Before Australian Keith Urban hit the country scene with his first American album, Urban was the lead singer for a widely popular country band Down Under named "The Ranch." Scoring several number-one hits in Australia, Keith Urban left his winning band and came to Nashville in search of a solo career. In 1999, he released his self-titled album with Capitol Records and landed numerous jobs opening for some of country's biggest names.
Gradually, Keith Urban is building a career portfolio that could elevate his status to headline act. In 2002, his second studio release, "Golden Road," turned new heads to Urban and his music. His biggest single, "Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me," still sits high on the charts.
It is widely agreed upon that Keith Urban is the most talented guitarist in Nashville. Playing the guitar since he was six years old, Urban has said it is the only thing he has ever wanted to do. He has been compared to guitar legends like Chet Atkins and B.B. King for the fluid, up-tempo riffs that are standard on Urban's records.
"In the Ranch" is a re-release of his 1997 Australian-only release originally distributed as "The Ranch." The record earned Urban a solid cult following in his home country. Only recently did Capitol Records scoop up the rights to this hit and bring it overseas to the States. Prior to doing so, this import was difficult and expensive to get your hands on.
The album is identical to the original release, except now we are given music videos for two of the tracks and an encore section with two bonus tracks.
There is no question that Keith Urban's premier skills on the strings are very apparent on the album. There is one purely instrumental track on "In the Ranch," titled "Clutterbilly," providing Urban with a stage on which to show his talents.
However, both live and on his albums, Urban's vocals have never been overly impressive. Some of the songs on "In the Ranch," especially a couple of the slower-paced love tunes, come off as downright flat from the vocal end. Fortunately, the bittersweet guitar will distract most listeners from notes where he comes up short.
Some of the tunes, like "Man of the House" and "Desiree," remind me of older country-rock hybrids dating back decades ago. Being a re-release of one of his earliest albums, I assume Urban was giving a nod to the style of music that steered the direction of his career. Although they are nice and harmless, these two songs are particularly awkward and miss the zone where Urban has a chance to shine on the strings by leaning too much on his vocals.
His laid-back love jam "Homespun Love" has a huge beat and an original country sound. Mixed with Urban's tearing into the acoustic and a melody easily within his vocal range, this rockabilly tune is as good as the album gets.
"Walkin' the Country," the record's opening track, sounds identical to the style of Urban's music that reaches nationwide airplay on the tuner, kicking up memories of "Where the Blacktop Ends." It is the most mainstream tune on the album, but it is also somewhat catchy.
However, these songs are seriously superficial. Nothing in these rocking tunes holds any of the weight or meaning that country was established upon. Although these arrangements on the guitar would probably make Chet Atkins grin, I think Hank Williams would be confused at where the medium he helped found is headed. Ironically, in his song "Hank Don't Fail Me Now," Urban pays tribute to the honky-tonkin' country legend for being the heartache healer and the answer to his love problems. Maybe Urban is failing Hank.
Urban is a mainstream artist but has dug out a niche for himself away from typical Nashville country. His approach to country music is practically impossible to compare to today's biggest male successes like Toby Keith, Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney. Revisiting his roots with "In the Ranch," we can see even in the mid-1990s that the direction these artists went was simply not the way Urban is interested in heading.
It often feels like the Aussie is a rock 'n' roller stuck with a country influence. This is unfortunate because his mind-blowing guitar skills are somewhat lost to both country audiences and the country genre. They certainly do not go to waste, but I cannot help but wonder what amazing things he might be doing if he had let his guitar lead him to hard rock.
"In the Ranch" is a harmless, average album. Only where we hear Urban let go on his strings does this record truly shine. He is such a rare type of talent in Nashville that I truly hope he finds a legitimate, believable compromise between what he does best individually and the heart of country. That would be an album for the ages.
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