Music Blogs

When I first learned that tonight's St. Patrick's Day broadcast of American Idol would be country-themed, I admit I was bummed. I was kind of hoping for a Celtic theme, personally. How about Pub Songs Night? Sea Shanty Night? Thin Lizzy Night (imagine Adam Lambert singing "Jailbreak") or Pogues Night (a slurry "Fairytale Of New York" by Megan Corkrey)? Or maybe bring Bono on to be a mentor or something? At the very least the Idol stylists could have made the top 11 all wear green (or risk being pinched by Paula Abdul, in the same manner in which she wanted to squish David Archuleta's head last season). Or the producers could have invited back Irish also-ran Carly Smithson (this time, it would have been appropriate and I wouldn't have protested). But no. There was no St. Paddy's theme tonight, which was enough to make me cry into my green beer.

Tonight's country theme was also odd because this is the first AmIdol season in a long time that's featured no straight-up country contestants in the finals. While past seasons have boasted singers that would have been just as appropriate competing on Nashville Star (Josh Gracin, Kellie Pickler, Bucky Covington, Kristy Lee Cook, and of course Carrie Underwood), this season has no such clearcut cowboy or -girl. So I knew trying to get Anoop to do Garth, or Megan to do Shania, was gonna make for some good trainwreck TV--maybe even worse than the night that season 2 country boy Gracin had to do disco.

This could be a good thing, for sheer entertainment value, of course...but a Pogues Night would have been just as awesome, and probably even more watchably trainwrecky.

Anyway, the show started off with Texan oilrigger Michael Sarver, who with his relatable everyman image and blue-collar back story probably had the best chance of appealing to the country crowd tonight. Mentor Randy Travis (one of the weaker mentors in AmIdol history, rehashing his doubting-the-contestant-then-coming-around-and-believing shtick ELEVEN boring times tonight) warned Michael that he should not try to put too much "Michael Sarver flavor" on the wordy Garth Brooks hat-act hit "Ain't Goin' Down Till The Sun Goes Up." But to be honest, I think this song showcased Michael at his best.

Yes, he was out-of-breath in parts (that motormouthed song is like the country equivalent of R.E.M.'s "It's The End Of The World As We Know It," with a whole lot of syllables crammed into not a whole lot of space). And yes, I agree with Simon Cowell that Michael seemed "a bit clumsy" (Simon's new overused buzzword this season). And I am still not a Sarver fan--I don't think Michael deserved to make the top 13 in the first place. But, all that being said, I did agree with Paula Abdul that "this is the genre that suits him so well." Kara DioGuardi and Randy Jackson criticized Michael for picking a song that didn't fully show off his vocal range, but Michael, seemingly empowered by being in his element tonight, countered with: "Singing well is very important to me, but country music is about having some fun!" (He might as well have shouted, "Yee-haw!" in a Yosemite Sam accent after that.) Simon complained that he didn't understand a single word that rushed out of Michael's mouth, to which Michael replied: "Country fans did!" Simon then gave Michael a "1.2" on a scale of 1 to 10, which I thought was harsh--I do, for what it's worth, think this was Michael's best performance yet--to which Michael retorted, "If we were all perfect, we wouldn't need this show!"

Wow, Michael was on fire tonight, huh? So sassy! It was pretty obvious that Michael was making a blatant attempt to align and identify himself with a country audience, with all his big pro-country talk...and I have a feeling that strategy will pay off for him and keep him in the competition a lot longer than he deserves to be (country voters are a loyal bunch). I now have a hunch that Michael will be this season's Kristy Lee Cook, only not quite as blonde or hot.

Next up was my girl Allison Iraheta, who in the past couple weeks has easily replaced Megan Corkrey as my favorite female in this competition. (I loved Megan, but she lost me when she started, um, birdcalling.) Randy Travis was hugely impressed with this 16-year-old pink-haired powerhouse's mature vocals, but not so much with her immature hoedown dance (it was kind of an Ashlee Simpson-on-SNL jig, even worse than Megan's awkward moves), which he advised her not to attempt onstage. Allison took Travis's advice, but still instilled her performance of the Patty Loveless country-rocker "Blame It On Your Heart" with plenty of feisty tweenage personality. She had attitude, baby, attitude! She owned that stage and was so convincing, she seemed like a real country star (in that rebellious, Gretchen Wilson vein).

