photos by Chris Kies
Keith Urbanās first instrument was a ukulele at age 4. When he started learning guitar two years later, he complained that it made his fingers hurt. Eventually, he came around. As did the world.
Heās in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Heās won 13 Country Music Association Awards, nine CMT video awards, eight ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) Awards, four American Music Awards, and racked up BMI Country Awards for 25 different singles.
Heās been a judge on American Idol and The Voice. In conjunction with Yamaha, he has his own brand of affordably priced Urban guitars and amps, and he has posted beginner guitar lessons on YouTube. His 2014 Academy of Country Music Award-winning video for āHighways Donāt Careā featured Tim McGraw and Keithās former opening act, Taylor Swift. Add his marriage to fellow Aussie, the actress Nicole Kidman, and heās seen enough red carpet to cover a football field.
Significantly, his four Grammys were all for Country Male Vocal Performance. A constant refrain among newcomers is, āand heās a really good guitar player,ā as if by surprise or an afterthought. Especially onstage, his chops are in full force. There are country elements, to be sure, but rock, blues, and pop influences like Mark Knopfler are front and center.
Unafraid to push the envelope, 2020ās The Speed of Now Part 1 mixed drum machines, processed vocals, and a duet with Pink with his āganjoāāan instrument constructed of a 6-string guitar neck on a banjo bodyāand even a didgeridoo. It, too, shot to No. 1 on the Billboard Country chart and climbed to No. 7 on the pop chart.
His new release, High, is more down-to-earth, but is not without a few wrinkles. He employs an EBow on āMessed Up As Meā and, on āWildfire,ā makes use of a sequencerreminiscent of ZZ Topās āLegs.ā Background vocals in āStraight Linesā imitate a horn section, and this time out he duets on āGo Home W Uā with rising country star Lainey Wilson. The video for āHeart Like a Hometownā is full of home movies and family photos of a young Urban dwarfed by even a 3/4-size Suzuki nylon-string.
Born Keith Urbahn (his surnameās original spelling) in New Zealand, his family moved to Queensland, Australia, when he was 2. He took up guitar at 6, two years after receiving his beloved ukulele. He released his self-titled debut album in 1991 for the Australian-only market, and moved to Nashville two years later. It wasnāt until ā97 that he put out a group effort, fronting the Ranch, and another self-titled album marked his American debut as a leader, in ā99. It eventually went platinumāa pattern thatās become almost routine.
The 57-year-oldās celebrity and wealth were hard-earned and certainly a far cry from his humble beginnings. āAustralia is a very working-class country, certainly when I was growing up, and I definitely come from working-class parents,ā he details. āMy dad loved all the American country artists, like Johnny Cash, Haggard, Waylon. He didnāt play professionally, but before he got married he played drums in a band, and my grandfather and uncles all played instruments.
One of Urbanās biggest influences as a young guitar player was Mark Knopfler, but he was also mesmerized by lesser-known session musicians such as Albert Lee, Ian Bairnson, Reggie Young, and Ray Flacke. Here, heās playing a 1950 Broadcaster once owned by Waylon Jennings that was a gift from Nicole Kidman, his wife.
