DAVE'S DIARY - 13 DECEMBER 2010 - KEITH URBAN CD REVIEW
2010
CD REVIEW
KEITH URBAN
GET CLOSER (CAPITOL).
THE GHOST IN WAYLON'S GUITAR
"The rain's coming down hard tonight/ I pulled the car over, now I'm sitting along on the roadside/ I tilt the mirror down and say to me - 'what do you think the answer's gotta be/ to just leave." - Georgia Woods - Keith Urban-Darrell Brown.
 |
When
expatriate Australasian superstar Keith Urban recorded Ghost In
His Guitar with his embryonic Nashville band The Ranch the source
was a black musician from the wrong side of the tracks. This time around the ghost in Urban's guitar is the late Waylon Jennings who died at 64 on February 13, 2002. Urban, 43, used Waylon's vintage Fender Telecaster while writing his raunchy new tune Georgia Woods with Darrell Brown. This guitar is covered in black-and-white hand-tooled leather. That made it survive the horrific Nashville floods in May pretty much unscathed. The leather required refurbishing - Urban found the luthier who made that guitar for Jennings to handle the repairs. "It's like playing a holy grail," Urban said. "I wanted to use it on some songwriting sessions and the riff that starts the song came straight out of that guitar." |
Urban produced his CD with Dan Huff who plays mandolin and different axe on the track featuring veteran pedal steel guitarist Dan Dugmore.
Hundreds of invaluable guitars were destroyed in the Nashville floods but many survived for these sessions.
BUXTON HUGHES - NO BLUES
"And when they see you on the street/ they'll say 'hey ain't you the girl in that song.'" - Put You In A Song - Sarah Buxton-Jedd Hughes-Keith Urban.
 |
Urban
wrote entrée Put You In A Song with fellow expat hotshot
guitarist Jedd Hughes and Sarah Buxton - author of previous hit Stupid
Girl. But don't expect any bluegrass roughage among the made for radio hits by Urban. Sure, Urban has a high lonesome timbre in some vocals but he is not planning to pillage from Dan Tyminski. This is one of those familiar themes - about chasing the unattainable fantasy women. What's the best solution? Well, write a song about her and lure her to your car and arms. |
It's not
clear if the character in the song got his girl but Urban scored his hit.
Urban trades his car for truck as he exploits the open road theme in You
Gonna Fly - replete with Dixie Rock rhythms.
And, of course, there's Long Hot Summer, destined for release as
maybe the third single in the U.S. summer at the peak of Urban's U.S.
tour.
THE
LOVE YOU SONGS
"Baby, you're like a diesel truck/ you're shifting gears and the
pedal's stuck." - The Luxury Of Knowing - Lori McKenna.
The American
release of this album has only eight songs - a deluxe version for U.S.
Target stores has 11 studio songs and four live tracks.
Our Australian release features 10 tracks including two extra studio songs
Big Promises and The Luxury Of Knowing.
Urban collaborated with Brown on Right On Back To You, Dan Wilson
on Big Promises and frequent co-writer Monty Powell on Shut
Out The Lights.
There are also two covers featuring the female sheep metaphor - All
For You and Without You.
So what's the verdict?
There's nothing here to frighten the horses - or ewes.
Urban is on a winner with his radio friendly themes, pristine vocals and
positive love songs.
The singer adds banjo, bouzouki, mandolin, e-bow, sitar, gut string and
even whistle as the topping on his chart cake.
If you need a dessert maybe check out The Ghost In His Guitar, Hank,
Don't Fail Me Now and hook heavy Desiree on 1994 disc In The
Ranch.
That's out on the range where outlaws and Kiwis once roamed.