Kara praised Allison, saying, "You bring your own spin to everything and you really made that song your own. You just keep getting better and better." Paula called it "another rock solid performance," but wanted Allison to be more "vulnerable" (that's Paula's new buzzword). Simon wrongly told Allison she was a "little bit tuneless in parts" and "verging on precocious," but Randy Jackson only had one, much shorter, much more positive, and much more correct assessment of Allison tonight: "DOPE!"

Little strummer boy Kris Allen went next, also with a Garth Brooks song, but his performance was the polar opposite of Michael's Coyote Ugly-ish Nashvegas attempt. Kris did Garth's ballad "To Make You Feel My Love," surprisingly without his trademark trusty guitar, and while his mellow, stool-seated performance didn't do much for me personally, it certainly went over well with both the judges and the girls in the audience. (Although the latter group probably felt completely crestfallen every time the spotlight glinted off Kris's wedding ring as he clutched the microphone in his left hand; given Simon's anti-spouse comments last week, I'm surprised Simon didn't tell Kris tonight to hide his wedding band in his pocket and apply bronzer to the tanline on his ring finger!)

Kris took Randy Travis's advice not to copy Garth to heart, and I must admit he made the song his own. Paula called Kris's version "honest, pure, and [WAIT FOR IT] vulnerable"; Randy Jackson enjoyed the "tender moments from my dawg Kris"; and Simon made some odd comment about Kris being a "tender puppy" in response to Randy's critique. Simon also called Kris's performance "terrific" and said for the first time this season, he could envision Kris having a real shot in this competition. And that certainly made Kris's big tender-puppy eyes light up...and all around America, girls swooned. I don't really get Kris's appeal, myself, but at this point I can't deny his effect on viewers/voters of the female persuasion.

R&B diva Lil' Rounds sang fourth, but before she performed she freely admitted to Ryan Seacrest that the only country songs she knew were from movies. Funny then, that she sang Martina McBride's "Independence Day," but the song is not from the Will Smith action flick of the same name. Randy Travis expressed skepticism over Rounds' "interesting, ambitious" song choice, as he did with almost every contestant's song choice tonight, but Rounds explained she wanted to honor the week's Grand Ole Opry theme by sticking with a traditional tune and, well, singing it traditionally.

It was a tactic that didn't quite work for her, and she seemed to lose her spark by sticking too close to Martina's original. Rounds explained to the judges that she wanted to giving something new a try and really embrace the country genre, and that she also picked the song because of its "timely" subject matter (about domestic violence--I can only assume she was referring to the whole Chris Brown/Rihanna scandal). Kara praised Rounds for standing her ground; she didn't however, praise Rounds for her singing. All of the judges agreed that Rounds should have stayed true to her Mary J. Blige-influenced soul style, but how was Lil' supposed to do that? MJB never recorded a country song! These critiques were confusing to me.

After that things got more confusing as the judges debated the correct pronunciation of "Lil'" (Simon, proper Englishman that he is, insisted on calling her "LITT-le"), an argument that was even more tiresome than the constant back-and-forth this season over how to enunciate Kara's first name. Finally Lil' just exclaimed, "Simon, it's Lil'!" That shut Simon up for a minute. But not for long, of course.

The judges are a hypocritical and contradictory bunch, of course. So while they lambasted Lil' for not sticking to what she does best and for  going too country this week, they did the opposite with subsequent contestant Adam Lambert, when we went a very non-country route and did what HE does best, which is rock 'n' roll.

There's no pleasing those judges! If a singer stays in his/her genre of expertise, he/she gets criticized. And if he/she sings in a different genre, well...he/she gets criticized. So what DO the judges want? HUH?

Well, I guess some of the judges (who oddly had no issues with Chris Daughtry's rock version of Johnny Cash's "Walk The Line" in season 5) don't want radical reworkings of Cash's "Ring Of Fire," compete with glass-shattering Darkness-style falsettos, slinky Egyptian sitars, and black nail polish--all of which drew the ire of closed-minded killjoy Randy Travis. ("I don't see myself as a country artist, and apparently neither does Randy," Adam shrugged matter-of-factly.)

A very confused Travis seemed to find Adam's off-center Cash cover akin to blasphemy (I think his bewilderment just made him seem like a grumpy, out-of-touch old man); Simon, normally a big Adam supporter, called this performance "indulgent rubbish"; and Kara just found it "a little strange." I personally found it a little awesome. Actually, I found it a LOT awesome. Thankfully Paula, who this season suddenly seems to have grown a spine and learned to stand up for herself a little more often, openly admired Adam's effort, surprisingly astutely comparing his "Ring Of Fire" interpretation to Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir." And Randy Jackson was dead-on when he said Adam's performance brought to mind Nine Inch Nails covering the Man In Black. I was personally proud of Adam (the Boy In Black, as I shall call him for the remainder of this paragraph) for sticking to his guns and doing something original, and I think country bad boy Johnny Cash himself--who in his later years adventurously recorded covers of songs by Beck, Soundgarden, and YES, Nine Inch Nails--would approve of the Boy In Black's rebellious streak, too.  

