CMT Blog: Keith Urban

Whenever I cover a country music festival, I'm always happy when Kenny Chesney and Keith Urban are on the bill because their music is easy to enjoy at the end of a long, hot day. They're both playing WE Fest this weekend near Detroit Lakes, Minn., along with Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Randy Houser, Montgomery Gentry, Joe Nichols, Blake Shelton and Gretchen Wilson. That's a pretty strong lineup for country fans, but as they say on Sesame Street, one of these things is not like the other. So, where are the women? Rand Levy, vice president of WE Fest, told a North Dakota news website that it's just a coincidence that female artists are scarce on the lineup this year -- and that he did try to get Miranda Lambert, but she was unavailable. But he did grab Gloriana, which has two female members. Eric Church and Gloriana's Cheyenne Kimball weigh in with their opinions about women entertainers in country music, but I'm more curious about what the fans think. Do you care if there's an equal balance of men and women on stage at country music festivals?

I've met Jaron from Jaron and the Long Road to Love. And he's not shy. On the contrary, actually. When it comes to interviews, he's a journalist's best friend. There's pretty much nothing he won't say. In this Q&A with EW.com, he goes on and on about how he was a bit of a smart-ass 10 years ago when he had a pop band with his identical twin brother Evan, why he doesn't talk about synagogues and rabbis in "Pray for You" and how his audience's opinions matter much more than his own. But when the discussion turns to the pop in country -- and how pop stars like Darius Rucker and Kid Rock didn't go country, but rather how country went pop -- I don't know if I agree. "If you listen to a Keith Urban or Lady Antebellum song, those are straight-up pop songs. There's that whole wink-wink ‘I'll throw a banjo or a mandolin in' thing," he says. "But it's pop."

Nicole Kidman is in Haiti right now, doing good things for women's rights with the United Nations Development Fund for Women. She's been at this for about five years, so she's no stranger to putting her celebrity to good use. But right behind her is husband Keith Urban, who she says is more than a better half. "Keith has done benefit concerts for us. He's been so supportive. I'm always like, 'Hey, I think I might be able to get hold of a musician.' He's so lovely," Kidman told USA Today. The only bad part of the work? Being away from their daughter Sunday Rose, 2. "I've spent two nights away from her in two years. I'm just so into her. I'm crazy about her," she says, adding that she and Urban are committed to teaching Sunday to have a very strong social conscience.

Photo credit: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

My kids outgrew the Wiggles about one Hot Potato, one Fruit Salad and some Crunchy Munchy Honey Cakes ago. But the crazy-popular children's band from Sydney, Australia, knows how to grab attention. They've sold 24 million DVDs, 8 million books and 8 million CDs, and even beat out fellow Aussie Keith Urban as the highest-earning entertainers in Australia from 2006 to 2008. But now they've banded together with the country star to record a song. It's reportedly a cover of the catchy, whistling 1965 Roger Miller tune, "England Swings (Like a Pendulum Do)." Will that be on an upcoming Urban album? Or will it end up on a Wiggles DVD? Not sure. But Urban has his own little Wiggles fan at home, so the collaboration kind of makes sense. "Having a 2-year-old, I'm not going to turn down the Wiggles," he said.

Sometimes (OK, a lot of times) when I hear a song, I don't always appreciate all the decisions that went in to making it sound like it does. Nor do I realize how a perfectionist like Keith Urban might analyze every nuance of a tune. So thank God for this studio session video he posted on his website, where he's telling producer Dann Huff why he thinks a song needs acoustic versus electric guitars. "Part of the problem is that it's a touchy riff to put electric on because it takes it to a specific place and maybe the goal should be to keep it acoustic," he says. He also suggests double-tracking and says, "If I track it with acoustic, and we keep it more rooted in the acoustic place, it might keep its originality more." After playing a few bars, he asks, "Just more swing to it, right?" Huff doesn't say much, but I think what he's thinking is, "How do you argue guitar riffs with Keith Urban?"

