Keith Urban Announces Plans For Yacht Rock Covers Album

18 months on from the release of his latest album, Keith Urban is already looking ahead to the future, announcing plans for a thematic cover record as his next focus.

As Whiskey Riff reports, Urban recently made an appearance at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on Thursday, March 19th as part of the 2026 Country Radio Seminar (CRS).

During his time on stage, Urban told the gathered crowd that he was already looking at his next project, which would take the form of an unexpected covers album. “It’s the first time I’ve done an album of covers,” he told the audience.

“There is one original on the record. It’s a thematic record… yacht rock songs,” he added, before asserting, “You think I’m kidding? I’m not kidding.”

To underline his commitment to the record’s premise, Urban then ducked into performances of Stephen Bishop’s On And On, and Robbie Dupree’s Steal Away, along with a taster of his own original song, We Go Back.

For the uninitiated, ‘yacht rock’ is an often-derided and somewhat-pejorative term used to describe music that closely aligns with the soft rock genre popular within the ‘70s and ‘80s.

Usually used to refer to music which also contains elements of jazz, R&B, and even disco, artists such as Christopher Cross and Michael McDonald are largely associated with the genre.

Though Urban is yet to address the new record outside of this appearance, any album of such a thematic focus would be a far cry from his most recent record – 2024’s High.

That album was an undeniably country-focused record with very little focus on genres such as yacht rock. Despite the lack of Cross and McDonald, the record ended up topping the Australian Country Albums chart, hitting No. 3 on the ARIA Albums chart, and even cracking the top ten on the US Top Country Albums chart.