Carrie Underwood Returning To American Idol, Releases New Video

The trek will kick off September 13 in Denver with tickets going on sale beginning May 11. The 14-city run will once again feature label mate Devin Dawson as special guest.

Pride, who made his Opry debut in 1967, performed extended Opry sets in celebration of his milestone anniversary. Opry flagship station 650 AM WSM (wsmonline.com) saluted the award-winning artist with a "Country Pride Weekend."

According to the announcement, the duo will hit the stage together and solo, performing songs from Broadway, Glee and original songs from their recent solo albums.

Jaye had this to say that the track is "a song about opening up to intimacy and vulnerability without fear, as well as exploring the unknown in ourselves and through another."

She also decribed how the partnership came about, "My decision to move back to Los Angeles after living in Nashville for nine years was because I needed a change.

"I think both places will always feel like a home to me and will forever occupy equal space in my heart and equal influence over my music and sound. I've never been a traditional Pop, Americana, or Country artist, and living out west right now represents for me the freedom to be untethered to one particular musical sound, scene, or genre. And I feel this project is an extension of that."

The most frequent question that I have been asked in press interviews is "is there any advice you would like to give to aspiring artists?". Every time I hear that question, my mind cycles through my collective artist career and I start to weigh the pros and cons of the hardships vs the rewards that this career path has given me. From the multitude of failed relationships due to the unstable financial status of an artist too when someone tells you that your music may just have saved their lives. If I'm being honest with myself, I don't know which side wins.

"Awake" is about my journey as an artist. I grew up in a household of musicians. My mother, a classically trained piano teacher and my father, once a seasoned Opera singer. From a young age, my parents put me and my sister through classical piano training then sent me to violin lessons with hopes that one day I might professionally play in an orchestra. Every day after school, my father would pick us up and drop us off at my mother's music school where we would wait for her to finish teaching her classes. I remember the first time I heard one of the music instructors wailing away on an electric guitar. That was the day, that I knew I wanted to be in a rock band.

Fast forward over a decade to the joys and heartache of following after your passion. I've watched fellow musicians drop off the path, watched my parents grow old in a blink of an eye, experienced poverty, lived out of a van for months, traveled the world, played on some of the largest stages, experienced success, drowned in failure, watched my friends who chose "normal" careers make families and create stability�� the list seems endless�but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I know I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing and that will have to do.