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KEITH'S TRIP TO CANADA
Urban concert great news

BILL HART
The Daily News

Country fever has hit Halifax with this week's announcement of Keith Urban coming to town. That's right, Country Rocks the Commons is happening on Aug. 30, and Keith is headlining a full day of live entertainment that includes Aaron Pritchett, Johnny Reid (who sold more CDs in Halifax than any other city in Canada), and Charlie Major. Four more acts will be announced in the next couple of weeks, and the lineup may or may not include a well-known local act.

Toronto Timeline: Avoiding Keith Urban sprawl
Posted: December 11, 2007, 4:32 PM by Rob Roberts
Country music star Keith Urban went to Yonge-Dundas Square to promote his latest record at the new Future Shop today. Fans lined up for hours in the hopes of meeting the man himself. Reporter Dave McGinn attended the event.

11:30 A crowd of about 80 people out front of the store is standing in a neat row, thus avoiding Keith Urban sprawl.
11:45 Inside Future Shop, the band is warming up. Keith has yet to appear. It�s hard to tell just how country-fied the crowd is with the exception of a young blond woman in a pink cowboy hat. Everyone knows where she�s gone�she�s gone country.
12:02 The venue is gradually filling up, the crowd cramming together by the front of the stage at high levels of Keith Urban density. Will his wife Nicole Kidman show up? Fingers crossed.
12:04 It�s no surprise that the male-to-female ratio here is roughly 1-3. Mr. Urban is proof that country music performers can attract a large, hot female fan base if they are movie star handsome and/or from Australia or, barring that, have patented a dance floor craze. This fact is rumoured to have once so enraged an exasperated Merle Haggard that the Nashville legend is said to have declared, �[Expletive] Billy Ray Cyrus! Haggard can do an achy dance!�
12:17 A representative from Future Shop takes the microphone and introduces Keith Urban. The crowd goes wild with applause. �We love you Keith!� screams one woman in the audience. �I love you too sweetheart and I don�t even know you,� he replies. I wonder if that�s the line he used to pick up Ms. Kidman?
12:18 Urban launches in to his first song, Once in a Lifetime. As he croons, �Don� fear it now, we�re going all the way,� you can positively feel the hot fanlove in the room. There are more digital cameras and camera phones held aloft than there are for sale upstairs. Those who aren�t taking pictures are literally jumping. Seriously, people are pogoing.
12:31 When Keith asks for a �Whoa, oh, oh� from the crowd, boy does he get what he wants. This is the most country rockin� lunch hour ever.
12:32 When Mr. Urban tells the crowd, �We�re winging the whole thing today,� everyone in the room goes crazy with applause.
12:33 Mr. Urban launches in to a rendition of Where The Blacktop Ends, another song from his latest record, Keith Urban Greatest Hits: 18 Kids. I thought that was the title of Angelina Jolie�s new record?
12:36 Before the next song strikes up, Mr. Urban asks the crowd, �Are you guys in a singing mood?� To which everyone goes bananas with applause. Chances are he could ask the crowd anything�Hey, you guys like Whoppers without the pickles?�and he would get the exact same response.
12:48 Three songs later, as the audience dances away, an older guy with salt and pepper shoulder length hair wearing a Ramones-era leather jacket and looking like he hasn�t shaved or showered since Kenny Rogers met the gambler on a warm summer evening on a train bound for nowhere shambles through the crowd and walks backstage. This dude is a seasoned rock veteran.
12:50 As the band�s fifth and final song begins, Mr. Urban says �Let�s see some hands in the air� and everyone starts clapping.
1:07 Some 125 lucky fans get to go upstairs and get an autograph from the man himself. There are two rules: no photographs with Mr. Urban and you only get one thing signed. Everyone seems happy with that, and Mr. Urban greets them all with a friendly smile and a kind word. Every woman blushes on encountering the musician, as do a few men. But then it�s time to go, back out into the Keith Urban-less jungle.

