Review: Underwood proves compassion can come with talent

Via Dayton Daily News...

Carrie Underwood graced the Miami Valley with her gorgeous presence last week at Country Concert in Fort Loramie and did not disappoint.

Sure, her voice was beautiful and as always, she was absolutely stunning, but one of the prettiest things about the new Mrs. Mike Fisher had nothing to do with her outward appearance, but her inside — her heart to be exact.

Carrie has been a long time supporter of the ACM Lifting Lives Music Camp in Nashville, which focuses on putting more music in the lives of talented campers with developmental disabilities. It was founded by the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities and is aimed at teens and young adults from around the country with Williams Syndrome and other genetic conditions like Down Syndrome.

Just before coming to Fort Loramie, Carrie visited the camp, singing some of her biggest hits with campers., including “Jesus Take the Wheel” and “Undo It.”

“I sing because I love to sing, and that’s what they love to do, too,” she told Nashville.com in an interview.

And the campers?

Of course, some were overwhelmed by the superstar, “I was like shocked,” Mackenzie Mansour, a 16-year-old from Lone Oak, Texas, told the Associated Press. “I didn’t know what to do. I was like, ‘Um, should I say hi to her or should I hug her?’ I was like, ‘Gotta think.’”

Mansour likewise made a huge impression on Carrie: “I said, ‘Do you want me to sing with you?’ She said, ‘No, I’ll sing to you.’”

Carrie was inspired by fellow Country Concert alumni Darius Rucker’s performance with a group from Lifting Lives at the ACM Awards in April.

Last weekend, Carrie showed her own kind of love by inviting a group of special needs kids backstage before she went on Friday. She smiled, posed for pictures and passed out plenty of hugs and kisses. But most of all, she took her time, answering their questions with kindness and compassion.

At the Lifting Lives camp, Carrie said, “I think we all kind of forget what a special gift that we have and we’re able to participate in every single day. And music is definitely a universal language. Anybody can speak it. Anybody can love it.”

And now there’s one more reason to love Carrie Underwood.