Concert ticket sales are down 17 percent this year, compared to the first half of 2009. And then there's country. The Tennessean has a great story about how so many major concert tours are suffering the same recessionary woes as the rest of the world, but how country concerts from the likes of Brad Paisley and Taylor Swift are actually doing quite well, thank you very much. The story attributes that to the cheaper seats, but having just shelled out $250 for a Dixie Chicks/Keith Urban/Eagles ticket, I don't buy that. I personally think maybe country fans are just that loyal, and would gladly make sacrifices before they'd miss a show. Clarence Spalding, who manages Jason Aldean and Brooks & Dunn, said, "A lot of acts out there from the pop and rock side are getting the crap beat out of them, and a lot of it's about the high ticket prices. I don't think you should look at it like we're not making money from the record business so, in turn, you need to jack up ticket prices. If that's your strategy, it's not a great strategy, and it's going to turn away fans."

Photo credit: Ed Rode

I've recently discovered the Celebrity Experiences up for auction at CharityBuzz.com. If you win one of these pricey-but-awesome hangs with stars, the money goes to a variety of notable causes like Habitat for Humanity, American Red Cross, Songwriters Hall of Fame, Susan G. Komen Foundation and other worthy non-profits. So if you work out with Hugh Jackman or hang with Alec Baldwin on the set of 30 Rock or get a walk-on role in HBO's Entourage, for instance, your cold hard cash would do a lot of good. But as priceless as those celebs are, I can think of a few Celebrity Experiences that would be worth even more. Maybe you could have a major role in the next Taylor Swift video. Or play Miranda Lambert's stylist for a day. Or sing a duet live with Lady Antebellum at a concert near you. Or go on a yoga/mani-pedi/Starbucks run with Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman. They did just have a Zac Brown Band "Eat & Greet" that gave you the chance to have lunch with the band before their show and get VIP seats, with the proceeds of that going to Urban Farming whose mission is to eradicate hunger, alleviate poverty and green our environment. More of that would be nice.

By the time you're reading this blog entry, I will be aboard the Barefoot Lady Pontoon Excursion, deep in the crystal clear waters of a Wisconsin lake. As you might imagine, I elected myself Music Director and put together a playlist of songs to thoroughly entertain my friends and me as we cruise up and down and around this lake. But I didn't want to make it all about the patriotic weekend, because we'll have enough of that on Sunday. Nor did I want to make it all fun-in-the-sun songs, since too many of those can feel like you are actually trying to turn your day into a country song. But now that I look at this mix I've come up with, I realize I'm a little heavy on the good-time songs, so please add a few I-Heart-America songs to the list to balance it out.

"Water," Brad Paisley
"Redneck Yacht Club," Craig Morgan
"Drive (For Daddy Gene)," Alan Jackson
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You certainly do not need to pay to be a fan of someone's music. That comes absolutely free. So there is occasionally talk (OK, vehement disagreements) about whether or not country artists should charge you to be in a fan club. I think maybe people aren't hearing both sides to the story, so I'd like to shed a little light on it.

Just like there are benefits to joining anything from Costco to a swanky country club, there are benefits to being a card-carrying member of a fan club. The most valuable ones are presale tickets and meet-and-greet passes. For example, if you pay $34.68 for a year's membership in Carrie Underwood's official fan club, you get those kinds of opportunities that aren't available to nonmembers. It's not always a guarantee that you'll be sitting in the front row, but it does increase your odds of being up close at a concert.

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Let's see. First, Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman enjoyed a romantic dinner at Nashville's Flyte restaurant last week. The occasion was their fourth wedding anniversary and other diners said the couple was looking all in love sitting in an intimate corner. "[Nicole] looked stunning, very understated in a sleeveless dress and sandals. They were smiling and holding hands across the table. You could tell they were so in love," one onlooker told People.com. No word on what they ordered for dinner, but the restaurant's website says its specialty is "fresh, organic and humanely raised ingredients," so I'm guessing they didn't get burgers and cheese fries. The couple also celebrated Kidman's birthday and Father's Day last Sunday, and pretty soon they will be singing happy birthday to Sunday Rose when she turns 2 next week.

Photo credit: Ed Rode (2009 BMI Awards)