Photo by Brent Foster, National Post

ONLINE VIDEO OF KEITH URBAN INTERVIEW
Keith Urban talks being back on Canada AM
Eight years, millions of albums and too many awards to count, Keith Urban is considered one of the biggest stars in country music. Now he's reflecting on his amazing career with his newest album, Keith Urban Greatest Hits featuring sixteen favourites and a couple of newly recorded tracks.

Skipping school to see Keith Urban

Parents and students speak with Jeff as they gather at the Masonic Temple in Toronto to see Keith Urban.

Keith Urban talks with some fans

WORTH CHECKING OUT
CLICK BELOW
http://www.ctv.ca/canadaam

Country star Keith Urban to perform next summer in Halifax: radio report
The Canadian Press

HALIFAX � There are reports country music star Keith Urban will perform at an outdoor concert in Halifax next summer.
An announcement was expected Tuesday, but Halifax radio station News 95-7 says Urban will perform on the Halifax Common with several local and international country acts.
The Australian singer, who married actress Nicole Kidman last June, has sold more than 10 million records worldwide.

From convicts to Keith Urban
Musician owes much to early Aussie country
Patrick Langston, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Saturday, December 08, 2007
Keith Urban -- the hunky Aussie country music superstar and hubby of Hollywood's Nicole Kidman -- owes a lot to scruffy United Kingdom convicts banished to Australia two-and-a-half centuries ago.

They're the folks who, at the end of a day of backbreaking labour, found time and energy to sing. From those songs about loneliness and endurance grew a rich musical tradition that eventually fed directly into Australia's robust country scene.

"I think those early strains are still prevalent in Australian country music, but I don't know specific songs," says the country rocker by telephone from Jacksonville, Fla., his accent largely intact despite having lived in Nashville for 15 years. Urban plays Scotiabank Place on Friday.

Like the American-influenced Urban, Australian country music has long been cross-pollinated by North America.

Radio helped spread Australia's native, folk-based country music in the 1930s, but it also introduced highly influential American acts like the Carter Family and the yodeling Jimmie Rodgers.

Radio and records also shot Tex Morton, the "Yodeling Boundary Rider" and acknowledged father of Australian country music, into the spotlight in the '30s.

Publicity pictures of Morton who, like Urban, was born in New Zealand, find him decked out in cowboy hat and boots in the fashion of Gene Autry and countless other American singing cowboys.

"I have a picture disc, a vinyl record, by Tex," says the 40-year-old Urban. "You can hear him roll his 'R's like an American, which is funny because years later Australian singers are getting criticized for singing with a twang." With town halls, fair grounds and even circuses featuring country music performers, the groundswell continued through the 1940s and '50s. Singer Smoky Dawson, a whip-cracking matinee idol, enjoyed a ten-year radio run starting in 1952 along with television success.

More memorably, Slim Dusty wrote the first of 1,000 country songs by the age of ten and released Australia's first international number one hit, The Pub with No Beer, in 1957. He eventually released more gold and platinum albums than any other Australian on record. Accorded a state funeral when he died in 2003, Dusty had "tremendous compassion for the land and the indigenous peoples," says Urban, who toured with Dusty.

During the half-century since Slim Dusty sang about that suds-less pub, Australia's country music trajectory has shadowed that of its American cousin.

While the juggernaut of late-1950s rock 'n' roll put a decade-long dent in Australia's country music industry, new performers like the Singing Kettles and John McSweeney helped put country back in the pink in the 1970s. The Australasian Country Music Awards and the Tamworth Country Music Festival were both founded in 1973, with Tamworth quickly becoming the country music capital of Australia.

Since then, new country music festivals have sprung up around the country. The Toyota Starmaker competition, meanwhile, has helped promote emerging artists. Starmaker winners include Urban (1990), whose early love of Glen Campbell and Dolly Parton was complemented in his teens by his own guitar prowess and admiration for rock gods like Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits.

The Starmaker competition's faith in Urban has been well-rewarded. Since debuting as a solo artist in 1999, he's released half a dozen albums, seen hits like Where the Blacktop Ends roar up the charts, and won everything from a Grammy to four French Association of Country Music Awards.

