Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Keith Urban to perform Friday at Civic Center
Roanoke will get its second taste of this country music superstar on Friday.
Courtesy photos
Country music star Keith Urban will perform Friday at the Roanoke Civic Center Coliseum.
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If you're going
The concert
- Who: Keith Urban with Dierks Bentley
- When: 7:30 p.m. Friday
- Where: Roanoke Civic Center Coliseum
- How much: $61.50 and $71.50 (includes box-office facility fees; additional fees are applicable online or by phone)
- Info: 853-5483, roanokeciviccenter.com, keithurban.net, dierks.com
"Feel That Fire" singer Dierks Bentley will open for Keith Urban.
From the first notes of Keith Urban's new CD, it's clear that the formula is still intact -- pop- and rock-leaning chords, melodies and harmonies with swatches of banjo and other familiar country instruments, pinned together by Urban's tasteful but ripping lead guitar mastery.
It's a formula that has carried him to crossover success on the Billboard album and singles charts. And it's nothing new. Urban learned it from such personal musical heroes as Ronnie Millsap and Glen Campbell.
"Those guys were doing stuff that had a lot of different elements," said Urban, who performs on Friday night at Roanoke Civic Center.
Following that path, Urban and co-producer Dann Huff have crafted another hit. "Defying Gravity" debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's pop and country charts. The album's first single, "Sweet Thing," topped the country charts. The follow-up, "Kiss A Girl," peaked at No. 3.
That success echoes, even surpasses Urban's past output. His previous "Love, Pain & the whole crazy thing" had been No. 1 in country, and No. 3 on the pops.
Here is the kind of artist who can take the stage and crank out hit after hit.
"It's a great feeling," he said. "We try to pace it in a way that keeps the fans interested."
If his sold-out February 2008 show in Roanoke is an indication, the fans will be more than interested. They'll be a little nuts.
Life in the spotlight
Country music superstardom, crossover appeal, good looks and talent have kept Urban in the media for years. Then he married fellow Australian Nicole Kidman, a movie business superstar, in June 2006.
In October of that year, Urban checked himself into California's Betty Ford Center for three months of alcohol rehab. He had previously acknowledged a former addiction to cocaine.
Staying clean was already important enough when Kidman gave birth to the couple's first child, Sunday Rose Kidman Urban, in July 2008.
Now Urban is back on the road, the primrose path to temptation for many musicians. And Roanoke is just one stop on a grueling schedule of one-nighters -- including a stop last week at the "American Idol" finale -- that runs through at least October. How has he learned to deal with those pressures?
"The answers to that are too complicated and involved for the time we have today," Urban said during a 15-minute phone interview last month. "I'll just say I'm at a great place with my family and my life."
Not threatened
Last time Urban came to Roanoke, his opening act was Carrie Underwood, the "American Idol" winner who, like him, has chart-topping CDs and singles and crossover appeal.
On Friday in Roanoke, Dierks Bentley opens the show. Bentley's latest, "Feel That Fire" is also a crossover success that keeps spawning hit country singles.
Such acts are non-threatening to Urban, who said he's psyched about the double-bill.
"Dierks is a good friend and a great guy," Urban said. "We go back years."
Other opening acts on his "Escape Together" tour include Sugarland (which headlines its own Roanoke Civic Center show on June 26), Taylor Swift, Zac Brown Band and Lady Antebellum. Urban said he likes the ramped-up entertainment factor.
"We just want to give the folks who come out to see us the best show possible," he said. "Doing it with acts like these just makes it better."