āFor me, it was a mix of that and Top 40 radio, which at the time was much more diverse than it is now. You would just hear way more genres, and Australia itself had its own, what they call Aussie pub rockāvery blue-collar, hard-driving music for the testosterone-fueled teenager. Grimy, sweaty, kind of raw themes.ā
A memorable event happened when he was 7. āMy dad got tickets for the whole family to see Johnny Cash. He even bought us little Western shirts and bolo ties. It was amazing.ā
But the ukulele he was gifted a few years earlier, at the age of 4, became a constant companion. āI think to some degree it was my version of the stuffed animal, something that was mine, and I felt safe with it. My dad said I would strum it in time to all the songs on the radio, and he told my mom, āHeās got rhythm. I wonder what a good age is for him to learn chords.ā My mom and dad ran a little corner store, and a lady named Sue McCarthy asked if she could put an ad in the window offering guitar lessons. They said, āIf you teach our kid for free, weāll put your ad in the window.āā
Yet, guitar didnāt come without problems. āWith the guitar, my fingers hurt like hell,ā he laughs, āand I started conveniently leaving the house whenever the guitar teacher would show up. Typical kid. I donāt wanna learn, I just wanna be able to do it. It didnāt feel like any fun. My dad called me in and went, āWhat the hell? The teacher comes here for lessons. Whatās the problem?ā I said I didnāt want to do it anymore. He just said, āOkay, then donāt do it.ā Kind of reverse psychology, right? So I just stayed with it and persevered. Once I learned a few chords, it was the same feeling when any of us learn how to be moving on a bike with two wheels and nobody holding us up. Thatās what those first chords felt like in my hands.ā
Keith Urban's Gear
Urban has 13 Country Music Association Awards, nine CMT video awards, eight ARIA Awards, and four Grammys to his nameāthe last of which are all for Best Country Male Vocal Performance.
Guitars
For touring:
- Maton Diesel Special
- Maton EBG808TE Tommy Emmanuel Signature
- 1957 GibsonĀ Les Paul Junior, TV yellow
- 1959 Gibson ES-345 (with Varitone turned into a master volume)
- Fender 40th Anniversary Tele, āClarenceā
- Two first-generation Fender Eric Clapton Stratocasters (One is black with DiMarzio Area ā67 pickups, standard tuning. The other is pewter gray, loaded with Fralin āreal ā54ā pickups, tuned down a half-step.)
- John Bolin Telecaster (has a Babicz bridge with a single humbucker and a single volume control. Standard tuning.)
- PRS Paulās Guitar (with two of their narrowfield humbuckers. Standard tuning.)
- Yamaha Keith Urban Acoustic Guitar (with EMG ACS soundhole pickups)
- Deering āganjoā
Amps
- Mid-ā60s black-panel Fender Showman (modified by Chris Miller, with oversized transformers to power 6550 tubes; 130 watts)
- 100-watt Dumble Overdrive Special (built with reverb included)
- Two Pacific Woodworks 1x12 ported cabinets (Both are loaded with EV BlackLabel Zakk Wylde signature speakers and can handle 300 watts each.)
Effects
- Two Boss SD-1W Waza Craft Super Overdrives with different settings
- Mr. Black SuperMoon Chrome
- FXengineering RAF Mirage Compressor
- Ibanez TS9 with Tamura Mod
- Boss BD-2 Blues Driver
- J. Rockett Audio .45 Caliber Overdrive
- Pro Co RAT 2
- Radial Engineering JX44 (for guitar distribution)
- Fractal Audio Axe-Fx XL+ (for acoustic guitars)
- Two Fractal Audio Axe-Fx III (one for electric guitar, one for bass)
- Bricasti Design Model 7 Stereo Reverb Processor
- RJM Effect Gizmo (for pedal loops)
(Note: All delays, reverb, chorus, etc. is done post amp. The signal is captured with microphones first then processed by Axe-Fx and other gear.)
