My Urban Journey to Country USA

During his last tour Keith Urban treated his fan club members royally, giving us early access to the very best seats in each venue. It was wonderful and we got spoiled rotten sitting in the first few rows or  standing at the stage edge at each venue. But there is no "tour" this summer - mostly just a very few large summer festivals where Keith does not have the ability to provide prime seats to his fans. So those of us desperate for some Urban time have to put up with distant seats unless we happen across one of the rare VIP regulars at these shows wanting to sell their tickets this year.

I'm not one to cope with the crowd in the "General Admission" area of festivals, but when I saw that Country USA had some "Reserved Seats" available I bought one ticket even though it was in about the 40th row back : (.  They did not have "single day reserved seats" so my ticket was good for the full 4 day festival. I was not interested in the first day's performers, so decided to go just for the last 3 days. Keith, of course, was the headliner who would close this year's festival.

I broke up my trip to Oshkosh, WI by stopping overnight in Minneapolis where my youngest daughter has just relocated to for an internship there. We had a great dinner together and I was so pleased to see her cute little apartment and to visit the Minnesota Center for Book Arts where she is working.

The next day I battled my way through some of the summer roadwork happening everywhere and found my way to Oshkosh. I headed to the festival around five looking forward to seeing Phil Vassar and Sugarland that evening. When I arrived I decided Country USA won the "Most Ways to Scam Money Out of the Audience" prize. You had to pay $2 to even get an "alcoholic beverages bracelet" and pay $5 to WALK onto the festival grounds! Apparently too many people were unwilling to pay the high parking rates and deal with the parking lot congestion, so they had to start charging those who got rides or walked to the festival or parked elsewhere!!!

A good part of the festival ground are gravel covered - good, I suppose, when it rains, but not too pretty or too comfortable for sandal-wearers. I was happy to see that "Reserved Seats" included "deluxe bathrooms" rather than the general festival portapotties - that alone made it worth the price! I enjoyed Phil Vassar's music. I've seen him several times over the years and it seems like some of his music is moving more and more in the direction of Billy Joel's sound. He spent a good amount of time standing at the piano, jamming out melodies Billy style. I wish I had caught Phil's great rendition of Piano Man on tape but I was too busy singing along! I'll post a couple of his songs shortly.

Sugarland was fun as always and got a great response from the crowd. They too have joined the ranks of performers who give away a guitar during their performance. I was up and dancing to all of their songs - both because I loved the music and also because I had come unprepared for the dramatic drop in temperature after sunset in Wisconsin. In only my sundress I had to dance to keep warm once it hit 60! (Iowa had been staying quite warm at night). I'll add a couple of their tunes shortly too.

I left a bit before the end of Sugarland's set hoping to get a head start on the post-concert traffic congestion. No such luck! Apparently many had the same idea and the traffic leaving Country USA was perhaps the worst and the most aggressive that I had ever driven in, even though I had ponied up the $20 they charged for supposedly "Premium Parking". It was terrible and not well handled on the festival grounds - so terrible that I reconsidered whether I could put up with it 3 days in a row! (I confess I did decide to skip Brad Paisley's show the next night in favor of other local attractions for just that reason.)

So let's jump to the long-awaited last day of Country USA when Keith was scheduled. Although I kept an eye out for motorcycles riding around the Oshkosh area early in the day on Saturday, I later heard that Keith had not flown in from Nashville until later in the afternoon. I skipped the early afternoon performers and arrived at the festival about 5:00. I stopped at the ticket booth on my way in to ask about any last minute one day VIP tickets (no go), but then did pay the "Y100 Country Club" fee to be able to enter the tent where the local radio station did their preshow interviews of the performers. I listened to the sets performed by Tracy Lawrence and then Clay Walker, but didn't bother to go to the "country club" for their radio chats. I was waiting for the last interview of the day! I knew that it was probably the closest I would get to Mr. Urban at this venue.

