After helping bring some of the world’s biggest artists to Austin during SXSW – from Coldplay to Soundgarden – alongside the hottest talents of moment – from London Grammar to ScHoolboy Q – the iTunes festival ended its inaugural five night run during the event with Australia’s biggest country star Keith Urban sharing the stage with Mickey Guyton and the legendary Willie Nelson, at a venue that was appropriately positioned right on Willie Nelson Blvd.
Mickey Guyton kicked things off, a local artist who had plenty of fans (and family) in the crowd for her eight track set, that included “Unbreakable”, “Safe”, “Pretty Little Mustang” and set closer “Better Than You Left Me”. The emerging and appreciative country singer fought away tears of joy as she left the stage, leaving way for Willie Nelson to join us after a brief changeover.
Willie was joined at the Moody Theater with an eight piece band – featuring a pianist, three percussionists (including his son Micah), two guitarists (including his son Lucas), a bassist and a harmonicist – emerging with his beat up acoustic guitar, an immaculate black cowboy hat, which he replaced with the famous red bandana later in the set – a costume change which received as big of an applause from the crowd as any, as it did when it was removed during “On The Road Again” – and opened the set with “Whiskey River”.
Willie wasn’t the only star of his show, however, inviting son Lucas to lead a cover of the Stevie Ray Vaughan blues number “Texas Flood”, and inviting young talent Lily Meola to join him on stage for the romantic duet “Will You Remember Mine”. The 45 minute set, also featuring his recent recording “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die”, finished up with the crowd on their feet singing and clapping along to “I Saw The Light”.
Our very own Keith Urban closed out iTunes’ night of country music, hitting the banjo as soon as he walked onto the stage, with shorter hair in a black “Hi, How Are You” t-shirt, with his bassist and backing guitarists coming to the front of stage to have a jam before launching right into “Long Hot Summer” with Urban on the electric. The set featured a mix of tracks off his latest album Fuse, alongside favorites such as “Somebody Like You”, “Who Wouldn’t Want To Be Me” and “You Look Good in My Shirt”, which closed the night. As with the preceding sets, this was all backed up by a massive production from Apple that saw LED lights cover the venue and ushers don the Genius attire. The full setlist of Urban’s set is available below.
The iTunes Festival series from SXSW streamed live all week. Stay tuned for the full review of the night alongside coverage from the rest of SXSW. More details about the week of iTunes Festival performances can be found here: https://www.itunesfestival.com/
KEITH URBAN SETLIST
Long Hot Summer
Sweet Thing
Somewhere In My Car
Stupid Boy
Come Back To Me
Even the Stars Fall 4 U
Kiss a Girl
Good Thing
Without You
You Gonna Fly
Better Life
Cop Car
Put You in a Song
Somebody Like You
Encore:
‘Til Summer Comes Around
Who Wouldn’t Wanna Be Me
You Look Good in My Shirt