- Shure Axient Digital Wireless Microphone System
Strings & Picks
- DāAddario NYXL (.011ā.049; electric)
- DāAddario EJ16 (.012ā.053; acoustics)
- DāAddario EJ16, for ganjo (.012ā.053; much thicker than a typical banjo strings)
- DāAddario 1.0 mm signature picks
He vividly remembers the first song he was able to play after ācorny songs like āMamaās little baby loves shortninā bread.āā He recalls, āThere was a song I loved by the Stylistics, āYou Make Me Feel Brand New.ā My guitar teacher brought in the sheet music, so not only did I have the words, but above them were the chords. I strummed the first chord, and went, [sings E to Am] āMy love,ā and then minor, āI'll never find the words, my,ā back to the original chord, ālove.ā Even now, I get covered in chills thinking what it felt like to sing and put that chord sequence together.ā
After the nylon-string Suzuki, he got his first electric at 9. āIt was an Ibanez copy of a Telecaster Customāthe classic dark walnut with the mother-of-pearl pickguard. My first Fender was a Stratocaster. I wanted one so badly. Iād just discovered Mark Knopfler, and I only wanted a red Strat, because thatās what Knopfler had. And he had a red Strat because of Hank Marvin. All roads lead to Hank!ā
He clarifies, āRemember a short-lived run of guitar that Fender did around 1980āā81, simply called āthe Stratā? I got talked into buying one of those, and the thing weighed a ton. Ridiculously heavy. But I was just smitten when it arrived. āSultans of Swingā was the first thing I played on it. āOh my god! I sound a bit like Mark.āā
āMessed Up As Meā has some licks reminiscent of Knopfler. āI think he influenced a huge amount of my fingerpicking and melodic choices. I devoured those records more than any other guitar player. āTunnel of Love,ā āLove over Gold,ā āTelegraph Road,ā the first Dire Straits album, and Communique. I was spellbound by Markās touch, tone, and melodic choice every time.ā
Other influences are more obscure. āThere were lots of session guitar players whose solos I was loving, but had no clue who they were,ā he explains. āA good example was Ian Bairnson in the Scottish band Pilot and the Alan Parsons Project. It was only in the last handful of years that I stumbled upon him and did a deep dive, and realized he played the solo on āWuthering Heightsā by Kate Bush, āEye in the Skyā by Alan Parsons, āItās Magicā and āJanuaryā by Pilotāall these songs that spoke to me growing up. I also feel like a lot of local-band guitar players are inspirationsāthey certainly were to me. They didnāt have a name, the band wasnāt famous, but when youāre 12 or 13, watching Barry Clough and guys in cover bands, itās, āMan, I wish I could play like that.āā
On High, Urban keeps things song-oriented, playing short and economical solos.
In terms of country guitarists, he nods, āAgain, a lot of session players whose names I didnāt know, like Reggie Young. The first names I think would be Albert Lee and Ray Flacke, whose chicken pickinā stuff on the Ricky Skaggs records became a big influence. āHow is he doing that?āā
Flacke played a role in a humorous juxtaposition. āI camped out to see Iron Maiden,ā Urban recounts. āTheyād just put out Number of the Beast, and I was a big fan. I was 15, so my hormones were raging. Iād been playing country since I was 6, 7, 8 years old. But this new heavy metal thing is totally speaking to me. So I joined a heavy metal band called Fractured Mirror, just as their guitar player. At the same time, I also discovered Ricky Skaggs and Highways and Heartaches. What is this chicken pickinā thing? One night I was in the metal band, doing a Judas Priest song or Saxon. They threw me a solo, and through my red Strat, plugged into a Marshall stack that belonged to the lead singer, I shredded this high-distortion, chicken pickinā solo. The lead singer looked at me like, āWhat the fuck are you doing?ā I got fired from the band.ā
Although at 15 he āfloated around different kinds of music and bands,ā when he was 21 he saw John Mellencamp. āHeād just put out Lonesome Jubilee. Iād been in bands covering āHurts So Good,' āJack & Diane,ā and all the early shit. This record had fiddle and mandolin and acoustic guitars, wall of electrics, drumsāthe most amazing fusion of things. I saw that concert, and this epiphany happened so profoundly. I looked at the stage and thought, āWhoa! I get it. You take all your influences and make your own thing. Thatās what John did. Iām not gonna think about genre; Iām gonna take all the things I love and find my way.ā
āOf course, getting to Nashville with that recipe wasnāt going to fly in 1993,ā he laughs. āTook me another seven-plus years to really start getting some traction in that town.ā
Urbanās main amp today is a Dumble Overdrive Reverb, which used to belong to John Mayer. He also owns a bass amp that Alexander Dumble built for himself.
