‘ACM Presents: Our Country’ Viewers Weigh in on Carrie Underwood’s ‘Drinking Alone’ Performance

Carrie Underwood took center stage during CBS and the Academy of Country Music’s Sunday night special, ACM Presents: Our Country amid the coronavirus pandemic. Underwood performed her most recent single, “Drinking Alone,” which seemed appropriate for a difficult time around the country. Her performance of the song struck a chord with fans online.

Underwood, her husband Mike Fisher and their two sons have been staying at home in Tennessee during the coronavirus outbreak, following social distancing guidelines to help slow the spread of the virus. On Wednesday, the couple filmed a PSA, reminding Tennessee residents to do the same. “To help the health of our community, we’re asking everyone to stay at home as much as possible and practice social distancing,” Fisher said.

“Working together, we can stop the spread of COVID-19,” Underwood, wearing a shirt reading “Spread love, it’s the Nashville way,” added. “Do your part. Stay apart.”

“God bless you guys,” Fisher added.

“Drinking Alone” was written by Underwood, Brett James and co-producer David Garcia, and is featured on her album Cry Pretty. The song was written in a first-person perspective, but Underwood wanted to make sure the song did not seem like a story about a night of drinking and a one-night stand.

“It was important to me because we’re singing this [in the] first person,” Underwood told Billboard Country Update. “I didn’t want it to be like, ‘Oh, we’re going to get drunk and go home together,’ because that’s not something that I would do. If it is going to be like an extreme kind of character, I think I’d rather put it in third person, or put it in a (context where) you’re speaking about somebody completely different, not use first person.”

In another interview on The Ty Bentli Show, Underwood said the title came to her first, and Garcia and James helped build a song around it.

“Brett was like, ‘I feel like we could do something more with that. What if it was like, ‘drinking alone together?’” Underwood recalled. “I was like, ‘Ooh, I like it,’ so we ran with it, and tried to put together this whole storyline.”

That storyline features just a man and a woman attempting to forget their problems at a bar. The two do not go home together, they just sit and hang out together.

“I love that the character – I was like, ‘I don’t want her going home with him,’” Underwood said. “I don’t want any of that. I just want it to be like, ‘Okay we’ll just hang out. We’ll drink. We’ll maybe share a corner booth kiss.’ But it’s just more about that night and that moment and that Band-Aid and then going your separate ways. ‘This isn’t a thing. I’m not looking to start a new relationship. I’m out of this one. Let’s just let whatever this is be what this is right now.’”

Photo credit: CBS