Carrie, Little Big Town Hit Road

Little Big Town photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.

Sept. 23, 2008 — Carrie Underwood kicks off the 51-date fall leg of her tour in Cleveland on Tuesday, and she’s bringing along Little Big Town for the Carnival Ride.

The opening slot has multiple benefits for the band, which is relaunching its third album, A Place To Land, with four new songs on Oct. 14. The tour allows LBT to showcase its tight harmonies in front of 10,000 people or more every night. And it also is allowing them the best production values they’ve ever had on the road.

"This is gonna be the best light show we've ever had as a band," Karen Fairchild told Dial-Global. "Carrie was gracious enough to give us all of these incredible moving lights. It's just gonna be fun. When you're an opening act or a middle act on tour, you're not using full production all the time. But this is a lot of production for us, being it's just us and Carrie on this tour. It's been great. She's been great already to work with."

Both acts will take a break from the Carnival Ride on Nov. 12 for the 42nd annual Country Music Association Awards. Carrie and Little Big Town are each double nominees in the event, slated for the Sommet Center in Nashville. They’ll be back at that same venue for a concert near the tour’s end in December.

The full itinerary for the Carnival Ride Tour this fall follows:

• Sept. 23 Cleveland, Ohio
• Sept. 24 Highland Heights, Ky.
• Sept. 25 Milwaukee, Wis.
• Sept. 27 Grand Forks, N.D.
• Sept. 28 Sioux City, Iowa
• Sept. 30 Topeka, Kan.
• Oct. 2 Champaign, Ill.
• Oct. 3 Hoffman Estates, Ill.
• Oct. 4 Detroit, Mich.
• Oct. 6 London, Ontario
• Oct. 7 Toronto, Ontario
• Oct. 10 St. John, New Brunswick
• Oct. 11 Moncton, New Brunswick
• Oct. 12 Halifax, Nova Scotia
• Oct. 14 Portland, Maine
• Oct. 15 Boston, Mass.
• Oct. 16 Kingston, R.I.
• Oct. 18 Syracuse, N.Y.
• Oct. 19 Philadelphia, Pa.
• Oct. 21 Newark, N.J.
• Oct. 23 Hampton, Va.
• Oct. 24 Winston-Salem, N.C.
• Oct. 26 Southaven, Miss.
• Oct. 27 Jonesboro, Ark.
• Oct. 29 Tulsa, Okla.
• Oct. 30 Grand Prairie, Texas
• Nov. 1 Houston, Texas
• Nov. 2 San Antonio, Texas
• Nov. 6 Las Cruces, N.M.
• Nov. 7 Glendale, Ariz.
• Nov. 8 San Diego, Calif.
• Nov. 9 Los Angeles, Calif.
• Nov. 14 Bakersfield, Calif.
• Nov. 15 Oakland, Calif.
• Nov. 17 Portland, Ore.
• Nov. 19 Salt Lake City, Utah
• Nov. 21 Missoula, Mont.
• Nov. 22 Billings, Mont.
• Nov. 24 Lethbridge, Alberta
• Nov. 25 Edmonton, Alberta
• Nov. 29 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
• Dec. 1 Regina, Saskatchewan
• Dec. 2 Winnipeg, Manitoba
• Dec. 4 Madison, Wis.
• Dec. 5 St. Louis, Mo.
• Dec. 7 Nashville, Tenn.
• Dec. 8 Chattanooga, Tenn.
• Dec. 9 Tupelo, Miss.
• Dec. 12 Tampa, Fla.
• Dec. 13 Orlando, Fla.
• Dec. 14 Gainesville, Fla.