There was quite a crowd in the Y100 tent at about 9:30, but I wiggled my way into a not-terrible position. They had a low stage with a sofa and chairs set up for the interview. They gave away a meet and greet opportunity but unfortunately I had been unaware of the contest. Finally it was time for Keith's entrance. Handsome in his black tee and blackish jeans and looking, as he often does, a bit uncomfortable in this interview setting, he was - of course- quite gracious. Keith acknowledged the pleasure of a weekend in Wisconsin and pleased the crowd with a comment about the Packers. But his funniest comment of the brief interview came after Y100 brought up a young kid from the audience and gave him backstage passes to the meet and greet that was to follow the interview. Keith piped in "Could I get some too? (backstage passes)" : )  I was a bit behind him so unfortunately did not have a full frontal view, but here is what I caught of the interview: http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_edit?ns=1&video_id=3Y5ovKiYM6o

The breaks between performers at these festivals are quite long, but the wait before Keith felt the longest (it really wasn't longer but deprivation makes one impatient!). Then suddenly, without preamble, he was there - blasting out You Gonna Fly http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmJ1KtpzlCg --- yay!! He followed this song with just the chorus of Boondocks since they did not have their own video screen on stage to show the rest of the accompanying Little Big Town Clip.  We had to rely on the venue's video screens to the right and left of the stage. Even though I dashed up from my 40th row position to the very front of the "Reserved Seating"at the start of the show, I was still behind some 25 rows of VIP seats. Keith was still way too far away. So my view and my videos of the show are all from the video screens - what can you do? Pardon the graininess of the clips.

Jerry, Brian and Danny are all lightly bearded while Chris is clean shaven and with a very short haircut. Brian has abandoned his James Dean type pompadour for a longer hairstyle. Danny's hair is blonder, longer and more Keith-like than ever. Jerry wore his Mr. Clean tee.

Then came Put You in a Song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbnrpejAwGw with some very fancy fingerwork on the guitar and a special "I'm in love with Wisconsin" incorporated into the song.

Then a stunning, goosebump raising, Raining on Sunday http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gDZ3mOi3T0 , with Keith chiming out to the audience (as he did often that night) "Ah you sound SO good!" (You too Keith!!) We all "Whoo!"ed at the end and Keith "whooed" right back at us. He then turned his attention to different segments of the audience before breaking into Long Hot Summer.

Next up was Stupid Boy and it was so good to hear my very favorite guitar solo again http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_edit?ns=1&video_id=gr_OFABWEIE
. Sigh.

When the cheers and applause died down my heart beat sped up a bit as I heard the beat of the "coming off the stage music"!! I peered around the audience trying to see where he was headed. Unfortunately I could see, from the ripple of hysteria running through the crowd, that he was on the opposite side, quite a ways away, so again I depended on the video screens to catch a view of him out there singing I'm In. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_IGAstO59s
But Keith did run by my section on his way back to stage, but he was on the other side of the VIP fence, just out of reach for hand slaps. When he got up front he yelled "Hell yes Oshkosh!! You guys are crazy out there! That's why we love you!" And the, holding up his right hand, he added "I must have high-fived a quarterback because my hand is actually red!'

Then he went into his Georgia Woods story introduction, slightly amended for Wisconsin. "You probably have equivalent woods up here. Some place where you can get away from it all, turn off your cell phone, get off the grid....." Here's the guitar solo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85iH9NFvLt0

Next was Sweet Thing, followed by Kiss a Girl. As he asked the audience if they were in a singing mood tonight, Keith paid a bit of tribute to nearby cities: "We've got some people from Appleton here tonight. And there are some people from Milwaukee here tonight. And there are some from Green Bay here tonight." But as much as he hopes to have some "hometown" folks among those he brings up for the KAG sing-off http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_edit?ns=1&video_id=VRS7g_H492Q
 he always has audience members who have traveled far and wide to be there. So the first gal he selected for the sing-off ended up being from Michigan - but Keith then joked that she had just been telling him that "Man I wish I had been born in Wisconsin!" hee hee. The next gal was from Sheboygan but faltered on the lyrics, trying to give away the mike halfway through. The final guy, although apparently tipsy (Keith asked him to try to remain vertical), did the best job and won the audience's support in the round of applause vote.

Then Keith slowed down a bit for a beautiful Without You http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_edit?ns=1&video_id=qnmoiR0OZ-I

The leave it to Keith to add something surprising. As he was about to go into WWWBM, he threw in a couple lines from Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe, pausing a bit to have the audience join in (like he used to do with Blister in the Sun)! Too quick for me to catch on tape unfortunately, but fun.

