rio Rancho HOW MUCH: Sold out

“It’s been great to be back on the road and performing,” she says during a recent interview. “I’ve been blessed to still be making music and people coming to shows.”

Other artists would rest on their laurels after such success. Instead, Underwood got busy making her current album, “Blown Away,” which has sold more than 1 million copies and has been certified platinum.

The singer teamed up again with producer Mark Bright and put together a 14-song collection that covers a vast expanse of emotional territory.

“I really wanted to capture where I’m at in my life,” she explains. “It was important to let the fans into a piece of my life.”

Always a small-town girl, the Oklahoma native wrote about small-town living in her single, “Thank God for Hometowns.” She also gets sassy and doles out a little revenge with “Blown Away” and “Two Black Cadillacs.”

“I got chills,” she says of first hearing “Blown Away.” “I remember where I was when I heard it and called my manager and said, ‘Do not let anyone else have this song. It’s my song. It’s such a visual song. You listen to it and you can see everything that is happening. It’s so dramatic.”

After becoming the first country singer to win “American Idol,” Underwood cemented herself in the genre. She says she’s a fan of all types of music and has been careful not to be pigeonholed and predictable.

“I feel like I’ve taken all of my albums into as many different directions as possible while still keeping them cohesive,” she explains. “I love this album from start to finish and love every song on it. There’s not one single song that’s like another song I’ve ever done. I think it’s my best album. I really do think there’s something for everyone.”