Watch Carrie Underwood’s Fan-Fueled ‘Smoke Break’ Lyric Video
Unwinding can mean anything from yoga to kayaking, to kicking back with a big old glass of wine and a pore-cleansing facemask. You can see Carrie Underwood fans do all of those things and more in the lyric video for her current single “Smoke Break,” the first from her upcoming Storyteller album, due out October 23rd.
While Underwood released her own official version of the video in August, she recently asked fans via her website to share photos showing what they do to blow off steam, echoing the song’s lyrics about hard-working folks needing a release valve from the stresses of life.
The song, inspired by actual breaks that Underwood took with co-writers Hillary Lindsey and Chris DeStefano while working on the lyrics, clearly struck a chord, debuting at Number One on Billboard’s Country Digital Songs chart in August and inspiring thousands of fans to offer up photos for inclusion.
The video depicts fans doing everything from playing with their pets and kids to enjoying the great outdoors — from fishing to hiking — sipping on coffee (and stronger beverages) going to beaches and ballgames, and travelling to exotic locales.
“‘Smoke Break’ has really taken on a universal meaning for so many fans as far as how they take their moments to relax and escape,” Underwood tells Rolling Stone Country. “It was so fun to see all their photos on how they spend their breaks!”
After the February birth of son Isaiah, her first child with Nashville Predators center Mike Fisher, it is unlikely the country superstar is getting many breaks these days. In addition to new motherhood, her immediate future is jam-packed as she returns to co-host the CMA Awards with Brad Paisley November 4th and is then expected to hit the road in support of Storyteller in early 2016.
Underwood co-wrote six tunes on the 13 track collection, which finds her reteaming with longtime collaborators like Lindsey, Ashley Gorley and Brett James — relationships that date back to her 2005 debut album. She also solicited tunes and production help from new sources including songwriter-producer Zach Crowell (Sam Hunt, Jake Owen) and Jay Joyce (Little Big Town, Eric Church), who produced “Smoke Break.”
You can see Underwood rock that song and a whole passel of her previous hits when her CMT Instant Jam, recently taped in Atlanta, airs October 17th.