Oh, man, I thought for sure Country Night would bring
out some really good performances. After last week's
lacklaster 21st century songs it looked like a sure
winner. Unfortunately, nobody really stepped up - not
even the so-called country kids, Kellie and Bucky.
Kenny Rogers was the guest host and he actually did a
pretty good job of trying to get the kids to put some
life into the songs. He particularly focused on
trying to make them understand that the words and the
story must be clear to the audience or you'll lose
their interest. He looked odd - pretty thin and very
white and not quite like himself - but he's getting
older and I haven't seen him for awhile. He sounded
just the same.
So, here goes:
Oh, one more thing I have to say: Ryan has a beard.
It's past the 5:00 shadow stage and is noticeably
beardy. Shave it off, Ryan.
Taylor: Taylor started things off with John Denver's
"Take Me Home, Country Roads". He was bleh, meh, who
cares. I think he just thought he'd breeze through it
and it showed. Karaoke, anyone? Taylor played it
safe. Good thing: Again he just sang the song
without the goofy mannerisms. Bad thing: boring
choice for him. When John Denver sang "Country
Roads", it soared under his clear tenor and gave me
goosebumps every time I heard it.
Mandisa: In a way, I had to admire her choice of
Shania Twain's "Any Man of Mine" because it's a really
hard song to remember the words to, but it didn't
really work for her. She was a bit rocky in the start
but finished it well, after she got about halfway
through. It was just OK. She would have been better
served to have picked Patsy Cline.
Here's what follows after the judges take care of
Mandisa: Simon and Ryan get into it like they always
do, then Simon hits him with "At least I'm not trying
to look like someone at Desperate Housewives!" Dig at
Ryan regarding the beard, Teri Hatcher and whatever's
going on there....funny stuff. It certainly shut Ryan
up. I'll have to Google to see what's going on.
Elliott: Elliott sang Garth Brooks' "If Tomorrow
Never Comes", which is a very cool song. Poor Elliott
looked like he was afraid of it or something - he
clutched the mic like a scared mouse and hesitated and
wobbled his way through the song. I'm not sure what
was going on with him but he lost all confidence. Why
was he so nervous? He still did an OK job.
Paris: Each week Paris puts another nail in the hate
coffin. She sang Trisha Yearwood's (and LeAnn Rimes,
and Season 2(?) Carmen, and about a gazillion other
girl singers) "How Do I Live Without You?" I know
she picked it because it's a power ballad but I'm so
tired of it - she was hesitant with the song at first
but it picked up steam about halfway through (the
power parts. duh.) It was a good choice for Paris in
the respect of being a power ballad but it was a
horrible choice because SO MANY people have sung it
BETTER. I'd put her in the bottom three this week.
Ace: Good God, it's time for Ace to go away. It's
not that he was terrible on Keith Urban's "Tonight I
Want to Cry" but he was so blah and boring. He sang
it quiet, emotional and a bit whispery in places and
ended on his falsetto (hate!) which Randy, of course,
loved. It was OK, but not memorable.
Kellie: Crap, Kellie picked one of my hate-button
songs. I can't listen objectively to "Fancy" because
I think it's awful. I like Reba McIntyre but even she
can't make me like "Fancy." So, ignoring the words, I
just listened to Kellie and she did OK. I was hoping
that with an entire genre of songs to pick from, she
would pick a classic song to showcase her style.
Hated "Fancy", Kellie was OK but damn she could have
done so much better with a different song.
Chris: I was wondering what Chris would pick to sing
this week. As it turned out, he abandoned his
alt-rock persona for a week and went for the straight
country and dude pulled it off. He chose Keith
Urban's "Making Memories of Us" and was excellent.
The thing I like best about Chris is the TONE of his
voice, and it turns out that it's ideally suited for
progressive country. I liked it very much. He thinks
he's a bad ole rock star, but I have to say he's a
much better country singer than he thinks he is.
Katharine: Boo. Boo. I like Kat very much but I was
SO disappointed with her song choice! Kat could have
sung anything and it would have been better - she
could have chosen any song out of the Faith Hill
catalog and been great. Except for this one -
"Bringing out the Elvis in Me" is a one-woman song and
no one else should try to sing it. It's an awfully
weird song and just doesn't work for anyone but Faith.
Kat: Don't ever sing it again!!!! Nobody ever sing
it again! Remove it from the AI catalog! You think
I'm kidding? I'm not kidding!
Best thing at Kat's performance came afterwards when
she made Simon admit out loud that he hates country
music. "Go ahead, Simon, just say it," she said. hee
Ryan then admonished Simon to remember he's judging
"The Singers. Not the Song".
Bucky!: Bucky! sang "The Best I Ever Had" which I
know Vertical Horizen sang but did a more country act?
I'm not sure. It's one of those songs that I don't
hear often, and kind of forget about in between.
Bucky sang it great, he made a good effort to
enunciate (thanks, Kenny!) and the song has a pretty
melody that suited his voice. I particularly liked
that it was a quieter song than his usual choice, and
he didn't do any jumping around and "dancing" on the
stage. I actually thought he was about the best
singer tonight. Go, Bucky!
Bottom three: Ace, Katharine, Paris
(although I like Bucky! I'm well aware that he could
be in the bottom three any night, but I'm not picking
him)
Should go: Ace
We'll see what happens tomorrow night.
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