• Ad Age, Wednesday, November 17, 2010 10:50 AM

Grammy Award winner and country music superstar Keith Urban is riding the rails as part of a "Get Closer to Keith" promotion with Amtrak, Thomas Pardee reports. Urban's latest album, "Get Closer," was released yesterday. His people and Amtrak got together to produce two pop-up shows -- one at New York's Penn Station; the other at Philadelphia's 30th Street Station -- and Urban also performed on an Amtrak trek between the two cities.

"Dozens of his luckiest fans watched him with wide and watery eyes as he sang stripped-down versions of his greatest hits while the train we were all riding -- the great equalizer and novelty of the moment -- barreled through the dusk," writes Pardee.

"This is a one-of-a-kind event for both Keith and us," Amtrak's CMO David Lim tells him, but that doesn't mean the wheels aren't spinning. Amtrak has had some success with events and celebrity partnerships stemming from its National Train Day celebrations, he reveals, including events with personalities such as Buddy Valastro of TLC's "The Cake Boss" and Dr. Phil, who shot an episode on an Amtrak Acela train in 2009.

The quote of the day, however, goes to a teenage girl: "Everyone is so chill. I mean, it's Keith Urban ... doesn't anybody get it?"

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