See Keith Urban Croon ‘Blue Ain’t Your Color’ on ‘GMA’

Keith Urban has cut a lot of ballads, but perhaps none as sultry as current single “Blue Ain’t Your Color.” This morning on Good Morning America, the singer-guitarist performed the Ripcord track with a steaminess to match New York’s late-summer humidity.

Written by Steven Lee Olsen, Hillary Lindsey and Clint Lagerberg, “Blue Ain’t Your Color” showcases Urban at his crooning finest. At times, he evokes the Eighties sway of INXS’ Michael Hutchence. Other times, he’s dialing up the blues, especially on a weeping solo that cascades across the Big Apple’s Central Park.

But Urban never loses sight of his country roots. He says the studio version of the song, elegant in its simplicity, was inspired by Don Williams.

“If you listen to those records [Williams] did with Garth Fundis,” he told Rolling Stone Country, “they’re master classes in minimalism. I’ve talked to Garth and Don about those records, and they’ve said, ‘They were hard records to make,’ because minimalism is really hard. It’s easy to layer things in, but to keep things really stripped down — and still make them intriguing, sonically — is a challenge. The blueprint that I was raised on, with those records, shows up on a song like ‘Blue Ain’t Your Color.'”

Urban is currently on his Ripcord World Tour, with guests Brett Eldredge and Maren Morris. He’ll perform August 18th in Charlotte, North Carolina.