PLATINUM FREEWAY

By Donna Isbell Walker
ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
dwalker@greenvillenews.com
Country singer Keith Urban is keeping his sense of humor about his successful career, and his latest album "Golden Road," which is No. 2 this week on the Billboard Country Albums Chart, 81 weeks after its release.
He's working on a follow-up record, likely coming out in the fall. Asked if the new disc has a title, the Australian singer, on the phone from a tour stop in Pennsylvania, allowed that he is still mulling it over.

"I thought 'Platinum Freeway' was way too pretentious," Urban said, laughing. "It could be 'Lead Lane' for all I know."
Pretentious, maybe, but certainly accurate. "Golden Road," which came out in 2002, went platinum last summer, and its self-titled predecessor hit the 1 million mark in December.
The new disc, Urban hopes, will show "where my music is at two years later from 'Golden Road.' I hope we can keep capturing some more of the live energy from when we play live. ... There are some songs that are best when they're left rough around the edges and a little loose, and there are other ones that work better when they're crafted and really produced."
Urban has spent a huge portion of the last few years on the road, touring with Brooks and Dunn and with Kenny Chesney and doing loads of solo shows.
The grueling schedule can take its toll physically, for Urban manifesting itself in a hemorrhaged vocal cord, and emotionally. Even so, says Urban, it can also lend itself to gratifying bursts of creativity.
"There are some days when you feel creatively drained and can't think of anything and other days when you're just overwhelmed with ideas. You get into the studio and you just can't record quick enough 'cause they're all flying at you. ... I enjoy being on the road, coming off the road and literally going straight into the studio," he said.
There have been times when Urban has been on the road from Thursday to Sunday, arrived in Nashville at 8 a.m. Monday, hit the studio at 10 and recorded until Wednesday, when it was time to hit the road for the next batch of shows.
"It's great because you do start to blur a little bit of that live thing with the studio, and I think it, hopefully, will make for a little more of a consistent record with what you see live."

The "Golden Road" album, with its many moods and song styles, came out as "a snapshot of a person's time," Urban said.

He tried to chronicle all the different emotions going on his life during the period of the album's recording.
"You're likely to experience all kinds of days. One day you're just up and everything is wonderful, and life is effortless and easy, and another day you just feel crushed and you can't go on and you think it's always gonna stay that way, and another day you're confused, and another day you're just thinking way too much, and another day you're not thinking about anything except eating ice cream."