Most standing ovations come after the last note. On April 4, 2011, inside a sold-out MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, the crowd could not wait that long. Carrie Underwood was still singing “How Great Thou Art,” with Vince Gill on guitar beside her, when people began rising from their seats. Vernell Hackett, reporting from the room for The Boot, wrote that it was the only time all night an audience stood before a song was over.
The two of them did not plan a show-stopper with lights and effects. It was one voice, one guitar, and a hymn first written in Sweden in 1885.
A Night Built to Honor the Women of Country
The occasion was ACM Presents Girls’ Night Out: Superstar Women of Country, a concert taped the night after the 2011 Academy of Country Music Awards and broadcast on CBS on April 22. The honorees were Carrie Underwood, Reba McEntire, Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride, Jennifer Nettles, the Judds and Loretta Lynn. Loretta was recovering from surgery and could not be there, so the other women sang “Coal Miner’s Daughter” in her honor.
Throughout the evening, male stars took turns saluting the women. Ronnie Dunn sang with Jennifer Nettles. Rascal Flatts joined Reba. Blake Shelton sang “Famous in a Small Town” for Miranda Lambert, his bride-to-be at the time. Carrie’s tribute belonged to Vince Gill.
Vince Gill’s Tribute, and Two Lines That Got a Laugh
The pairing meant more than the program let on. Vince Gill and Carrie Underwood are both Oklahomans, and Carrie grew up on her family’s farm near Checotah hearing him on the radio. Years later she told Taste of Country, “I remember listening to him from a very young age,” and said she had tried to follow in his footsteps.
Vince Gill opened the segment with a joke. Choosing which of Carrie’s songs to sing had been hard, he told the crowd. “It was between ‘Cowboy Casanova’ and this one.” When a few men in the audience started whistling at Carrie, he warned them off with a line of his own: “Be careful boys, she married a hockey player.” Carrie had married NHL player Mike Fisher the summer before.
Then he sang “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” Carrie Underwood’s very first country single, back to the woman who made it a hit.
“How Great Thou Art”
When Carrie Underwood joined him, she thanked Vince for singing with her and turned toward the other honorees. “Thank God for all of these gorgeous women that I get to share this night with tonight,” she said, adding that country music would not be the same without them.
Then the hymn began. Vince Gill kept to the background, playing guitar and adding his harmony, and let her carry the song. Taste of Country’s writer noticed her holding back tears as she sang, and said it would have been hard to find a dry eye in the room. The Associated Press described her vocal as soaring and pitch-perfect, and noted that it brought the crowd to its feet.
Her fellow honorees felt it too. Asked afterward for her favorite part of the night, Miranda Lambert did not hesitate.
“My favorite part of the night was Carrie Underwood. She brought the house down.” Miranda Lambert, to the Associated Press
The Recording Fans Had to Wait For
Once CBS aired the special, the clip spread online. By late May 2011, at least one fan was already asking online where to buy a CD of the night. For more than three years, there was no record to buy.
That changed on December 9, 2014, when Carrie Underwood released Greatest Hits: Decade #1. Tucked among her No. 1 singles was a previously unreleased track: “How Great Thou Art” with Vince Gill, live from ACM Presents: Girls Night Out. Carrie explained that the performance had taken on a life of its own, and that fans often told her they loved it and still watched it online. The live recording debuted at No. 12 on Billboard’s Hot Christian Songs chart and stayed on the chart for 20 weeks.
She returned to the hymn in 2021, recording a new studio version for her gospel album My Savior. But the version many fans still reach for is the one from that Monday night in Las Vegas, the one with Vince Gill’s guitar under her voice and a crowd that could not stay in their seats until the end.