Tony Cummings reports on CARRIE UNDERWOOD's latest project

Country music superstar Carrie Underwood has made no secret of her strong Christian faith as her Cross Rhythms radio hit of last year "Something In The Water" testifies. Now the award-winning singer is getting radio play with her new single "Smoke Break". The song was written by two of Carrie's long-time collaborators, Hillary Lindsey, who wrote Carrie's 2005 hit "Jesus, Take The Wheel", and Chris DeStefano, who penned "Something In The Water" and is what the singer calls "an anthem for every hard working person" with lyrics about escaping life's many stresses.

Carrie told a fan via facebook how the uptempo "Smoke Break" came about. "We were writing and kept taking breaks to go outside because we were getting a little stuck on a song we were already working on. It was so beautiful outside that we had a hard time focusing, so we decided to write a song about taking breaks! 'Smoke Break' seemed like a great title, so we ran with it!"

"Smoke Break" was produced by Jay Joyce, best known for his work with Eric Church and Little Big Town, and marks Underwood's first time working with the producer Rolling Stone magazine has called "boundary-pushing". The song will appear on the Grammy winner's upcoming fifth studio album, 'Storyteller', due out 23rd October. 'Storyteller' is a particularly appropriate title for a singer who has gained accolades and huge sales for story songs and indeed her hit of 2012 "Two Black Cadillacs" has been made into a TV mini-series.

Carrie shared songwriting credits for six songs on her new album. She said, "I feel like a lot of the songs that I wrote and gravitated to ended up being more traditional and 'twangy' than anything I have ever done before. I just went with it! I love the story telling aspect of country music...it's one of the reasons I always wanted to be a part of it."