He followed Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_edit?ns=1&video_id=29SKx7GBlvY with" Do you feel it kicking in Wisconsin? On this beautiful night, when you don't have to get up for work in the morning? And even if you did, you probably wouldn't. That bed is going to feel so good about 4 am......"  followed by the
introductions of Jerry, Danny and Brian, with their little solos.

Then, finally, the song that triggered both highs and lows: You Look Good in My Shirt. When I heard the familiar intro I immediately thought "Maybe he'll come off stage again." Not seconds later two of Keith's stagehands set up a little trunk serving as a stage and microphone not four feet in front of me!!! I was thrilled and claimed my trunk-side position- followed by a crowd of what felt like a hundred others smashing us into a swaying mass. Everyone in "Reserved Seating" was SO excited and unbelieving.
But then for some reason Keith never came out! : (  Was the crowd too big? Could he not get down off that end of the stage? Did he suddenly get the cue that their contracted ending time had arrived?? I don't know, but he stayed on stage, baffling even his stagehands,  and did a somewhat more abbreviated than usual YLGIMS. And then the final low: the show was over.  I'm sure he didn't intend to tease us out in Reserved Seating, but there were a lot of disappointed faces in the crowd around the microphone.

I dilly dallied, wasting time, knowing the traffic jam wouldn't be going anywhere anyway. I almost lost my car because by the time I got to the parking lot the rows of cars had dissolved into a snarl of cars pulling out every which way. Once I found it, I sat back and ate a few crackers and dip while I waited for the traffic to clear. Happy and mellow, my Keith addiction temporarily satisfied, and knowing I had another night of Keith to look forward the next day in another town and another festival!

Classic Keith Urban in Cleveland

Just woke up in Cleveland after sweet dreams of last night’s concert at “the Q”. Keith was definitely right on his game and Cleveland was lovin’ him!!  And I am so glad I finally got to see Sugarland after missing them a couple times earlier this tour due to cancellations. It was a terrific night!

But it was an extra special night for even more reasons!  #1 - because I got to share this weekend with my daughter Jen, whom I see far too seldom since she is a grad student at the University of Michigan. Jen was the one who first introduced me to Keith’s music (thank you Jen!). Cleveland is just a few hours from Ann Arbor so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a little roadtrip with her. #2 - it is the last weekend before the new school year starts for me and I love to do something fun to top off the summer. Last year all my girls and I saw the Counting Crows, Sara Bareilles, and Maroon 5. Too bad we couldn’t get everyone together this time. #3 yesterday was my birthday and I can’t hardly think of anything that I would rather do on my birthday than see Keith perform! I actually got a notice from my hospital that my annual CT-scan was scheduled on my birthday (come on now - who wants to spend their birthday drinking yucky things and getting up close and personal with that big donut shaped machine!!??) So I called and told them “No way Jose! I’m going on a KURT!!

Sugarland was a great opener - they had the audience on their feet nearly the whole time and were a lot of fun. I had watched their TV special not long ago and their set last night was quite similar. They have some fun staging elements that add to their performance. I was kind of sorry that they chose not to include “Stay” - I love the way Jennifer sings that. My daughter told me their song “Night Swimming” is actually an old R.E.M. song - I hadn’t realized that.

The lines and crowds out in the lobby during the break were pretty brutal so we just barely made it back to our seats for Keith’s introductory music and the whisking away of the black curtain. We were about 6 rows beyond the end of the catwalk tonight so had a pretty nice view all evening. For some reason security remained pretty tight all night at the Quicken. They stayed in position in each aisle and continued to check tickets and turn back those who tried to move forward (except for those very front rows between the runways). I was a little sorry about that because I thought Jen might enjoy spending some time near the front stage (Mom too!). But we had a blast anyway!

Keith looked quite stunning in black on white plaid last night and dark jeans. Kind of reminded me of his highly favored black button-down shirts in the past, but short sleeved and plaid these days, Although my first shots of him singing Hit the Ground were close-ups of him with those several buttons undone, I had to back off to include his fetching stance, swinging hips and those amazing thighs keeping time with the music (first clip).Oh my! Tonight was a night for some major flippage of those bangs and lots of those sexy little body moves that make it impossible to look away. Keith is so fluid and feline when he moves. Other male country singers seem so stiff compared to him.

