Keith Urban tour dates: Country star announces Upstate NY concerts, new album

Keith Urban is returning to Upstate New York this summer.

 The country superstar announced a new album late Wednesday, along with his 2018 tour dates. Billboard reports Urban will release "Graffiti U," his 11th studio album,  while on a 59-date Graffiti U Worldwide Tour beginning this summer.

Urban will perform at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) in Saratoga Springs on June 27 and at CMAC in Canandaigua on Sunday, July 8. Country singer Kelsea Ballerini will open both shows at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets will be available through Ticketmaster; on sale dates have not been announced. Prices range from $35 for lawn seats to $65.50, $91 and $105.50 for pavilion seating.

The tour dates were announced in a video featuring fans holding up blank signs with dates Photoshopped in by Urban's team, according to Billboard. Each photo was submitted by fans who live near the concert venues.

Urban has won multiple Grammy Awards, CMA Awards, ACM Awards and CMT Awards thanks to nearly two decades of hits, including "Days Go By," "Somebody Like You," "Making Memories of Us" and "You Look Good in My Shirt."

Urban's new album is expected to feature the single "Female," along with new song "Parallel Lines." He says the album title is inspired by his fans.

"The first letter of my last name is 'U,' and I like the double play on that, that it's a letter but also when you say it, it's 'you,'" Urban told Billboard. "We're in such the 'I' generation right now with iPhones and iThis and iThat, and I thought it'd be nice to flip that, and for me remind the audience, the listener, that this is about you."

GRAFFITI U 2018 WORLD TOUR DATES

Jun 15 -- St. Louis, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
Jun 16 -- Indianapolis, IN @ Ruoff Home Mortage Music Center
Jun 22 -- Clarkston, MI @ DTE Energy Music Theatre
Jun 23 -- Pittsburgh, PA @ KeyBank Pavilion
Jun 27 -- Saratoga Springs, NY @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center
Jun 29 -- Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage
Jun 30 -- Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage
Jul 5 -- Gilford, NH @ Bank of NH Pavilion
Jul 6 -- Gilford, NH @ Bank of NH Pavilion
Jul 8 -- Canandaigua, NY @ CMAC
Jul 13 -- Salt Lake City, UT @ USANA Amphitheatre
Jul 14 -- Denver, CO Fiddler's @ Green Amphitheatre
Jul 15 -- Albuquerque, NM @ Isleta Amphitheater
Jul 20 -- Mountain View, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre
Jul 21 -- Lake Tahoe, NV @ Lake Tahoe Outdoor Arena at Harveys
Jul 22 -- Lake Tahoe, NV @ Lake Tahoe Outdoor Arena at Harveys
Jul 27 -- Raleigh, NC @ Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek
Jul 28 -- Charlotte, NC @ PNC Music Pavilion
Jul 29 -- Alpharetta, GA @ Verizon Amphitheatre
Aug 3 -- Philadelphia, PA @ BB&T Pavilion
Aug 4 -- Mansfield, MA @ Xfinity Center
Aug 5 -- Bangor, ME @ Darling's Waterfront Pavilion
Aug 10 -- Cleveland, OH @ Blossom Music Center
Aug 11 -- Bristow, VA @ Jiffy Lube Live
Aug 12 -- Virginia Beach, VA @ Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater
Aug 15 -- Rogers, AR @ Walmart AMP*
Aug 17 -- Kansas City, MO @ Sprint Center
Aug 18 -- Chicago, IL @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
Aug 19 -- Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center
Aug 24 -- Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
Aug 25 -- Orange Beach, AL @ The Wharf Amphitheater
Aug 26 -- Tuscaloosa, AL @ Tuscaloosa Amphitheater
Sept 7 -- Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun Arena
Sept 8 -- Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun Arena
Sept 14 -- Ottawa, ON @ Canadian Tire Centre*
Sept 15 -- London, ON @ Budweiser Gardens*
Sept 19 -- Winnipeg, MB @ Bell MTS Place*
Sept 21 -- Saskatoon, SK @ SaskTel Centre*
Sept 22 -- Edmonton, AB @ Rogers Place*
Sept 23 -- Calgary, AB @ ScotiaBank Saddledome*
Sept 25 -- Vancouver, BC Rogers Arena*
Sept 27 -- Eugene, OR @ Matthew Knight Arena
Sept 28 -- Boise, ID @ Taco Bell Arena
Sept 29 -- Missoula, MT @ Adams Center
Oct 4 -- Phoenix, AZ @ Ak-Chin Pavilion
Oct 5 -- Laughlin, NV @ Laughlin Event Center
Oct 12 -- Peoria, IL @ Peoria Civic Center
Oct 13 -- Minneapolis, MN @ Target Center
Oct 14 -- Grand Forks, ND @ Ralph Engelstad Arena
Oct 18 -- Toledo, OH @ Huntington Center
Oct 19 -- Grand Rapids, MI @ Van Andel Arena
Oct 20 -- Louisville, KY @ KFC Yum! Center
Oct 24 -- Youngstown, OH @ Covelli Centre
Oct 25 -- Hershey, PA @ Giant Center
Oct 27 -- Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center
Oct 28 -- Charlottesville, VA @ John Paul Jones Arena
Nov 1 -- Little Rock, AR @ Verizon Arena
Nov 2 -- New Orleans, LA @ Smoothie King Center
Nov 3 -- Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center

