I went through a very long phase in my life when I didn't like country music... I was brought up on Slim Dusty and Johnny Cash and Olivia Newton John. I was not into silly dusty old, boot scootin' country music for a good decade of my life. Hell I grew up with it and overdosed big time!
...
So, with a lot of
CountDown under my belt, a little cash in my wallet, and my own
cassette player I made the break... I could actually
choose my own music, so I rebelled. I was heavily into (first Abba then) Queen, Phil Collins, the Eurythmics and Wham! (
I know!). I particularly
adored Andrew Ridgely... although it was a bit hard to see his pretty broken-nosed features and his funny little pal (the one that could actually sing!) through the soft focus sometimes. But I was devoted to Freddy and Phil, Annie and Andrew. I revelled in lyrics that were beyond the "lonesome blues" laments of my childhood, wallowing instead in the sound haze of synthesisers, rockin' beats and disco. I was an 80's teenager. What can I say?
...
Eventually, I moved back to my home state and my baby brother decided to re-educate me. Every time I was in the ute going somewhere with him, on would come
Garth Brooks. And despite my anti-country stance, I felt myself starting to bop a bit in the passenger seat.
...
Sensing a weakness, my brother (whose nickname is Pig, not given by me and to the ongoing chagrin of our mother) actually roped me into organising a group to attend the a Garth Brooks concert. (I'm a bit of an organiser, and if I have to say so myself, wrangled some amazing seats!). Not content with having me silently bop to one side, Pig copied off the words to the songs on his latest album and posted them to me weeks prior to the event. Homework! He's a very thorough boy, is our Pig.
...
And I tell you folks, that Garth Brooks may be an ageing, puddin'-lovin' dude, but the boy can put on a show like nobodies business. It was the best concert I have ever been to... the crowd was ENTIRELY on their feet and rocking that place all night. Better than Eurythmics, Dire Straits, even the double act of Elton John and Billy Joel (I know, stone me later, but take my word for it - the show was amazing!).
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So anyhoo, I was back. I was infected with the 'country' bug. Of course I kept it closet for a long time... I had a somewhat cityfied reputation to uphold.
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One of the great bonuses of being a journo on a reasonably large paper, is that you meet people. People you might not otherwise meet. So a number of years ago (pre-family) I was doing a series of features on the Sunshine Coast - the biggest criminals, the biggest artists, etc.
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And I did a feature on the biggest stars of the area. Among them were A)
Steve Irwin (who was an emerging star back then and totally approachable... oh,
my heart still aches) and B)
Keith Urban. ...
Very few people on the coast (or even in the Australian greater community) had heard of Keith. He was some shaggy singer from Caboolture being touted in America as the Next Big Thing. But I had to really talk the editor into including him in the lineup. So I rang his Mum and Dad (as you do) as Keith was in Nashville. They were gorgeous and only too happy for me to do an article on their son. I visited their little townhouse, and they gave me photos and information, and a lovely cup of coffee.
...
They also actually loaned me their only copy of his first album - and boy were they sorry. I was supposed to have it for a couple of days: listen, review, return. Right!
...
I waved goodbye and popped it into the CD player of my little Mazda 626 wagon and that was it. That CD stayed and played for a good month. Mr and Mrs Urban kept leaving sweet little messages:
We loved the article, dear.
Thanks so much.
Er, would you mind very much returning Keith's CD?
...
Just so you know, I did eventually return the CD - I'm really a nice girl at heart. But it was really hard to do. Keith's Mum and Dad's first album copy - wonder what that would fetch on ebay now?
*slap!*
Ouch! OK...
...
Anyhoo. I still love Keith.
In a "you enjoy a great marriage with our Nicole and produce lots of gorgeous shaggy talented offspring" kinda way. And my kids love him too. They bop their heads and do air guitar as he plays.
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I thought I would share their very favourite Keith song... they sing a haphazard version along with the CD, and bop like crazy and ask me to play it again.
So I do!
(Drives SSB nuts)
Hope you enjoy...
Hang on: before you listen, one thing. You need to listen to the words... for many months I thought Keith sang: Tiger in my pants, instead of Tiger in the Tank. I don't know why. It seemed to make sense at the time.
SSB looked at me gravely and said:
"It's tank, not pants.
What kind of a song do you think this is?"
...
Warning: it's loud and the clip has a very strange wobbly legs moment, as well as a dodgy semi-naked Keith shot that this fan has doctored up.
If you can live with it, so can I.
...
Pretend you're in the back seat of a dusty Prado, on the road to Granite Glen and...
Ch, ch!
