His Announcement Of A Yacht Rock Cover Album Surprised Many
While performing as part of the Country Radio Seminar ’26 on Thursday, March 19, at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, country artist Keith Urban made a surprising announcement.
“So, I’ve got a record coming out — first time I’ve ever done an album of covers,” Keith stated. “It’s a thematic record … yacht rock songs.”
Upon him saying this, laughter and some cheers could be heard from some in the audience, to which Keith replied, “You think I’m kidding? I’m not kidding.”
Interestingly, since the release of his 1991 debut album, Keith Urban, the following 35 years have not seen him release a cover album, until now.
A title for the cover album is not yet known.
Watch Keith Urban Play New Music From His Upcoming Yacht Rock Cover Album
A few days prior to this announcement, Urban spoke on his love for yacht rock music on Apple Music 1, stating, “I’ve sort of rediscovered a big love for songs that would fit into the yacht rock category. All that music I really, really love. That might be a little precursor to something I’ve got coming out down the track — just FYI.”
Coined in 2005, “yacht rock” is a style of soft rock that rose to prominence in the mid-1970s through the early ’80s with a uniquely West Coast sound and a penchant for nautical references.
Prefacing that he was “terrified, absolutely” to be performing some of the music for the first time, Urban noted that his upcoming yacht rock cover album includes one original song, which he proceeded to play before giving the audience a taste of two of his renditions of iconic yacht rock songs.
Predictably, the selection of songs he played at the Ryman highlights his guitar prowess.
After playing an original song, titled “We Go Back,” Urban then played Stephen Bishop’s “On And On,” which is the opening track to Bishop’s 1976 debut album, Careless.
The song begins with the memorable lyric, “Down in Jamaica, they got lots of pretty women — steal your money then they break your heart.”
From there, Urban then performed another snippet of one of the tracks on the upcoming album: a cover of Robbie Dupree’s 1980 hit “Steal Away.”
Watch Keith Urban announce the cover album, here, before playing his original yacht rock song, followed by a snippet of his covers of “On And On” (starting at 2:52) and “Steal Away” (starting at 4:36):
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Past Songs Keith Urban Has Covered
While Keith Urban is only just now preparing his first cover album, he has had many notable cover performances — several being well beyond the realm of country music.
During a 2020 tribute to the music of the Bee Gees, Urban performed “To Love Somebody.”
Video from that performance may be viewed, here.
Performing on an Australian radio show, Urban did a cover of Ariana Grande’s “We Can’t Be Friends,” which can be viewed, here:
Last year, he also performed a sampling of Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club,” which can be seen, here:
@much Keith Urban perfectly describes how “Pink Pony Club” makes us all feel 🥹💖 Check out the full I&I on Much’s YouTube now!! 🎤⭐️ #IntimateAndInteractive #KeithUrban #MuchMusic #ChappellRoan #PinkPonyClub ♬ original sound – MuchMusic