Keith Urban has lived and breathed country music for as long as he can remember.
“I was nine years old when I first went to Tamworth,” Keith Urban tells Henry Wagons on Double J and ABC Country’s Tower Of Song.
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“It’s a massive part of my story and my life.”
It was the mid-1970s, and the north-east New South Wales town was already the place hopeful artists had to be if they wanted to make themselves known to the Australian country music industry.
“I remember the heat,” Urban continues.
“I remember how exciting it was to find a plug you could plug your amp into. If you could find some electricity somewhere, then you’d be up and running.
“If there was a space somewhere, whether it was on a street corner or in a bloody arcade in a shopping mall or outside the pub … it was literally wherever you could find a little space to set up and play. It was magical.”
That scrappy, play-anywhere mentality hasn’t left him. While his music has long had a crystalline sheen, Keith Urban still finds magic in the messy.
He was back in Tamworth last year, when he was inducted into the Roll of Renown at the Country Music Awards of Australia.
He didn’t waste the chance to get his hands dirty while there, jumping onstage with South Coast singer Tall Shaun at the Tamworth Hotel.
“We did Eddie Rabbitt’s Drive My Life Way, it was fantastic,” Urban beams.
“Nothing like just spontaneous chaos. It was so good. Hot and sweaty and raw and no-one knew what was going on — that’s how I love to play.”
All aboard the country cruise
For as long as we’ve known him, Keith Urban has been a country star.
“It’s in the foundation of what I do,” he says. “Because of my dad’s record collection, which is why I was in Tamworth at such a young age playing a lot of country songs.
“That was what mostly I heard at home: Don Williams, Merle Haggard, Charlie Pride, Glen Campbell. I sang all of those sorts of songs growing up. So that was kind of the first layer.”
Flow State, Keith Urban’s 13th album, is comprised of covers of classic soft rock songs from the 1970s and 80s. (Supplied: Universal Music)
His latest album Flow State unlocks another layer of the 58-year-old’s musical story.
“When I quit school at 15, [I was] playing in cover bands,” he says. “So, country and top 40 covers in pubs in Brisbane is really where I come from.”
The new record is an unashamed tribute to the yacht rock bands of the 1970s and 80s, whose ultra-polished, harmony-heavy take on pop-rock dominated charts, radio, and shopping centre playlists.
Featuring classics like Robbie Dupree’s Steal Away, Seals & Croft’s Summer Breeze, and Player’s Baby Come Back, Flow State is a great excuse for Urban to delve deep into songs he’s been in awe of for decades.
“What’s better than a harmony guitar part? A triple harmony guitar part,” Urban gushes when discussing Little River Band’s 1977 smash Help Is On Its Way.
The songs Urban takes on here have serious pedigree — tight songwriting, world-class musicianship, and production that still sounds immaculate decades on.
“The thing about making this yacht rock record was, not only are the songs great, they’ve stood the test of time, but the arrangements and the record making was just stunning.
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“I mean, you didn’t have to reinvent everything on this record because they’d already done so much of the heavy lifting shaping how the song should be in the studio.”
Urban’s biggest hurdle was figuring out how to step into the songs convincingly.
“The only challenge for me was figuring out how to honour the original and still make it my own,” he says. “To find that sweet spot between those two worlds.
“But the songs are bulletproof and really fun to play.”
You can take the boy out of Australia
Despite having lived in the US for 35 years, almost 20 of those married to film star Nicole Kidman, Urban seems to have avoided the cultural cringe that can creep in for some Aussie exports.
He says being Australian — he moved here from New Zealand as a two-year-old — still acts as a bit of a reality check.
“I think it just keeps everything grounded,” he says. “Aussies in general are pretty grounded.
“You can’t take yourself too seriously if you’re an Aussie, because in the back of your mind, you just always hear somebody go, ‘Get your hand off it.’
“It’s a great leveller.”
Any reputation we may have as being a little rough around the edges is easily outdone by the endearing side of our knockabout nature.
“Kasey Chambers said the wisest advice her dad gave her was ‘just don’t be a dickhead’. I think if you carry anything with you throughout the world as an Aussie, it’s just don’t be a dickhead.
“I think we’re pretty good at not being dickheads. We try.”
Flow State is out now.
Check out ABC Country for all the best new country music and the classics you love.