In Stupid Boy Keith really stretched out the “Long gone, long gone” so we were kind of holding our breath!(3rd clip) The fiery guitar solo was terrific as usual. He was all smiles and gave some lucky person a nice thumbs up in the middle of Where the Blacktop Ends (see clip). When chatting with the audience Keith mentioned several of the dives or bars where he and the Ranch had played in Cleveland in the early days. He also poked fun at the VIP boxes again tonight although without quite as much flourish as earlier.

Although I had realized that Security was sticking around more than usual before Keith made his move to the small stage, I decided to take Jen back to that location anyway, since this was her first show this tour. We made it back there by a rather circuitous route  to avoid security, but arrived to find that the stage area was surrounded by a rope and one needed a special wristband to enter (perhaps these were “general admission wristbands”?). So Jen and I were turned away but we decided to stay in a more distant position in the aisle outside of the ropes. Keith-mania came to our aid once again - as Keith slowly approached the back of the arena the excited chaos within that general admission area (with many people rushing out to approach Keith) was enough to both totally distract Security and empty some spots near to the small stage and we slipped under the rope in the confusion! Sweet success! So we got a half dozen good clips back there (with the occasional hairy head from the eventual pressing crowd). Look at those smiles and dimples in the second Making Memories segment! He ended Only You Can Love Me with an emotional “You know its true baby!” and a little  more (“My love is true.”?) - see if you can tell the last few words he sings.

We tried again to approach the front stage afterwards but our tickets were checked and we were guided back to our seats. Keith was at his best - both musically and physically in Who Wouldn’t Wanna Be Me (sorry that heads blocking my view lead to a premature end to my video). Tonight I noticed the video screens were lowered to their horizontal position in WWWBM - is that usually the case?? I’m usually not quick enough to catch some of the little interactions or collaborations between Keith and the guys but I did capture he and Chris R. playing the introduction to Sweet Thing. Don’t you just love the little hand gestures Keith throws into his songs?! I think it may have been during Sweet Thing when Keith accepted a gift of some sort from someone up near the stage. He certainly is a master of inserting those little behaviors or gestures with no apparent break in his performance. The guitar solo in Til Summer Comes Around was just heart-stopping, gut-wrenching - I felt just wrung out by its intensity, Wow!

No song was improvised for Cleveland, but Keith had fun hamming it up with a rhythmic introduction to Raining On Sunday. Just look at the expression on his face! He looks like the cat who ate the canary, delighted with the effect he was having on the audience. And in fact he told us “I love you Cleveland!” before he actually went into the song itself. The ROS guitar solo lent itself to more dramatic flipping of those bangs to add emphasis to what he was fingering out of that guitar.

I was so excited when Keith announced he wanted to bring out Sugarland again so that they could do a little song together. He indicated that they had only had a brief run through before the show, but they harmonized beautifully on the Eagle's tune Seven Bridges Road. What a treat!!

I also loved watching that face and the gradual build up of emotion during You’ll Think of Me. At one point for an instant Keith had a rather Elvis like sneer of that upper lip and gave us another very powerful ending. His music had us going from one emotional extreme to the other all night. In You Look Good in My Shirt he could hardly contain his giggles and interactions with the audience - both his laughing and his moves in that song were oh so sexy. How can he - after nearly two hours hours of vigorous performing - look so damn gorgeous and delighted as he plays out in the risers?? (see clip)

I caught a couple bits of Keith and his fractured mirror guitar in Somebody Like You, but far too soon I got that dreaded flashing message “Memory Card Full” so pardon the withdrawal before the climax! During Keith’s end of the show thank yous he got good participation by his crew tonight with dozens of them showing up on stage at the appropriate moment. During Days Go By Jerry caused a bit of a commotion by heading off stage and wandering a bit among the audience in front while he played (following the lead of the master : )  )

I learned later from hubby that my daughter Sara had actually written to Keith a week or two ago, sending him what she called “a heartfelt plea” that he wish me a happy birthday at this concert. I know Keith doesn’t do that sort of thing but it was so sweet and thoughtful of her to try and make it happen. She certainly knows her mom and what would tickle me!! But it was a wonderful birthday as is - one I will be remembering!! 

A couple longer clips that I've put on YouTube:

Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me

Til Summer Comes Around

Only You Can Love Me This Way

Keith and Sugarland Singing Seven Bridges Road

You'll Think of Me

You'll Think of Me Part 2