Keith Urban has earned his reputation as one of country music's best guitar players, but he doesn't limit himself to just that instrument. In most of his concerts, he finds a song or two to sit down at the piano, and it's been a successful part of the show.

When he recorded his last full album, "Love, Pain & The Whole Crazy Thing," he took that even further, handling the keyboard parts himself instead of hiring a studio musician to do it. The reason was quite simple: He wanted the songs' emotions to be authentic.

"Sometimes," he told Dial-Global, "something gets lost in the process... It's played better, but it doesn't get played with some sort of genuine feel — believability, heart. And so when it came to the piano, I ended up covering the piano on all the songs. I think the appeal is that I'm not a very good piano player; I'm a guitar player that plays piano, you know what I mean? So you end up with texture instead of technique, and so there's a piano in there, but it's not so great that it gets in the way of the song."

Look for Keith to be playing both guitar and piano when he returns from Australia next week to launch another leg of shows with Carrie Underwood, beginning Wednesday in Baltimore.