Keith Urban's Music Competition Series Is Coming to 2 North Texas Venues

Most musicians aspiring to make their passion for music a feasible, full-time gig would undoubtedly appreciate any help they could get.

Grammy-winning country superstar Keith Urban aims to lend a hand to as-yet-unknown artists with a new music competition series, The Road, which is scheduled to premiere on CBS this fall. The series is being executive produced, in part, by two men who are no strangers to country music or Texas: Blake Shelton and Taylor Sheridan.

The road to The Road runs through two North Texas venues, as Urban is scheduled to perform free concerts at Tannahill’s Tavern and Music Hall in Fort Worth on March 2, and at the Factory in Deep Ellum on March 5. Additional concerts are planned for clubs in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Memphis and Nashville. (This isn't Urban's first dalliance with Deep Ellum, either — just last year, he played a surprise pop-up gig at Club Dada to celebrate his then-new single.)

Both North Texas appearances will feature “emerging musicians” on the bill, opening for Urban, although precisely who those “emerging musicians” will be is yet to be revealed.

Along the way, an audience vote will determine which emerging musicians will remain on the seven-date tour and proceed to the next city, which culminates in an April 2 gig at the Ryman Auditorium. The series is described as “Urban and Shelton’s journey to discover the next big musician.”

“I spent a lot of my underage life playing in some seedy pubs, sometimes just for the bartender,” Urban said in a statement. “So I love the idea of throwing artists into a real-world environment to find out if they are artists. Paying your dues sucks, but there are things in this business that can’t be taught, like how to put together a setlist, whether to extend or cut a song during your performance or how to work the crowd.

“For me, touring has always been my first love. It’s where the rubber meets the road. But it’s the only road to take if you want to be a performer.”

All seven concerts, which will be filmed for broadcast on CBS in the fall, are free to attend. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Tickets for the March 2 show at Tannahill’s are available now, but as of this writing, tickets for the March 5 Dallas taping are not yet available.

If you decide to check out the performances, don’t expect to share any behind-the-scenes peeks at The Road. According to press materials, Yondr pouches are being provided to lock up phones to “protect the integrity of the show."

Neither Urban nor Shelton is unfamiliar with the world of “music competition series,” as Urban spent five years as a judge on American Idol (and a couple of turns on the Australian version of The Voice), and Shelton logged a dozen years as a coach on the American incarnation of The Voice.

North Texas Urban fans will also get another crack at seeing the Australian native perform this year, albeit in a vastly larger room. He’s scheduled to return to Fort Worth and perform at Dickies Arena on Oct. 9, as part of his High and Alive world tour, supporting his most recent LP, High.