Trump to push for rural prosperity in Nashville speech

President Trump is expected to find a loyal audience Monday to hear his speech to the American Farm Bureau Federation's Annual Convention in Nashville, where he will push for rural prosperity and tout solutions proposed by a task force that include increasing internet connectivity for rural America.

A new report from the task force, however, also argues for robust access to global markets, and could put Mr. Trump further at odds with the rural community which has by and large been favorable to trade agreements he has not backed, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

"(The report) is proposing the robust need to be sure that rural American agriculture is very fairly treated and has access to global markets," a senior administration official  from outside the White House told reporters Friday, without saying how exactly that might impact the United States' trade negotiations with Canada and Mexico on NAFTA.

Rural America includes 72 percent of the nation's land and 46 million people, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The task force, chaired by Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, is the product of President Trump's April 2017 executive order to establish such a body to examine the challenges faced by this group of Americans.

Trade is a top concern.

"Based on fair trade principles, international market access must be aggressively pursued and supported," the report argues. "American agriculture needs and deserves policies that support and build on this success -- by opening markets abroad; by ensuring fair and science-based regulatory treatment for American products of all kinds; and by implementing strong enforcement policies that hold trading partners to their commitments."

President Trump has disparaged various trade agreements in the past that he does not feel put "America first," and therefore leave the American worker behind. Just days into his presidency, Mr. Trump formally withdrew the United States from the Transpacific Partnership -- a trade deal with 11 other countries that he often described as a job killer.  As recently as August 23, 2017, the president said NAFTA was "one of the worst deals anybody in history has ever entered into."

It remains unclear whether the United States will pull out of the agreement altogether, but that is something President Trump has publicly threatened in the past.

"Trade will be on the mind of folks in the room on Monday, and I think you'll hear the President touch upon that," a senior administration official said. "I think the takeaway is that what we have said all along, throughout the administration with regard to trade, is that this president wants to end the day with agreements and with a standard that is more efficient for markets, that is less distorted, and that gives not only our farmers but our manufacturers and others that participate in the trade economy a fair platform." 

"If we're able to do that, regardless of what strategies the president employs to get there -- at the end of the day, if those three things happen, then the first person to benefit from that, in my view, is going to be the American farmer," the official added.

The task force report also looks at other ways to boost prosperity in rural America and focuses on five areas: e-connectivity for rural America, improving quality of life, supporting a rural workforce, harnessing technological innovation, and economic development. 

Perdue is also slated to address the convention. He is expected to praise President Trump for his "relentless commitment" to helping rural Americans, and discuss how the report was developed, according to an administration official familiar with his remarks.