Keith Urban Loves New Orleans

When you look at Keith Urban's concert schedule, you'll see a lot of big stadiums and arenas. With his huge fan base, the country singer can sell enough tickets to put bodies in thousands of seats. Seeing a small show at The Parish / The House of Blues is a rarity. Tonight, that rarity is happening! Keith is appearing at the New Orleans House of Blues to play for 350 lucky people.

Tickets to the show weren't sold at all. One hundred were given to members of Keith's fan club and the other 250 were given away to lucky listeners of WNOE-FM, the local country station that is sponsoring the concert.

But how did Urban go from arenas to such an intimate show?

It all started three years ago in Biloxi, Mississippi. That was the year that a man named Don Gosselin went to work for Clear Channel as the operations manager for their New Orleans market. He was surprised to see that Keith's Get Closer tour was going to be close to New Orleans (Biloxi and Lafayette) but didn't have a date booked for the Big Easy. When he called Steve Hodges from Capitol Records Nashville to find out why, he didn't like the answer at all. Steve told him that the folks in Nashville didn't believe that the radio stations would adequately promote country concerts so they wouldn't make enough money to bring big named country artists in.

Gosselin told The Times-Picayune, "New Orleans had dropped off the radar in Nashville as a country market. But I knew that New Orleans, though not seen as a country market, is a music market. We'll support any music if it's good." And he set out to show Nashville just how supportive New Orleans could be.

The first step was going to Keith's 2011 Biloxi show. He talked to Urban backstage and found out that both he and his wife love the city and visit as often as they can. Don then started working with Donna Jean Kisshauer, who is part of Urban's management team. Donna is a big Saints fan so Don hosted her for a game.

A few weeks ago, Gosselin got a phone call from his friend Donna Jean. She said that while they couldn't get a date in New Orleans for Keith's current tour, she did have some good news. Since Urban would be in town on August 26 for "American Idol," he wanted to play an exclusive, small-venue show for WNOE listeners. The 350 concert-goers will be eye to eye with Keith because The Parish doesn't have a big stage. He'll play for 45 minutes (or longer if he's having a good time).

As for Don Gosselin, he's been happily proving to Nashville that New Orleans does indeed love country music. The shows put on by big country names have been well received and he sees more and more in the city's future.

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