rockin the ryman

from music.com
ROCKIN' THE RYMAN
by Larry Wayne Clark
There's a certain irony in a country performer whose name is "urban," let alone one who honed his chops in Brisbane, Australia where they don't even broadcast the Grand Ole Opry, but there's little doubt in anyone's mind that Keith Urban oops, keith urban as he now prefers to be known is destined for greatness. Mention his name to any guitar picker, singer, songwriter or label honcho, and you'll get a nod of approval accompanied, perhaps, by a sigh if that person also happens to be female. Something about all that talent combined with lean, blond good looks and a humble manner seems to have that effect on women, which may be why urban's picture appears on the cover of the March issue of Playgirl. A guitarist whose prowess made jaws drop during an acoustic performance at this year's Country Radio Seminar, urban also has a husky, supple tenor that breathes honesty into every line he sings lines which, much of the time, he's also written. The man seems able to do it all. First attracting notice as a bandleader in the early '90s, he was eventually signed to Capitol Records. A 1997 release, The Ranch, became one of those albums that critics loved but radio couldn't get a handle on. A couple of years later, Keith has become keith, The Ranch no longer exists, and keith urban, his 1999 solo album, has seen his career soar to new levels, culminating in a multi-chart Number One hit with "But For The Grace Of God." Co-written with ex-Go Gos Charlotte Caffrey and Jane Wiedlin, "Grace" is a driving mid-tempo ballad that pretty much epitomizes the new keith urban a thoughtful, romantic troubadour who just happens to be able to make a guitar spit fire when he takes the notion. On February 24, keith urban made a Grand Ole Opry appearance during one of the Opry's periodic returns to the legend-rich Ryman Auditorium. Armed with just his acoustic guitar (from which he's able to draw an orchestra's worth of tone and rhythm), he delighted the packed house with renditions of the current hit and a cover of "Galveston," a Jim Webb-written Glen Campbell hit from the '60s. Music.com spoke to urban moments later in a backstage dressing room, beneath the black & white glossy gazes of James Cagney, legendary Irish tenor John McCormack, and classical piano virtuoso Ignacy Paderewski, momentos of the Ryman's fabled and diverse past.

Music.com: I think the first time I saw you with The Ranch was maybe seven years ago at some place in [Nashville neighborhood] Berry Hill.

keith urban: Wow. Was it Jack's Guitar Bar?

Music.com: No, it wasn't a bar. Some sort of rehearsal studio.

keith urban: Oh yes! Stonehenge was the name of the studio. That's a long time ago. Actually it was called Keith Urban's 4-Wheel Drive back then; it wasn't called The Ranch yet.

Music.com: Same lineup?

keith urban: It was exactly the same band, yeah.

Music.com: You've come a long way since then. In fact you've come a long way, period. Where are you from in Australia?

keith urban: Well, I was born in New Zealand but we moved to Australia when I was about two, so I don't consider myself a New Zealander. We moved to Brisbane.

Music.com: So would you even have been aware of the Grand Ole Opry?

keith urban: Oh yeah. When I was about seven or eight my dad had a Merle Haggard "Live From The Ryman" album and consequently I found out more about The Opry. We didn't get [the Opry broadcast] in Australia, unfortunately.

Music.com: Has your dad seen you perform at The Opry?

keith urban: No. That would be a treat for him. I'm so glad it's filmed, to be able to show him.
Music.com: Congratulations on your new single. You're currently at the top of every chart.

keith urban: Thank you.

Music.com: I understand the recording of that song was quite live?

keith urban: It had a lot of organic elements about it, more than any other song on the record. We didn't do many takes on it. The backup vocals were done by Kim Keyes and myself and we both sang on one microphone. It shouldn't be newsworthy 'cause it's the way records were always done, but it's unusual for this day and age. And then of course the song wasn't mixed. When we finished the final overdubs on the last night the engineer had all the faders up to make sure everything was there, 'cause the mixing was going to be done the next week. And I sat there listening to it and said "this thing sounds great! Can we just throw a DAT in and record this? Then if we get to the mixing stage and it's not sounding like I remember it, I'll have this DAT to say, hey, it needs to be more like this." And that's exactly what happened. I kept putting the DAT in and saying to the guy "no, more like this! more like this!" And then I went "why can't we use that?"

