Defying Gravity Kicks Urban into High Gear

In just this past year Keith Urban has charted three U.S number singles You Look Good In My Shirt, Start A Band (Duet with Brad Paisley) as well as his latest two week number one single Sweet Thing from his upcoming album Defying Gravity (Due for release April 3rd 2009).

His latest single Kiss A Girl marks the highest U.S debut of any 2nd single released from an Urban album. In addition the unstoppable country star has had a platinum-selling DVD Love Pain and The Whole Crazy World Tour from his critically hailed concert tour of the same name. PHEW!

"It wasn't a conscious theme," Keith says. "But listening back I think that Defying Gravity is about being brave enough to love. Fortunately that is where I am at right now in my life and coming down the road that I have taken to be here I do feel a lot of gratitude."

The sentiment reinforces what is an openhearted and uplifting album that contains a deeply felt musical statement, a song cycle marked by a clearheaded sense of passion and hope.

From a variety of perspectives Defying Gravity looks at love as an everchanging force in our lives. From the excitement of courting on a song like Sweet Thing to the atmospheric heartbreak of Til Summer Comes Around to the pure desire of Standing Right In Front Of You to the constant longing for a love on Why It Feels So Long.

"I'm present in a way that I've never quite been before," Keith says. "I was always thinking about tomorrow, or the past, anywhere but here. Now I love being present - I have a lot to be grateful for in the present."

Next month Keith will begin rehearsals for his Escape This World Together Tour. Set to launch in May it is already being lauded as a show not to be missed. Keith will team with a different touring partner in each city, including superstars Sugarland and Taylor Swift as well as Jason Aldean, Lady Antebellum, The Zac Brown Band, Little Big Town, Dierks Bentley and the legendary Glen Campbell.

Alan Jackson - He's No Pro Racer

The cover of Alan Jackson’s latest album, Good Time, shows Alan sitting inside a nifty-looking sports car, and he got a little insight into the pro-racing experience when he took some driving lessons a while back. While the instruction may have left something to be desired, it really was a good time. Alan tells the story the best.

And hey, behind that cool cover of Alan’s Good Time album are 17 big songs, including three back-to-back number-one hits with the title track, “Country Boy,” and “Small Town Southern Man,” as well as his new single, the beautiful “Sissy’s Song.”

“This good ole boy’s up there in front of this room, and he stands there a minute, and he says, ‘Well, I can’t really tell you much in here," Alan says. "We got to go out, and get in this Dooley truck, and go around the track.’ We said, ‘All right,’ so all of us piled in this Dooley truck, and we started around the track, and he said, ‘Okay, now you step on this high side, and you see that Winston sign, that’s when you back out of it, and when you get past that and you see that Coors sign, you get back in it, and you stay there, come down low, and come up high.’ I mean, that was your instruction.”

“They pulled this car up here, you know, and there’s no exhaust on it, straight exhaust, but it’s loud as hell, and you crawl in the window, and they strap you in," the country superstar continues. "They just say, ‘Okay, we’ve got this guy in front of you, he’s a professional driver. If you can stay with him, he’ll go as fast as you can go.’ The whole time I’d go around, I would be just tense like this and then, you know, I would say, ‘Okay, relax, relax!’ And I would relax, and about a second later, I would be tense again. But it was fun, but man, it made me really have a total appreciation for those guys that run hours and hundreds of laps ’round that thing in the heat and traffic ’cause I couldn’t hardly stay with that guy, and he was just puttin’ around, but I felt like I was just flyin’. I just can’t imagine going 200 miles an hour that far from somebody’s bumper. That’s a hard job.”

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