Following the release of “Play On,” her newest album topping the charts, Carrie Underwood has announced plans for a large US tour scheduled for the new year.

The outing’s first leg will contain 45 dates and start in Reading, PA on March 11. The tour will continue until May 30 with a stop in Spokane, WA. Underwood’s country trek will feature Sons of Sylvia and Craig Morgan as special guests and will also stop in two Canadian cities. On March 23 Underwood will be in Hamilton and on March 24 in Ontario.

In her press release Underwood stated, I am getting very excited over next year. We are working currently through some big plans for next year’s tour. I can’t wait until I get to perform some new music as well as see some familiar faces all across Canada and the US.

Early last month the country singer dropped her third studio set, “Play On.” The album followed up on her sophomore record, “Carnival Ride,” which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s 200 chart.

The first week sales for “Play On” were the largest sales for one week in 2009 for any female recording artist. It was also second over all best sales week in 2009 for the genre of country music, according to retail data from Nielsen SoundScan and reported by Billboard.

Carrie Underwood, winner of multiple awards, has to date sold over 11 million records and also attracted over one million fans on last year’s “Carnival Ride,” her 137 show tour.

Underwood was nominated last week for two Grammys. For her song “Just a Dream” she was nominated for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and for her “I Told You So,” working with Randy Travis, she was nominated for Best Country Collaboration. The country super star singer has received a total of four Grammy trophies already, including three straight Best Female Country vocal Performance awards.