I'm just hoping that more conservative voters don't take Randy Travis or Simon Cowell's critiques too much to heart, or misconstrue Adam's refusal to do a straightahead country cover as a sign of disrespect for the country genre and its fans. (I'm sure he didn't mean it as such; Adam just wisely knew he'd sound ridiculous trying to impersonate, say, Kenny Chesney.) But maybe I shouldn't worry too much: If for some reason this performance wrongly lands Adam in the bottom tomorrow night, I have a very strong feeling the judges will use their Judges' Save power a little early this season. Simon may not have appreciated what Adam was trying to do tonight, but there's no way he'd let him go home so soon.

Bringing things down several notches in both tempo and excitement was the following singer, Scott McIntyre, a man who's managed to make every song he's performed--including his choice this week, Martina McBride's "Wild Angels"--sound like something by Stephen Bishop or Christopher Cross or Bruce Hornsby, or maybe like an alternate demo version of the theme to The Greatest American Hero. He's so boring that even Ryan Seacrest was distracted while introducing Scott, practically forgetting he was on the air while he gabbed to someone in the crowd about the new Jonas Brothers movie. (Side note: What is UP with the shoddy production levels this season?)

Anyway, "Wild Angels" was yet another puzzling and underwhelming song choice from Scott (true to form, Randy Travis thought it was bad idea but later came around and endorsed it, conveniently all within the space of 30-second mentor video). And while I admired the attention and affection Scott paid to the arrangement, I wish he'd put just as much effort into his subpar vocal. With Scott it's all about the musicianship, which is wonderful and deserving of much respect, but unfortunately this is a SINGING COMPETITION, as the judges like to point out again and again and again. And Scott's singing just isn't so great. Randy Jackson alluded to this tonight, saying he wants "hot, crazy, unbelievable vocals" from Scott, but I'm afraid Randy will never that wish. Scott is almost as vocally impaired as he is visually impaired (yes, you heard me, I said it; you know you were thinking it), and I'm beginning to think he can coast on sympathy votes for only so long. I think he'd be better off forming a Fray-style band, for which he composes and plays the music but lets someone else sing, than going this Idol route.

However, Paula suggested Scott get out from behind his piano once in a while and move around the stage more (if she'd pay closer attention to the group-singalong numbers this season, she'd know that was a bad, bad idea), which Simon said was a "stupid thing to say. What do you expect him to do?" I agreed that Paula's comment was dumb and misguided, but I thought Simon was being unnecessarily vicious, as he has been to Paula all season long. (This perhaps explains Paula's newfound obstinacy lately, and perhaps backs up rumors of her impending exit from the show after this season.) "Stop being disrespectful, Simon," she hissed through gritted teeth, and the two of them bickered like an old, soon-to-be-divorced married couple before Scott finally and sensibly declared, "I won't be dropping the piano any time soon." Although at that point, Paula probably wanted to drop a piano on Simon's head.

Singing next was Alexis Grace with Dolly Parton's "Jolene." That was a song that put Brooke White in the bottom three when she performed it on Dolly Parton Night last season, and Alexis didn't do much better with it tonight, sadly. I initially thought it would be a great choice for Alexis (despite Randy Travis's typical I-have-doubts-no-never-mind-you're-great reaction to it), because the song has a lot of grit and angst to it--after all, it's the plea of a desperate woman about to lose her man. I figured/hoped/assumed Alexis would rock it a la the White Stripes' famous down 'n' dirty version. But no. Instead of being bloozy, she was just snoozy. She sang well, and she certainly worked the camera well (she still looked good, despite her lame cabaret-singer outfit and bad political-wife hairdo tonight), but she delivered the song with no sense of urgency or fear whatsoever, which was so disappointing because she usually brings so much passion to her performances. Kara lamented that Alexis had "lost her edge," although Paula said she enjoyed seeing Alexis's (YES) "vulnerable" side. 

I personally think Adam Lambert could have killed it on this song. Yes, WITH unaltered lyrics. But I suppose hearing Adam beg, "Please don't take my man!" would have given poor, easily spooked Randy Travis a massive coronary. And Idol is probably not insured for stuff like that.

