Thursday, January 27, 2011

American Idol Season 10, Episode 4 -- Nashville

Well, with the auditions coming to the town known as Music City, USA, we should expect some good talent tonight.  Of course, as it's also known as the home of the Grand Ole Opry, we could be getting a heavy dose of country music sangers.  And, now that we have three prior episodes on which to base our expectations, we may assume there will be some sexual banter between Steven Tyler and a few of the contestants, Randy Jackson will be relatively useless, and Jennifer Lopez will glow like the bronze goddess she is.

Chelsee Oaks and Rob Bolin are up first together, though apart.  They are exes and former duet partners who are trying out separately for American Idol.  The judges first try to play Dr. Phil and get them to patch things up which Rob is all for, Chelsee, not so much (and Chelsee's boyfriend standing outside is even more opposed to their rekindling their relationship).  They sing To Love Somebody together and they sound like they were meant to sing -- and be -- together.  Is there a marital therapist on staff?

Then Rob sings, amazingly well.  Great raw, rough vocals, terrific recording voice.  Chelsee sings well, too, though not as well as Rob.   But they both are going to Hollywood.  Is this the start of a new RomCom, maybe they'll pair up during Hollywood group performance round, sit side by side in Room 1 awaiting their fate, and the camera pans in as they realize they were meant to be together?  I've seen too many cheesy movies!


Some biker dude who may or may not be a racist (vanilla, chocolate?) sings Skynyrd (shocker) very badly (another shocker).  He makes the judges laugh, so that's not all bad.  Turns out, he's a cool guy who you'd be happy to have on stage belting it out while you were on your fifth shot of Jack -- but not on your TV when you're stone sober.

Next up is Miss Teen USA 2009 Stormi Henley.  She wants to see how far she makes it on her talent.  So that's why she shows up in a super short flirty skirt with a plunging neckline and cute cowboy boots.  In fairness, though, she did not glam up like a pageant girl, and looks like she should wear a cowboy hat, not a tiara.  She sings Father Can You Hear Me.  She has a nice though not amazing voice.  It has an interesting sound to it and she could easily be the next Kellie Pickler (assuming we need another).  JLo thinks she doesn't have enough power to her voice and votes no, leaving it up to the guys to decide if the young, attractive girl should move on.  I think you can guess what happens next.


Short parade of no's, then Adrienne Beasley is up.  She's a farm girl, African American adopted by white parents.  She sounds like a farm girl, strong twangy country voice.  She doesn't over-sing and she has a nice gently raspy tone to her voice, also a nice little country cry.  But  no reason to cry, she's going to Hollywood with three votes!  Not so fast, Daddy asks her who's going to pay for her trip to California.  Hope he was kidding!


Kameela Merricks has been singing and winning competitions forever, she tells us.  She's small, not Snooki small, but much smaller than the loud, painfully loud, sounds that come out of her.  As if that wasn't bad enough (and, really, it was) we get a bunch more bad singers.  It's AI version of how low can you go, and they're scraping the bottom of the talent barrel.

So when's the reprieve?  It comes in the mini-jeans skirt wearing Jackie Wilson.  She's another twanger, but again, I have to give her props.  She has a pretty nice voice.  She needs to control it and not let it get away from her.  But she has promise. 


Next up is LaToya "Younique" Moore who tells us she's a star and that she glows.  She wears a pageant dress and brings in "her CD" for the judges.  She sings about breaking down and crying, which is what I'm doing listening to her voice.  The song is, I think, called When I Close My Eyes and it makes me wish I could shut my ears.  Wait, there's a mute button.  Ahh, this is better. 

A few good singers in a row.  The last one, Danny Pale, I particularly liked.


Now it's time for tonight's feel good story.  Matt Dillard is a southern boy with a family that has a huge heart.  They have taken in hundreds of foster kids.  Sweet.  He has a really interesting sound, even if he did sing a little high in his register.  I liked the tone of his voice and how he put his own spin on the Josh Grobin You Raise Me Up.  But I want to grab a razor and save his face!


Okay, another sad backstory, a girl who's cousin is battling a brain tumor.  Lauren Alaina sings and at first, it's not working for me.  I don't like the breathiness and the breaks as she sings.  It's like listening to music while driving through a tunnel.  Of course, it's the judges' favorite performance of the day!  It just made me want to send her an albuterol puffer.  I was due to get one wrong today, so apparently Lauren's the one.  Wait, she sings again, an Aerosmith song, and now I can hear what they're talking about.  She sounds awesome!  So apparently I like this girl -- I just don't like country music.  News flash!


That's it for Nashville.  Who did you like?