Back home, meanwhile, a fresh crop of country performers has been blossoming. Best known in North America is Kasey Chambers, who took the alt-country world by storm in 2000 and, in 2003, beat out pop music's Kylie Minogue as the Australian Record Industry Association's Best Female Artist.

"Country is such a living organism," says Urban. "It's always encompassed the music of the day as well. It's that incorporation that's kept it vital and relevant and evolving." Keith Urban plays Scotiabank Place Friday.

Tickets & times, 613-599-3267, 877-788-3267 or www.capitaltickets.ca.

� The Ottawa Citizen 2007

EMI CANADA FEATURE KEITH URBAN
Check out EMI page in Canada , some interesting pieces there.
CLICK BELOW
http://www.emission-online.com/issues/2007-12-07/feature1.asp

12/09/07
Keith Urban Gives Fans An Inside Look At 'Better Life'; Hits Album Out Now
In 2001, the Country Music Association honored Keith Urban with its Horizon Award, designating him a talented artist with a bright future. That same year, the Academy of Country Music named him Top New Male Vocalist. Six years and more than 10 million albums later, Urban remains the only Horizon Award winner in history to go on to win the CMA's Entertainer of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year, a title he's captured three times.

His first solo album in the U.S., 1999's self-titled effort, has since gone platinum signifying sales of more than 1 million copies. The CD spawned his first No. 1, the stirring "But For The Grace Of God." It also established his awe-inspiring prowess as a guitar player with lightening dexterity.

With 2002's Golden Road, Urban moved from a newcomer to a star. His monster hit "Somebody Like You" spent eight weeks at No. 1 on Radio & Records Country Chart, followed by "Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me," which spent three weeks at No 1.

In 2004, he released Be Here and a superstar was born. The album debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Country Albums Chart and has sold more than 4 million copies in the U.S. alone.

Last year brought Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing, which has already sold more than 2 million copies worldwide. Like its predecessor, the album came in at No. 1 on Billboard's Country Chart. "Everybody," the album's latest single, continues to climb the charts.

And now comes another milestone: Keith Urban Greatest Hits: 18 Kids.

Keith Urban Greatest Hits: 18 Kids was released on November 20th and includes Urban's seven No. 1 smashes, as well as another seven Top 5 hits. His No. 1s have spent a cumulative 27 weeks on top of Billboard's Hot Country Songs Chart. The album also features two tunes specifically for the new disc: a remake of "Got It Right This Time [The Celebration]" with his full band and his take on Steve Forbert's 1979 classic "Romeo's Tune."

Watch as Keith Urban talks intimately and shares rare concert and studio footage to give fans an inside look at "Better Life," one of the songs on Keith Urban Greatest Hits: 18 Kids. A new podcast highlighting an individual song will be released weekly.

"Better Life" podcast
http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2007/12/09/keith_urban_gives_fans_an_inside_look_at

The truth about the CMA�s
By Pete Wurdock

When the nominations for the 41st CMA�s were announced last August, we were all excited to hear about KU being nominated 4 times. On the night of the awards show many waited with eagerness to see how many he�d walk home with and I could see and feel the message boards heating up with anticipation. When the final �and the award goes to. . .� became buried in thunderous applause and he did not appear at the podium to accept it, your heart probably sank--- or at least stung a little bit--- and you weren�t alone. But there�s something they (the music industry and the Country Music Association) don�t want you to know. There�s a secret they don�t talk about, televise, show you in the commercials leading up to the awards, report on before or after, ask in interviews, post on their web site or say out loud. What I am about to tell you, you may thank me for or hate me for. Of course, I�m optimistic that at least one of you will love me for it (: It may blow your mind if you think about because there�s a secret about these awards--- an undeniable truth to them, which is far more important than the awards themselves. It�s not a conspiracy from the right or from the left and it�s even more valuable than knowing who�s going to win ahead of time. It�s something so simple that you as a reader and as a KU fan may bonk yourself in the head when I tell you what it is. The secret about the 2007 Country Music Association�s Awards is that they don�t matter.