Photo by Jim Summaria
When it comes to ācrossoverā in country music, one thinks of Glen Campbell, Kenny Rogers, Garth Brooks, and Dolly Partonās more commercial singles like āTwo Doors Down.ā Regarding the often polarizing subject and, indeed, what constitutes country music, itās obvious that Urban has thought a lotāand probably been asked a lotāabout the syndrome. The Speed of Now Part 1 blurs so many lines, it makes Shania Twain sound like Mother Maybelle Carter. Well, almost.
āI canāt speak for any other artists, but to me, itās always organic,ā he begins. āAnybody thatās ever seen me play live would notice that I cover a huge stylistic field of music, incorporating my influences, from country, Top 40, rock, pop, soft rock, bluegrass, real country. Thatās how you get songs like āKiss a Girlāāmaybe more ā70s influence than anything else.ā
āI think [Mark Knopfler] influenced a huge amount of my fingerpicking and melodic choices. I devoured those records more than any other guitar player.ā
Citing ā50s producers Chet Atkins and Owen Bradley, who moved the genre from hillbilly to the more sophisticated countrypolitan, Keith argues, āIn the history of country music, this is exactly the same as it has always been. Patsy Cline doing āWalking After Midnightā or āCrazyā; it aināt Bob Wills. It aināt Hank Williams. Itās a new sound, drawing on pop elements. Thatās the 1950s, and it has never changed. Iāve always seen country like a lung, that expands outwards because it embraces new sounds, new artists, new fusions, to find a bigger audience. Then it feels, āWeāve lost our way. Holy crap, I donāt even know who we are,ā and it shrinks back down again. Because a purist in the traditional sense comes along, whether it be Ricky Skaggs or Randy Travis. The only thing that I think has changed is thereās portals now for everything, which didnāt used to exist. There isnāt one central control area that would yell at everybody, āYouāve got to bring it back to the center.ā I donāt know that we have that center anymore.ā
Stating his position regarding the current crop of talent, he reflects, āTo someone who says, āThatās not country music,ā I always go, āāItās not your country music; itās somebody elseās country music.ā I donāt believe anybody has a right to say somethingās not anything. Itās been amazing watching this generation actually say, āCan we get back to a bit of purity? Can we get real guitars and real storytelling?ā So youāve seen the explosion of Zach Bryan and Tyler Childers who are way purer than the previous generation of country music.ā
Seen performing here in 2003, Urban is celebrated mostly for his songwriting, but is also an excellent guitarist.
Photo by Steve Trager/Frank White Photo Agency
As for the actual recording process, he notes, āThis always shocks people, but āChattahoocheeā by Alan Jackson is all drum machine. I write songs on acoustic guitar and drum machine, or drum machine and banjo. Of course, you go into the studio and replace that with a drummer. But my very first official single, in 1999, was āItās a Love Thing,ā and it literally opens with a drum loop and an acoustic guitar riff. Then the drummer comes in. But the loop never goes away, and you hear it crystal clear. I havenāt changed much about that approach.ā
On the road, Urban utilizes different electrics āalmost always because of different pickupsāsingle-coil, humbucker, P-90. And then one thatās tuned down a half-step for a few songs in half-keys. Tele, Strat, Les Paul, a couple of others for color. Iāve got a John Bolin guitar that I loveāthe feel of it. Itās a Tele design with just one PAF, one volume knob, no tone control. Itās very light, beautifully balancedāevery string, every fret, all the way up the neck. It doesnāt have a lot of tonal character of its own, so it lets my fingers do the coloring. You can feel the fingerprints of Billy Gibbons on this guitar. Itās very Billy.ā
āI looked at the stage and thought, āWhoa! I get it. You take all your influences and make your own thing. Iām gonna take all the things I love and find my way.āā
Addressing his role as the collector, āor acquirer,ā as he says, some pieces have quite a history. āI havenāt gone out specifically thinking, āIām missing this from the collection.ā I feel really lucky to have a couple of very special guitars. I got Waylon Jenningsā guitar in an auction. It was one he had all through the ā70s, wrapped in the leather and the whole thing. In the ā80s, he gave it to Reggie Young, who owned it for 25 years or so and eventually put it up for auction. My wife wanted to give it to me for my birthday. I was trying to bid on it, and she made sure that I couldnāt get registered! When it arrived, I discovered itās a 1950 Broadcasterāwhich is insane. I had no idea. I just wanted it because Iām a massive Waylon fan, and I couldnāt bear the thought of that guitar disappearing overseas under somebodyās bed, when it should be played.
