Carrie Underwood Continues to Play On

When you've sold 10 million albums in a really, really short amount of time, you'd never dream of retiring. You'd play on. And on. And on. How perfect, then, that Carrie Underwood has named her third album Play On. It doesn't come out for another 64 days so I don't have an advance copy yet. But I did just see her in concert last night (Aug. 30) and she gave no indication of "new stuff." She played a long list of her hits and a couple of covers but not once did she ask the audience if it was OK to try out some of her new songs.

Two things I do know about the album are that there will be a title track (duh) and that she is working with Mark Bright, one of the producers behind Some Hearts and Carnival Ride. He is a fully-vested hit-making machine, also having made albums with Rascal Flatts, Sara Evans, Gary Allan, Lee Ann Womack, Billy Ray Cyrus, Reba McEntire, Brooks & Dunn and Trisha Yearwood.

So why would Underwood look any further for help on this new album? I'm not sure, but USA Today is reporting that Underwood produced a track with Sweden's Max Martin. He is the genius behind such infectious tunes as Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" and "My Life Would Suck Without You," Britney Spears' "Baby One More Time," Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" and Pink's "So What."

Does this mean that there's a pop dance mix in Underwood's future? Or a countrier sound in Martin's future? We'll have to wait until the album comes out before we know who influenced who -- that is, if the track ends up on the album. If it does, I'm sure the tune will be a major breakthrough.