INTERVIEW URBAN KING OF COUNTRY

Urban king of country
RITCHIE YORKE
31oct04

From Sunday mail newspaper Queensland Australia

TO GET a realistic handle on the extent of Keith Urban's domination of the US country music market, you might contemplate this tour statistic.

On his current North American concert series, Urban's first as the headline act, the former Caboolture kid is performing with five players from his adopted hometown, Nashville. Their equipment and staging materials are transported in not one but three semi-trailers, plus three buses!
In the land where pop stardom was invented, Keith Urban is a huge star, growing bigger and brighter with each new single.

Since moving to Nashville in 1992, Urban – who turned 36 this week – has skilfully concocted a career like no other solo Australian before him.

Not since the phonographic delights of fellow Queenslanders Savage Garden has an Oz act burnt up the North American charts with such fury.

When his new album rocketed into the US album charts at No. 3, it was the highest debut by any Oz act since the Garden's blossoming.

Amazingly, Urban was US country's most-played artist of 2003. He's assembled an enviable track record of four No. 1 songs (including But for the Grace of God and Somebody Like You) in a total of eight Top 5 hits. All of this from a mere two albums – Keith Urban and Golden Road.

The recently-released third album Be Here has already yielded one chart-topper with Days Go By. He's well on track for another number one with his new single, You're My Better Half, which he wrote with a Nashville guitarist named John Shanks.

Locally it's encouraging to report that Days Go By is getting more non-country hit format airplay than any previous Urban effort. Slowly and steadily, Urban's awesome US success is sinking in Down Under.

On the phone from Nashville during a two-day break in his hectic touring schedule, Urban said he still wasn't sure about the musical back-up to join him on his "homecoming hero" visit next February.

He'll headline a series of shows, including gigs in Townsville, Rockhampton and Brisbane.

"I'm really looking forward to coming back home again and I'm now trying to sort out how much of my production I can bring with me," Urban said.

"I'm not sure about the band either because the band I put together for this (US) tour was selected specifically for this run. I don't know yet if they'll be available to come Down Under with me."

Urban had pulled the plug on his previous band before starting out on the current tour.

"It's just that I don't want to have a permanent road band for the rest of my life. I like the idea of being able to move things around."

Urban is considerably more concise on the subject of the repertoire he'll perform at his Oz shows.

"I'm not doing tons of the new ones (from Be Here). Since Golden Road is probably the best known of my records so far, we'll stack it strongly in that direction.

"We'll also do some stuff from my first album and a Ranch song in the middle of the show," he said.

The Ranch was a trio formed by Urban shortly after he moved to Nashville in 1992.

"We're playing a one hour and 40-minute show over here and the crowds have been very rowdy, doing lots of singing-along," he said.

"It's kind of overwhelming."

Keith Urban plays the Townsville Entertainment Centre (February 17); Great Western Hotel, Rockhampton (18); and the Brisbane Entertainment Centre (19). Be Here is out now through EMI Music.