Let me repeat that, they_ don�t_ matter. Think about it--- KU not winning a CMA in 2007 is not going to make you not like him, nor will you like him any less. Nobody will return his CD�s, or sell their tickets to an upcoming show because he didn�t win: But here�s the other part of the secret; a bigger part and hopefully something you can wrap your arms around. You, I, us---we already know what so many people still don�t get, refuse to get or simply don�t quite understand; his beautiful noise. In the last several years we have supported, enjoyed and have had a ringside seat watching the career of a man who puts his blue jeans on the same way we do, become one of the most exciting performers in popular music. I think you�d agree that is more important than any award as the impact he�s had on us is often beyond the reach of our words.

His music has been great company on our vastly different journeys, yet we�ve collectively laughed, cried, partied, fallen in love, been intimate with someone--- or lost someone all while listening to his music. One might say his music is for all occasions.

Do you ever feel like you�re struggling some days and find it hard to focus in this blurry world? I sure do. In his current tour, Bruce Springsteen begins each concert asking the audience � Is anybody really alive out there?� just to pump them up before he rips the night open with a two-plus hour concert of his rock and roll poetry. Since I consider KU someone who may one day ascend into a similar level of the rock and roll stratosphere, I don�t think that question is necessary at a KU concert because I�m quite certain we�d all respond with a resounding F-YEAH! Like Springsteen, KU already knows the answer and proves it to us each night, playing almost every concert as though it may be his last.

As I�ve gotten to know Keith�s music better I think it would be his belief that it�s about faith and it�s more than just being good to one another. It�s the deeper way the audience connects with him and with others as they listen to his songs. They�ve got us through rough times because we can relate to some of them so well that certain songs speak to us in a ways nothing and no one else can.

After seeing KU in Madison Wisconsin in September 2005, two things became clearer to me about the world I live in. First, I was a little more focused on what really mattered in life. (It�ll happen to ya when you hit 35 or 40, trust me) The second thing came after I, on a whim, decided to post my �review� and other KU ramblings on this and other message boards and was floored by the response I received. It encouraged me to begin writing again, something which had been a struggle for me. Fast forward to 2007---I finally had my first book published (a minor one and not my KU book which is an idea I�m kicking around again) and as a result a new world of possibility awaits me each day. I�m continually energized by connecting with people and still moved by the very music that got me serious about writing in the first place. As we�ve grown with KU�s music it too has grown with us. It has led me (and maybe you) into far the greater reaches of life and allowed things to happen, such as continuously discovering the redemptions that exist in this sweet world. They may not repay you for what you�ve already lost but they often enable you come to terms with what more there is to still be gained.

There are those who believe that Keith Urban�s music can save the world. I�ve read your posts and I can�t say I agree with you 100%, but I know it certainly can help and I know where you�re coming from. Every now and then the rooms that house our imperfect lives need redecorating, a touch up or maybe a total makeover. Yet often we panic because we can�t fix what�s broken as we try to keep up with America�s obsession of speed, convenience and youth. But in our contemplative solitude and stack of KU CD�s we still can find magic in a song and we realize that it�s ok to be who we are and it ain�t no sin to be glad you�re alive. Like Springsteen, KU�s songs have given me hope that the repairing of our lives and the lives of others is always possible. What moves me most about his music is that it when I listen to it, I hear myself thinking inside of it, find myself asking hard questions of myself and others ---and I see, feel and come to know strangers like you in it a little better. It reminds me that while we�re very different people; democrat or republican, Christian, Jew, Buddhist or atheist, we�re a lot more alike than we are different.

It�s hard for me to believe Love, Pain. . .was released 2 years ago. For my money, it wasn�t his best record but certainly memorable and I wish we were getting a CD of 18 new tunes next week. Perhaps further on down the road more music critics and music lovers will catch on to what we already know. For now, I choose to believe that the connection Keith Urban has with us and we have with him is not fabricated or grandiose, but it�s simple and advanced by truth. What I conclude in this discovery is that collectively; we�re all �livin�right now,� and we love the music made by someone who knows and hears his own heart tickin� like a Timex.

KEITH GETS GRAMMY NOD
Keith Urban - Stupid Boy
Keith wins yet another nomination at the prestigious Grammy Awards
For the song Stupid Boy!