Danny Gokey went next, doing his whole churchy triumph-of-the-spirit shtick with an obvious slam-dunk crowd-pleaser, "Jesus, Take The Wheel" by AmIdol A-lister Carrie Underwood. As usual, everyone gave him a standing ovation and told him he was the best thing since sliced bread. I just found him totally whitebread. Why does everyone like Danny so much? Is it the whole dead-wife thing? (Yes, you heard me, I said it; you know you were thinking it, again.) If so, sure, that is totally tragic, and my heart definitely goes out to Danny for his loss. But if he won American Idol due to sympathy votes, it would be America's loss. Yes, he can sing, but he's not THAT great, people. 

Redeeming himself next was extra wild card Anoop Desai, who was nearly eliminated for the second time this short season, when his somewhat awkward and cheesy cover of Michael Jackson's "Beat It" almost had him moonwalking right off the show for good last week. Tonight he went back to showing his vulnerable side, as Paula might say, choosing to sensitively warble the Willie Nelson tearjerker "Always On My Mind." (And hey, guess what? Randy Travis had his doubts about Anoop doing this song...but then changed his mind! Wow, what are the odds?) Anoop sang the song with class and grace, really showed off his range, and by the end of it Paula was declaring, "ANOOP IS BACK!" She also said something rambly like, "That song fit you like a glove, as opposed to last week when the glove didn't fit you." (Did she mean Jacko's single sequined glove? Or was she quoting Johnnie Cochran?) Simon then loosely quoted Vanilla Ice's cinematic masterpiece Cool As Ice by saying something about how Anoop had gone from "zero to hero," but on a more serious note he then apologized to Anoop for his comment last week about Anoop not deserving to be in the top 13. Simon rarely apologizes--the last time I recall him doing so, it was on the finale last season, to David Cook, RIGHT before Cook won the whole shebang. So Anoop was in good company tonight, for sure.

Also looking to redeeming herself tonight was Megan Caw-Caw-Corkrey, whose bizarre birdcalling performance of "Rockin' Robin" last week also almost resulted in her elimination. Megan had a more difficult time stepping up her game than Anoop did, began she was suffering from a serious bout of the flu that landed her in the hospital earlier this week and kept her from attending today's dress rehearsal. But it didn't keep her from being awesome tonight! I was surprised by how well Megan did on Patsy Cline's "Walkin' After Midnight," considering her poor showing last week and poor health this week. The song was the perfect fit for her (despite Randy Travis's--WAIT FOR IT--initial doubts!), and hot dang, she looked absolutely lovely. I wish I looked that good when I had the flu. Or even when I didn't. "You should have the flu every week," Simon quipped, and after that I wondered if the other contestants were going to start using Megan's toothbrush or asking her to cough in their direction, just so a little bit of her germy magic could rub off on them.

Singing last was Matt Giraud, doing another Carrie Underwood song, "So Small." I much preferred Matt's Carrie cover over Danny's, and I agreed with Simon that Matt "outsang" Danny and delivered one of the best performances of the night. He turned the ballad into a Coldplay/Fray-style piano ballad, and I daresay he even outsang Carrie herself tonight. Kara seemed particularly, um, aroused by Matt's performance, exclaiming, "There ain't nothing small about you!" Yowsa...

And so, now it's prediction time. Who will go home tomorrow? Well, regardless of how well (or unwell) they sang, it's hard to fathom frontrunning faves like Lil', Danny, Adam, or Alexis getting cutting this soon. Allison and Matt were just too good, Michael probably has the country vote locked up after tonight, Kris still has the girly contingent in his corner, and voters will probably rally around comeback kids Anoop and Megan. (Megan coughed a lot, too, to drive home the point that she was illin' and gain some sympathy votes. That tactic will probably work, although all that hacking made me wish Ryan would've slipped her a Ricola already.)

So that leaves Scott McIntyre. Yes, he'll surely get sympathy votes too, but someone's got to go, and after turning in another nicey-nice soundalike performance, I think he's run his course on this show. But I wish him luck with his future band, per my suggestion.

Tune in tomorrow to see if I'm right...and until then, happy St. Patrick's Day! Now go hit your local karaoke joint and host your own informal Thin Lizzy Night.

To my regular readers: Please note that I am headed to Austin for the South By Southwest musicfest tomorrow, so I won't be live-blogging about this week's results show. But do come back later to get my thoughts on who went home, and you can get daily reports on how I'm messing with Texas this weekend in the Maximum Performance blog!