āI also have a 1951 Nocaster, which used to belong to Tom Keifer in Cinderella. Itās the best Telecaster Iāve ever played, hands down. It has the loudest, most ferocious pickup, and the wood is amazing.ā
YouTube
Urban plays a Gibson SG here at the 2023 CMT Music Awards. Wait until the end to see him show off his shred abilities.
Other favorites include āa first-year Strat, ā54, that I love, and a ā58 goldtop. I also own a ā58 āburst, but prefer the goldtop; itās just a bit more spanky and lively. I feel abundantly blessed with the guitars Iāve been able to own and play. And I think every guitar should be played, literally. Thereās no guitar thatās too precious to be played.ā
Speaking of precious, there are also a few Dumble amps that elicit āoohsā and āaahs.ā āAround 2008, John Mayer had a few of them, and he wanted to part with this particular Overdrive Special head. When he told me the price, I said, āThat sounds ludicrous.ā He said, āHow much is your most expensive guitar?ā It was three times the value of the amp. He said, āSo thatās one guitar. What amp are you plugging all these expensive guitars into?ā I was like, āSold. I guess when you look at it that way.ā Itās just glorious. It actually highlighted some limitations in some guitars I never noticed before.ā
āItās just glorious. It actually highlighted some limitations in some guitars I never noticed before.ā
Keith also developed a relationship with the late Alexander Dumble. āWe emailed back and forth, a lot of just life stuff and the beautifully eccentric stuff he was known for. His vocabulary was as interesting as his tubes and harmonic understanding. My one regret is that he invited me out to the ranch many times, and I was never able to go. Right now, my main amp is an Overdrive Reverb that also used to belong to John when he was doing the John Mayer Trio. I got it years later. And I have an Odyssey, which was Alexanderās personal bass amp that he built for himself. I sent all the details to him, and he said, āYeah, thatās my amp.āā
The gearhead in Keith doesnāt even mind minutiae like picks and strings. āIāve never held picks with the pointy bit hitting the string. I have custom picks that DāAddario makes for me. They have little grippy ridges like on Dunlops and Hercos, but I have that section just placed in one corner. I can use a little bit of it on the string, or I can flip it over. During the pandemic, I decided to go down a couple of string gauges. I was getting comfortable on .009s, and I thought, āGreat. Iāve lightened up my playing.ā Then the very first gig, I was bending the crap out of them. So I went to .010s, except for a couple of guitars that are .011s.ā
As with his best albums, High is song-oriented; thus, solos are short and economical. āGrowing up, I listened to songs where the guitar was just in support of that song,ā he reasons. āIf the song needs a two-bar break, and then you want to hear the next vocal section, thatās what it needs. If it sounds like it needs a longer guitar section, then thatās what it needs. Thereās even a track called āLove Is Hardā that doesnāt have any solo. Itās the first thing Iāve ever recorded in my life where I literally donāt play one instrument. Eren Cannata co-wrote it [with Shane McAnally and Justin Tranter], and I really loved the demo with him playing all the instruments. I loved it so much I just went with his acoustic guitar. Iām that much in service of the song.ā
Billy Gibbons is an undisputable guitar force whose feel, tone, and all-around vibe make him the highest level of hero. But thatās not to say he hasnāt made some odd choices in his career, like when ZZ Top re-recorded parts of their classic albums for CD release. And fans will argue which era of the bandās career is best. Some of us love drum machines and synths and others donāt, but we all love Billy.
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