Keith Urban may be from Down Under, but he sure knows how to throw a down-home party: a backyard barbecue.
After performing for a crowd of some 50,000 at the CMA Music Festival in Nashville, the dad-to-be scaled things down, playing a private gig for 50 lucky fans.
At the party, Urban met each of the fifty guests, signed autographs and posed for pictures, then played an intimate, 45-minute concert.
"Meeting the contest winners today was great because most of them, I think all of them actually, came to a show we played last night," said Urban, 40. "There seems to be more sort of energy when people have just seen you play, and we all get to meet each other. ... That's the perfect crowd to play to."
The meet-and-greet was part of a promotional contest held by Verizon Wireless, whose customers were entered automatically by using Song ID (the music discovery tool that recognizes the title, artist, and album name of songs being played on the radio) to identify Urban's hits "Everybody" and "I Told You So."
The five contest winners were then permitted to invite nine of their closest friends to join them for the Nashville event on June 7.
As temperatures soared in the 90s in Nashville last weekend, Urban was glad the venue had air conditioning. "This is my kind of backyard right here," he said.
For contest winner Lori Bryant, 44, Urban was also her kind of host. "He came in and gave me a big hug and said, 'Thanks for being here,' and went up to each individual person and shook their hand or gave them a hug and asked their name," she told PEOPLE.
Best of all, she added, "He doesn't have his arm around you like he's barely touching you – he gives you a big hug, and he's just very genuine. He acts like he's your long, lost friend."
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