Music.com: So you used the rough mix?

keith urban: Yeah. There's only one mix of it, no vocal-up, -down, nothing. One mix on a DAT, that's it.

Music.com: Which begs the question, why doesn't that happen more often?

keith urban: I think people over-think records. I really do. The players in this town are so good, they have a great sense of dynamic; they know when to ride, when to back down. So all this moving with faders and stuff I think, on certain records, is not necessary. Just let the song breathe.

Music.com: You did a Jimmy Webb song tonight. Are you a big fan?

keith urban: I love Jimmy Webb. Probably "Where's The Playground, Susie?" is my favorite
.
Music.com: No kidding! Very few people remember that one.

keith urban: I haven't got Glen Campbell's range, so I can't do that one.

Music.com: Was he a hero of yours? Great picker and singer.

keith urban: Yeah. He's a great example of what I'd like to try and do. He was playing country music but it was crossover as well. You know, "Galveston," "Wichita Lineman" they were all big pop hits. What's the difference? He just made great music, picked great songs.

Music.com: You've made a great-sounding album yourself. Probably a lot of people were looking for more of The Ranch, more of the guitar hero stuff.

keith urban: Yeah. That's a side of me and I'll get back toward that sometime. But what I really wanted to do was make an album of songs; that was my priority. Not to say we didn't have them with The Ranch, but that was a real band record and I think the band sound dominated. This time round I wanted the songs to dominate.

Music.com: Can you write when you're on the road?

keith urban: Bits and pieces. I've found this last year especially there's a different mind set between politicking and creating. Very different head spaces for me. And we politicked a lot this past year. I wasn't really in a creative mode. It's been just getting out and selling our record. But I find a shift now toward the creative.

Music.com: Can you do the politicking on your own or is that something where you just surrender to the machinery around you?

keith urban: No, I actually like it. I don't see it so much as politics from my point of view because I love what I do, and if I'm proud of a record I'm happy to go out and talk about it and promote it. I've taken my acoustic guitar to probably 150 radio stations in the last year. And that's cool.

Music.com: Do you think we should be looking to Australia for more country stars? I know
kasey Chambers ended up on a lot of critic's best album lists last year.

keith urban: Yeah, she did. I don't know. There's always some kid out in the middle of nowhere who we don't know about yet. That's always a possibility.

Music.com: I know that this album reflects a lot of very personal stuff in your life during the past couple of years, including a failed love affair. Is that what it takes for you to write are you going to have to be devastated to turn out a new album?

keith urban: I think it was God's way of teaching me a lesson, because when we did The Ranch record I wrote most of the songs with a guy called Vernon Rust. He predominately did the lyrics. We wrote eight songs on that record and he stuck mostly to the stories, and most of them were true for him. And he just lives such a chaotic life, just chaos. And I remember saying one night, "you know, God, please let me be able to keep writing with these co-writers so that they can live all the chaos and I can just bring the music to it." And the next thing you know whew! I was living right in the middle of it all.

Music.com: Hopefully, these things create a bank of emotional information that you can draw from in years to come. Of course, [legendary country songwriter] Harlan Howard has often been quoted as saying that every divorce was responsible for, I don't know, say 50 new songs.

keith urban: Yeah. And you need them for the alimony!

Music.com: Of all the songs you written, what's your favorite? What's the one that tells your story best?

keith urban: I don't know that I've written one that tells it; I think they all, in bits and pieces, do the job.

Music.com: But if somebody said you had five seconds to say what you've written...

keith urban: There's a song on The Ranch record called "Tangled Up In Love" that I really love. I think for me it was the closest attempt at getting a Jimmy Webb-inspired melody and weaving it with the lyric. I just like the flow of that song. It was a very true story at the time too. I was falling in love with the girl that ultimately I, you know, fell out with, that created this album. That was a pretty great moment