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Keith Urban: 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 21, Indiana State Fair. Tix: $41, $33.50 ($6 fair admission included). -- Capitol Records   other headliners The lineup of Marsh Grandstand concerts at this year's Indiana State Fair kicked off Thursday with a performance by Rascal Flatts. In addition to Keith Urban and Garrison Keillor, these four headliners will play the fair: Herman's Hermits Tonight, 7:30 p.m. Free with $6 fair admission. This British group never received the respect rightfully given to contemporaries such as the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kinks or the Who. But the Hermits -- featuring Peter Noone on vocals -- could take comfort in hit singles "Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter," "I'm Into Something Good," "I'm Henry VIII, I Am" and "There's a Kind of a Hush." Switchfoot Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. $31.50, $29.50 ($6 fair admission included). As one of the biggest acts ever to cross over from contemporary Christian music to the mainstream, rock band Switchfoot is expected to preview songs from upcoming album "Nothing Is Sound." Tuesday's concert, which will follow a freestyle motocross show at the Grandstand, also will spotlight past Switchfoot hits "Meant to Live" and "Dare You to Move." Clay Aiken Thursday, 7:30 p.m. $35, $30 ($6 fair admission included). Clay Aiken has been out of the news in recent months, but the former "American Idol" runner-up is edging back into the public eye by singing pop hits from the '50s to the present. His "Jukebox Tour" includes selections such as the Beatles' "Can't Buy Me Love" and Barry Manilow's "Mandy." Alan Jackson Aug. 19, 7:30 p.m. $48, $44 ($6 fair admission included). Alan Jackson titled his 1998 studio album "High Mileage," but this Georgia native's career has rolled smoothly and required no major tune-ups since he broke onto the scene in 1989. On the topic of cars and trucks, he might pull "Mercury Blues," "Drive (for Daddy Gene)" and "The Talkin' Song Repair Blues" from his catalog to perform in Indianapolis.

While planning his first arena tour as a headliner, Keith Urban recently devoted a six-hour meeting to picking what songs to play and in what order to play them.

The country-music star also faces choices about stage design and what fans will see and hear at the beginning of his concerts.

But these tasks aren't necessarily work for the native of Caboolture, Australia, who's entered a new level of fame since the release of his "Be Here" album last September.

"I feel like I'm 15 and in my first garage band again," Urban says during a telephone interview. "I don't know where that's coming from, but I love it. I find an even deeper exuberance in playing music and putting on a show. I'm just giddy about putting all this together and giving something to people that they haven't seen before."

Before finalizing details for his fall tour, Urban will wrap up a summer that's included massive stadium shows where he performed as a supporting act for Kenny Chesney.

The Indiana State Fair booked Urban as a main attraction, however, and he'll likely play to a Marsh Grandstand crowd of 15,000 or so on Aug. 21.

Urban recites his mission as giving audience members their money's worth -- something he says he experienced when attending a date of Bruce Springsteen's current tour.

"He has a master understanding of holding a crowd and taking them places: high, low and everywhere in between," Urban says. "He knows how long he can hold them before they go over the edge, and then he brings them back. It was just astounding. It's amazing to think somebody could be that compelling and captivating for that long."

Urban is no slouch himself, as he's astounded and amazed by making music with far-reaching appeal.

Four of his songs have made it onto "Now That's What I Call Music!" compilations, the hit samplers most often identified with pop acts such as Gwen Stefani, Destiny's Child and Jennifer Lopez.

He's also been hired to help sell Gap jeans alongside rockers Liz Phair and Alanis Morissette and R&B stars Joss Stone and John Legend.

If you know a college student who once dismissed country but is now giving the genre a chance, it's a good bet he or she is a fan of Urban's catchy melodies and fleet-fingered guitar playing.

"I'm grateful when anybody can start to have his or her limited perception of the genre open up a little bit," Urban says. "There's a lot of great music in the country genre that doesn't get heard because people say, 'Well, I don't like country.' "

Within the country community, Urban is on an undeniable roll.

His last single, "Making Memories of Us," topped Billboard magazine's country chart; he's the reigning male vocalist of the year for both the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music; and Country Weekly magazine named him the genre's "hottest bachelor" in its Aug. 2 issue.

"He's single, he's hot, he's got a rough edge and his songs are beautiful," explains Annie, the single-named afternoon disc jockey at WLHK-FM (97.1).

Yet, 37-year-old Urban didn't rocket to stardom. Vicki Murphy, the midday disc jockey at WFMS-FM (95.5), recalls traveling to various cities in the Midwest to see the Ranch, a trio Urban led in the mid-1990s.

She says a typical nightclub audience was no larger than 50 people.

"He's not trying to be a star," she says. "He's a musician, and he won people over one by one. I think a lot of people in Nashville root for him."

Urban knows he's attracting his share of attention these days.

"More people seem to be coming out to the shows than ever before," he says. "You can see a visual shift."

And it's always possible that someone in the audience will be affected the way Urban says he was by a John Mellencamp tour that came to Australia in the late '80s.

Urban describes the "Lonesome Jubilee" show as a "life-changing moment."

"I had grown up playing country as a kid and then I played a bunch of rock 'n' roll in clubs," he says. "I loved both, but I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to be."

Mellencamp, Urban says, showed that music didn't have to be an either/or proposition.

"There's this guy with a rock band, but he's got fiddle and accordion and acoustic guitar," Urban says. "He's singing real lyrics about real people and real things. I saw that you could do it all and make your own music. It wasn't like I watched John and said, 'OK, I'm going to do that.' It was the thought of gathering everything that you love and putting it all together."

Call Star reporter David Lindquist at (317) 444-6404.

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