Keith Urban exclusive: the high life and the Highlands

When the Mercury spoke with country rocker Keith Urban this week, the conversation was punctuated by the screams of his daughter Sunday, testing out her new-found vocals.Urban was back at the Nashville ranch he shares with wife Nicole Kidman and little Sunday, during a 10-day break from his Escape Together World Tour, which takes in more than 70 dates across the United States, Canada and Australia.Following gigs in Toronto, New York and Melbourne, Urban, his band and the Escape Together production - which not only includes videos, lighting and sound but the entire stage - will arrive at WIN Entertainment Centre on December 14.Wollongong is just one of four cities that Urban will play across the country to promote his new album, Defying Gravity."There is a bunch of people down there who want to come out and see us play so it's a lot quicker than having to go to Sydney for those folks," Urban told the Mercury. The trip to Wollongong will also allow Urban and family to take time out at their Victorian-era pile, Bunya Hill, at Sutton Forest, where they will also celebrate Christmas after the tour wraps up in Brisbane on December 19.Urban said his love for the countryside grew after the family moved into the Nashville ranch, 40 minutes from the city centre, where they are "pretty self-sufficient" and grow their own vegies."We just developed a lifestyle of living there that we really loved, it really suited both of us ... it is certainly not a place where you can just pop down the shop easily because everything is quite a whiles away," he said."When we went back to Sydney the next time we just thought 'oh gosh, wouldn't it be nice to have a place on the outskirts of Sydney?' because we know we like living like that - with a bit of land, a bit of space."When the family arrived at Bunya Hill for Easter, media camped at their front gate and paparazzi used helicopters to spy from above."You just have to roll with it, it's just the way it goes," Urban said of the attention.Back in Nashville, the proud parents celebrated Sunday's first birthday on Wednesday with a "little cake"."My wife made a beautiful video that covered her first year and we gave that to all the family," Urban said."(Sunday) has got all Nic's good features, the eyes are probably like mine, but she has got Nic's skin and hair and long legs."Defying Gravity is dedicated to "Nicole Mary" and sounds like a long love letter - albeit a rockin' country-style one - to his wife and child.