Tossing Salt Is American Idol - April 27, 2011

Tossing Salt Is American Idol
April 27, 2011


Back again with my weekly review of America's number one reality show and music competition, American Idol. And then there were six. Last week, it was a travesty and the young latin heartthrob (and my future ex-lover), Stefano, went home. I didn't like it. Will I like this week any better? We'll see tomorrow night when the next elimination is announced.

But that's for tomorrow night. This is all about tonight. Who rocked the house? Who stunk up the house? Who needs to learn how to dress? We got six great singles performances and three very... interesting duets on the show tonight and the competition is extremely tight. The theme for the night was "The Songs Of Carole King". Wow! She's an amazing songwriter / singer with a career that dates back to the early sixties and based on her recent performances with James Taylor, she has no intentions of slowing down anytime soon. I was actually surprised to learn just how many songs she's responsible for in her career. She's an icon, to be sure. And the Idol contestants are paying her homage tonight... a tribute very well deserved.

Jacob Lusk started off the show with his cover of the song, "Oh No, Not My Baby". First off, who dressed this guy? Blue and yellow? I could make a joke here about how someone who's that far in the closet should have better fashion sense, but I won't go there. Ooops! Too late! I already did. My bad!

The performance was okay, but nothing special. Jacob moved around a lot and looked to be having fun up there, and that counts for something. And I did like that extended, long note in the middle. That was pretty cool. But aside from that one part, it just wasn't very memorable to me, neither the song nor the performance. The man has some vocal skills. There is no doubt about that, but I don't think he blew anyone away with that performance tonight. If he did, I just don't see it.

Next up was the lovely Lauren Alaina. I have to comment on Miley Cyrus making an appearance and giving Lauren a pep talk. That was cool Miley isn't everyone's favorite performer or person. Even I, one of the biggest Hannah Montana fans around (yes, I admit it - I love me some Hannah, Lily, Jackson and Robby Ray), was a little burnt out on her towards the end of the run of her show. But she gave good advice to Lauren and showed some good humor about producer Jimmy Irvine's comments about how Lauren's voice was better than Miley's a few weeks ago.

Now, back to Lauren. She peformed the song, "Where You Lead" and well... her voice was strong and as J-Lo commented, she did show a little swagger up there. And despite one moment where her voice cracked a bit trying to hit a high note, she gave a very solid performance. But the song was kind of boring and bland. She did well singing it, but when the most memorable part of the perfomance was bringing a guy from the audience on to the stage with her instead of the actual singing, that's not a good sign. She's got a strong future ahead of her in country music. I have no doubt about that, but if she's going to win Idol, or even remain past this week, she needs to really pick it up and kick some booty.

Now comes our first duet of the night as Haley and Casey got together to growl out a version of "I Feel The Earth Move". They were having fun up there and the song got better as it went along. It didn't really sound like their voices were blending together much on the duet parts, but in their solo parts, both Haley and Casey rocked it. It was a fun performance.

Scotty McCreery came up next and went with a cover of "You've Got A Friend". And damn it boy, he nailed it. The audience went crazy and I'm sure that all the little girls at home watching on their TV sets went crazy too. It was one of Scotty's strongest performances to date and possibly the best of the night. Great job by the North Carolina native.

And here comes James Durbin, the rocker of the Idol crowd. He slowed things down a bit and after going all out with a tremendous stage performance last week, kept things very simple with just he and his guitar as he covered "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow".

J-Lo called it "magical" and the "star of the night". And Randy Jackson made the prediction that James will be the next American Idol. And with consistent performances like he did tonight and every night thus far, I see no reason to disagree. I'm not sure if it was the best performance of the night, but it was damn good. James is damn good and he's going to go far, both on Idol and in the music industry in general. Great job by Mr. Durbin.

It's duet time again as Scotty and Lauren paired up for their third duet of the season to sing "Up On The Roof", which was a big hit for the Drifters. And it was okay. Lauren's voice was strong and Scotty just seemed to be kept in her shadow for this song. She was drowning him out more often than not. Usually, these two have great chemistry and work well together, but this just wasn't really what I'd call a great outing for the two as a duo.

Casey Abrams was up next with, what I thought was a very unique and magical performance, doing his version of a song made famous by Blood, Sweat & Tears called "Hi-De-Ho". It was jazzy and had all of the brass instruments playing. I loved it. It's not mainstream, but then again, there is very little about Casey that is mainstream America. He's got that mixture of jazz and blues and just his quirky little ways that set him apart. He's such a natural perfomer and entertainer up there on that stage. I don't know if America will get it, but I certainly do. Casey Abrams is definitely a star in the making.

And for our final solo act of the night, we get the always lovely Haley Renihart doing the song, "Beautiful". And I don't know. Haley did a good job with the song and her voice was strong. But the performance, especially after watching the showmanship of Casey immediately before, was just kind of boring. It's hard to describe here. I love her voice and she's gotten so much better on stage over the past few weeks, but it was just sort of a "cookie cutter" sort of night for Haley. She didn't show anything new or different. She was just kind of there. I'm not faulting her voice or disputing her talent. The lady has a great voice and can really bring it. She just didn't do it for me tonight.

And to close the show, we get a duet of a song made famous by the great Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits fame, and featured in the Naked Gun movies quite prominently as well, "I'm Into Something Good." I did not know Carole King wrote this song. My respect for her just increased ten-fold. I love this song.

And singing it were the unlikely duo of Jacob and James. And were they great? Not really, but they had energy and it was obvious they were having a lot of fun up there performing. And poor J-Lo. First Casey kissed her last week and now, this week, she gets sexually harassed by James and Jacob. I think she was blushing there at the end. It was a fun way to end the show. And wow - James and Jacob trying to out-do each other on the high notes at the end. That was great. And James won!

And that's Idol for this week, which leads us to the all important question, who will be in the bottom three tomorrow night? And even more importantly, who is going home?

It's hard to make a choice about who belongs in the bottom three. No one made any really big mistakes tonight and even though some of the performances weren't really my cup of tea and came across, in my opinion, as kind of boring, things are so tight and close now that there are no real losers. Everyone seems to be bringing out their A-games.

But there has to be a bottom three and my picks for the bottom three tomorrow night are: Jacob Lusk, Lauren Alaina and (damn, I hate to say this - don't want to jinx him but...) Casey Abrams

I really hate to put Casey up there because he is so talented and, after James, probably the most polished on-stage performer left at this point. But not everyone will get his style and music. He might be just a little too far out there and unique for his own good. I don't want him in the bottom three, but the voting this year has been weird and those are the three that I think will fill those stools tomorrow night on Fox.

And then the big question... Who is going home? It's between Lauren and Jacob because while I think Casey will be in the bottom three, he won't be at the very bottom. I know who, of the two left, I'd prefer to see go home. And it's coming. But I don't think it will be this week.

Tommorow night, Lauren Alaina is going home.

And there you go. Am I correct? Am I crazy? Agree or disagree with my assessments of the Idol performances. Let me know. We'll find out the results tomorrow night n Fox.

And on that, I'm Doug and I am out of here. Take care and thanks for reading.

Ubuntu!