Be Here (CD - 2004)

Personnel: Keith Urban (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, slide guitar, E-bow, banjo); Tom Bukovac (acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Dan Huff (acoustic 12-string guitar); Tim Akers (accordion, piano, keyboards); Jimmie Lee Sloas, Paul Bushnell (bass guitar); Chris McHugh, Matt Chamberlain (drums, percussion); Eric Darken (percussion); Russell Terrell (background vocals).

Keith Urban has been a consistent presence in the Top Ten of the country singles charts since 2000, scoring eight consecutive entries as of the release of his third U.S. solo album, Be Here, the eighth being the disc's leadoff track, "Days Go By." And there's plenty more where that came from. Unlike most other country artists, Urban doesn't restrict himself to ten selections from the Nashville songwriting establishment for his albums. This one contains 13 songs at a generous 55-minute running time, and Urban's name is on nine of them as a co-writer. Thus, the collection can be viewed as more of a singer/songwriter effort than the usual Music City product. From that point of view, the album has a distinct storytelling arc, beginning with the carpe diem sentiments of "Days Go By" and continuing into a series of songs that celebrate life and love, notably Rodney Crowell's unabashedly romantic "Making Memories of Us," which finds Urban doing his best Crowell imitation. Suggestions of struggle begin to intrude as of "God's Been Good to Me," however, and eight songs in Urban abruptly changes the sound and the mood with the piano-and-strings weeper "Tonight I Wanna Cry," a song this reformed drinker confesses in his press materials that his sponsor might not approve of. "She's Gotta Be" picks up the pace, if not the mood, and Matraca Berg and Jim Collins' "Nobody Drinks Alone" brings the singer to a sodden rock bottom before he changes the subject by covering Elton John's "Country Comfort" and finally overcomes adversity in "Live to Love Another Day," then rewrites the album's opening song to look forward again on the album-closing "These Are the Days." The album-length story of optimism and perseverance in the face of romantic turmoil and alcoholic temptation is told musically with Urban's usual collection of fast-picked string instruments, including electric and acoustic guitars, banjo, mandolin, and Dobro (the last played by Bruce Bouton). It's a muscular sound indebted at least as much to rock and bluegrass as to traditional country, but it supports his light, flexible tenor and his essentially upbeat message. ~ William Ruhlmann

With his US debut album, GOLDEN ROAD, Keith Urban confounded critics' expectations of what a New Zealand-born country singer could do, delivering a record that not only contained four Number One hits and remained on the charts for more than 100 weeks, but was an undeniably substantial artistic achievement. Urban cites legendary songwriter Jimmy Webb (author of Glen Campbell's "Wichita Lineman" and "Galveston"), as an influence, and Urban's music often recalls not only Nashville mavericks Rodney Crowell, Vince Gill, and Radney Foster, but the introspective stylings of 1970s singer/songwriters Jackson Browne and Dan Fogelberg. That said, BE HERE's smooth California folk-rock feel doesn't obscure the album's firm country roots. "God's Been Good to Me" lays down a tough, Waylon Jennings-worthy beat bolstered by hot banjo picking, while "Live to Love Another Day" is all backwoods twang and rural imagery. Urban's true forte, however, is the weepy ballad, and "Making Memories of Us" (penned by Crowell) and " Nobody Drinks Alone" are among the most poignant he's recorded. minimize