Keith Urban announces 2011 tour dates

NEW YORK, Nov. 22 (UPI) -- Australian-born country star Keith Urban announced a 44-date North American tour for the summer of 2011 to promote his new album, "Get Closer."

Urban, who is married to actress Nicole Kidman, kicks things off June 16 in Mobile, Ala., and finishes Oct. 15 in Minneapolis. Tickets will begin going on sale Feb. 11 and continue into April.

"Even as we were writing for the album," Urban says, "I could tell right away that these songs were gonna soar in concert. I don't know how many new songs we'll be adding at this stage, but I do feel as the tour progresses and people have had time to live with the album we may very well end up playing the majority of them."

"Get Closer" was released Nov. 16 and follows three consecutive Urban albums -- 2004's "Be Here," 2006's "Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing" and 2009's "Defying Gravity" -- that debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's country charts. "Get Closer's" first single, "Put You in a Song," currently sits at No. 14 on the Top Country Songs chart.

Urban will perform at halftime of the Dallas Cowboys-New Orleans Saints game on Thanksgiving Day in Dallas, and on Dec. 14 he'll tape an episode of Oprah Winfrey's show at the Sydney Opera House in Australia.