10 comments:

  1. Best moment of the night for me - when Steven Tyler turned to Randy and said "Don't tell people they're not good". I love him as a judge. Even his occasional dirty old man comments are hilarious.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Karen Smith from HillsboroJanuary 27, 2011 at 7:23 PM

    Shari, we're going to get you to jump aboard the bandwagon yet, girl. (Or should I say "haywagon"?) You're just sooooo close to that country vibe. Lauren...all the way. And I love the judges.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lauren was the best. She sounded awesome. I could not believe she was only 15. The first two, Chelsee and Rob, were also great. I thought Rob was better too. I was secretly hoping Casey was going to pop up on screen for a 5 second chat with Ryan about life in Nashville, but that was just me right?

    ReplyDelete
  4. lauren was my favorite.didnt seem to be alotta talent in nashville.but she really stood out.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to see these great contestants! I have to miss AI cuz of work pretty often. I liked most of these singers, but the stand out for me was Adrienne!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ok so I just watched the DVR'd Nashville auditions. The adopted farm girl was my favorite. Couldn't stand the first ex's audition though. SOOO scripted. I just am so tired of any of the bad auditions. Fast forward...dang! I would rather see the people who can sing & don't make it. Why don't they show those? You know there's plenty of great voices who just don't make the "casting call". Not sure about the big lug farm guy, really? I think with a stylist he could clean up, but we'll see. I think I could smell him through the TV, I kid I kid.
    So I really am digging Steven. A bit perverted at times, but seem to really be into it.
    Anyway great recap from ya!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Still no Casey's or Adam's for me...Praying for a miracle! Well said AGAIN, Shari!Hopefully this post will end up in the right place...lol

    ReplyDelete
  8. PS. Love Paul McDonald...sounds like Rod Stewart who I also love!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Steven and Jlo are both good and they take the job seriously, they are also genuinely nice to the contestants and not behaving for the camera. Nice change from Simon who was always bored and barely listening to the contestants. Randy is almost invisible which is a good thing since his vocabulary is so limited.
    - I love how Jennifer hates saying no, I really like how girlie she is, fame has not changed her she is refreshingly honest and very sweet
    - Steven Tyler is even weirder than I thought but he is a good judge though, he just needs to tone down the sexual innuendo on 16 year olds.

    - At least there was a lot less of the bad contestants, but still too much for me, Why did they not show some of the contestant's auditions (very unfair), and are still doing extended special stories on some, they are trying to influence people again. Lots of fast forwarding of the bad auditions for me.
    - Quite a few of the people who went through sounded bad to me, oh right, so did Lee who won last year!
    As for the contestants:

    - Last week I liked:
    Robin Rosen the 16 year old who sang Yesterday he reminded me of Anoop Desai,
    Melinda Ademi who sang if I ain't got you
    Brielle Von Hugel who sang endless love
    Jordan Dorsey the piano teacher who sang over the rainbow
    Jacqueline Dupree who sang I'll stand by you
    Jacee Badeaux, the 15 year old boy who sang sitting on the dock of the bay
    - This week I really liked Jerome Bell who sang let's get it on and Molly the harvard/white house intern and Chris medina the one with the fiancee in the wheelchair, E and AH both did and extended version of it. I just hope the AI producers don't exploit it and turn it against him like they did with Dany Gokey.
    I loved the duo of exes, they are probably my favorite so far, they sounded amazing together. I really liked Roger Dangerfield, the clay aiken lookalike with the glasses, he was awesome. Lauren the 15 year old was very Carrie Underwood like, she is good but she is only 15 and after Katie Stevens blew me away in her audition and went on to be very lackluster I'm no longer betting on teens, we'll see how she does with the pressure of live performance. Lauren is sure to make the top 10 because the producers just told us that she deserves it, she'll get the pimp spot and all and Tyler even called her the one! It's AI manipulation 101, from the audition rounds you can tell who are the ones the producers want in the top 10, they have a backstory you can't forget and a long segment so you don't forget their names, then there are people who are there for the entertainment or to be ridiculed, but sometimes that works to their advantage like for Casey who was supposed to be the guy who stripped and nothing more.
    People who get no air time during the audition rounds have to be awesome once they reach the top 24 to make up for it, like Jason Castro and Brooke White and Casey were.
    I'm just hoping for no Lee this year, enough of people who can’t carry a tune and get overhyped. How does 100,000 copies sound to you AI producers?
    But no one has blown me away yet, hopefully there's more to come.
    At least it promises to not be a snooze fest and Simon who?

    ReplyDelete
  10. wow Khady you must have taken notes.i'm just relying on memory,and i can't remember not one person on the 1st or 2nd.show.but i remember lauren from the other day and molly.lauren will definitely be in the top 10.oh by the way i'm so excited for casey with his tour with sugarland.you know he'll still the show just like he did with the amer.idol tour.

    ReplyDelete