On the 54th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards last weekend, Keith Urban took to the stage to deliver an emotionally charged and impassioned performance of “Burden,” originally written and recorded by Irish singer/songwriter Foy Vance.
Now in a two-minute video, The Story Behind “Burden,” which can be seen below, Keith, the now reigning ACM and CMA Entertainer of the Year, explains how his concert in London led him to Ed Sheeran, a two-hour bike ride through London and his compulsion to record and perform “Burden” at the Academy of Country Music Awards.
“We played at the 02 in London and Ed (Sheeran) came out to see us play,” explains Urban. “We talked about Foy (Vance), who’s an incredible musician and songwriter. The next day, I had a day off in London, so I got on my bike and put my headphones on and road around London for like two hours listening to Foy non-stop.”
“And when I got back to Nashville, I realized that I had never seen him play live – he must be fantastic – so I jumped on YouTube and heard this song “Burden” and just fell in love with him. I thought, ‘I’d love to be able to do a version of the song – the way that I was feeling it in my heart.’’”
So with technology as it is today, with the ability for artists to share music in real-time, that’s what Urban did and “Burden” can now be streamed at http://strm.to/Burden.
Recorded in Nashville with co-producer Dave Cobb, the song is a “beautifully written, minimalist prayer” that Urban says spoke to him. “Like the paint that’s drying on a heart that’s broke. Let me carry your burden.”
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Audio / Keith Urban explains why he recorded the song “Burden,” and why he wanted to perform it at last weekend’s ACM Awards.
DownloadKeith Urban (Burden) OC: …what it is. :43
“It’s a song written by Foy Vance, who’s an incredible singer-songwriter from Ireland, that I recently…I knew about but I didn’t know a lot about him, and I fell upon that song ‘Burden,’ and it just floored me. I just thought it was the most beautiful, simple, honest prayer of a song and I was compelled to try to get into the studio and capture it the way I felt about it and what it meant to me. But it wasn’t intended to be a single or any of the traditional things, it was just something I felt very passionate about and wanted to capture and perform. I think that’s the great thing about 2019 is we can do that as artists. We can be moved by something and capture it and immediately put it out without labeling what it is.”
