CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
As Queensland’s most succesful recording artist Keith Urban announces the release of his 12th studio album, the people of his hometown are as vocal as ever in claiming him.
According to a recent report by the organisers of Caboolture’s hilariously named ‘Urban Country Music Festival’ – over 95% of of the town claims to have been one of the 20 people in the crowd at the Big Fish Tavern when Keith Urban first performed live in the late 80s.
Given this particular rural town currently has a population of 29,534 people, that means over 28,000 people claim to have been one of the 20 people in the pub that day.
These stats get a little more unbelievable when you consider that the medium age of the town’s residents is 36, meaning majority of the audience would have been infants when seated in the beer garden for the 56-year-old’s first gig.
The 10% of Caboolture’s population that are recent migrants to Australia also feature heavily as respondents who claimed to have seen Keith before he blew up.
Despite his mainstream success and international profile, Urban has been equally as eager to claim to people of Caboolture – often returning to his hometown for the odd community event while touring Australia.
Life is a bit different for Caboolture’s favourite son nowadays, this year alone he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame by Dolly Parton, and returned to American Idol as a mentor and judge as America undergoes a full blown Country Music renaissance.
As the only country artist to consistently chart on the Billboard top ten for the last three decades, Keith Urban is viewed as global heavyweight in the now dominant genre.
Nowadays he is joined by the likes of Beyonce Knowles and Luke Combs, but for many years the entire country music industry depended heavily on the Queensland guitar maestro to keep the genre on the charts.
His newest album ‘High’ marks 11 albums recorded on American soil, after relocating to Nashville shortly after he first.
However, according to his hometown, Keith keeps a couple holiday homes in Caboolture and ‘pretty much spends most of the year in town’.
This theory receives even momentum anytime someone in Caboolture sees a flash car drive down the main street.
