Sugarland Leading Urban Opener

Sugarland photo by Kate Powers, courtesy of Mercury Records Nashville.

Jan. 27, 2009 — Keith Urban announced a mix-and-match plan in which seven different opening acts will work his 58-city Escape Together North American Tour, but Sugarland is easily the dominant piece of the puzzle, opening 21 of the 58 shows.

Specific dates have yet to be announced, but Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush join Keith in some of the most imporant markets he’ll tour this year, including Los Angeles, New York, Nashville and Washington, D.C.

Taylor Swift joins Keith in 10 cities — including Boston and Atlanta. Jason Aldean is slated for six markets, and Lady Antebellum plays each of the half-dozen Canadian sites on the itinerary. The Zac Brown Band kicks off four of Keith’s shows, Dierks Bentley plays two dates, and Glen Campbell plays Las Vegas in his lone appearance on the schedule.

The Sugarland match ought to be a strong one. Keith and Sugarland are both perennial awards candidates, and each of them leans heavily toward positive, upbeat life assessments with their music. Even Sugarland’s "Stay" — an emotional portrait of a complex love triangle — ends with the song’s primary figure taking hold of her life and moving forward from a go-nowhere cycle of codependence. Keith’s fans who have not seen Sugarland before should have a good idea about who the duo is once they’ve watched their opening set.

"The live show is Sugarland," Jennifer told CMA Close Up. "There is no distinction. Music is a living art form. It is performance art. It can happen only in the action of being performed and created. We weren’t signed from someone listening to a demo. We were signed the second they saw us live. It is what we do."

Keith’s Escape Together Tour kicks off in May, following the March 31 release of his next album, Defying Gravity.