Carrie Underwood to Perform at Tonight's CMA Festival

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The winner of the fourth season of American Idol, Carrie Underwood, is scheduled to perform will perform on "CMA Music Festival: Country Music's Biggest Party."

The show will air tonight, at 9 on ABC. Country music's new "it girl" will showcase her outstanding vocal talent and down-home charm along with the likes of Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney, Sara Evans, Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride, Montgomery Gentry, Brad Paisley, Hank Williams Jr., Wynonna Judd and other country stars.

Also performing tonight? Southern rock icons Lynyrd Skynyrd, who have been gravitating to the sounds of Tim McGraw, Gretchen Wilson and other country acts these days. It's not like the Skynyrd of old was averse to country music, the band says, just that back in the day, the line between country and rock was more pronounced then.

"What country music is these days is pretty much what Lynyrd Skynyrd has been for the last 30 years," frontman Johnny Van Zant said. "We've done shows with Tim McGraw, Hank Williams Jr., Montgomery Gentry. We just got off the road with Gretchen Wilson."

Sadly, Carrie's closest Idol competition and devout Skynyrd fan Bo Bice will not be in attendance. At least we haven't heard otherwise.

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.

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