Thursday, March 19, 2009

American Idol: Grand Ole Opry Week.

I'm with Simon, country music doesn't do it for me. Well, I do have a soft spot for the Dixie Chicks, Willie Nelson, early Dolly, and Johnny Cash. But that's it, I swear. In the effort of full disclosure, I should also admit that I love the movie "Coal Miner's Daughter". Since I'm not a fan of the genre, I'm also not all that familiar with the songs that the contestants were singing, save a few. I think that made it hard for me to judge the songs, and explains why I predicted (and hoped) incorrectly that Michael Sarver would be sent packing. Oh well, maybe America will get it right next week.

Michael Sarver - Ain't Goin' Down (Til the Sun Comes Up): Apparently this is a Garth Brooks song. I'm guessing it's a lot better when Garth performs it. This song is the equivalent of Anoop's rendition of "Beat It" last week. It did nothing to show off his vocal range and he really didn't bring anything new to it.

Allison Iraheta - Blame it on Your Heart: Scott was hoping his girl would sing "Ring of Fire", but sadly, it wasn't to be. I enjoyed Allison's performance and I thought she stayed true to her sound but also showed that she can sing country with the best of them. I was surprised that she was in the bottom 3 - America - smarten up!

Kris Allen - To Make You Feel My Love: Another Garth song. Kris has a beautiful, pure, soulful voice. I didn't love the song choice, but again, I'm not familiar with it so I wasn't able to appreciate his interpretation.

Lil Rounds - Independence Day: Hated it as much as I hate the new Facebook layout. She really didn't do herself justice and I agreed with the judges that she would have been better off singing a song like "I Will Always Love You" (Dolly not Whitney).

Adam Lambert - Ring of Fire: I actually called Scott over to watch this with me. We both laughed our asses off at Randy Travis's reaction to Adam's version of this Johnny Cash classic. Scott was hoping Johnny Cash's zombie corpse would suddenly appear and eat Adam's heart right out of his chest as payback for butchering this song. It was so over the top and ridiculous, I was left in awe at the balls on this guy.

Scott MacIntyre - Wild Angels: Another chick song! Will he never learn? I continue to be bored with this guy. I find his voice very bland and he hides behind his piano.

Alexis Grace - Jolene: I think that Alexis's version of this song was all over the place. It is a vocally challenging song and it really doesn't leave a lot of room for interpretation (without turning it into a train wreck). I would have liked to see Alexis sing something grittier, and I guess America agreed.

Danny Gokey - Jesus Take the Wheel: Slow to start, but this guy has great pipes. I think he fell prey to the whole "singing a song by a chick" phenomenon. Let's hope he picks a song that sits better in his voice next week.

Anoop Desai - You're Always On My Mind: Beautiful. Anoop totally redeemed himself with this song. I'll be interested to see what he does next week (will he return to his good time vocals or stay serious and show off his instrument?).

Megan Joy - Walkin' After Midnight: How anyone can not smile when they hear this girl sing, I do not know. Plus she had the flu - amazing. I would have never known, and that is the sign of a true professional. She probably won't win, but I hope she gets signed - I'll buy her cd.

Matt Giraud - So Small: This guy seems kind of vanilla to me. Great piano player, nice voice, but he really doesn't knock my socks off. Again with the singing of chick songs - enough already!!

The highlight of the show for me was Carrie Underwood's hair. I do believe I spotted the first robin of the year building a nest in it. She sounded beautiful, but the hair...it was very distracting. Congrats to her for being inducted into the Grand Ole Opry - nice to see her talent recognized by her peers.

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