The grand old duke of york was never quite this odd...Opry has him beat.
And in the strangest move ever conceived by ITV2 they will be screening the second half of the performances tomorrow with the results. Of course, that makes this easier for me as I only have to write about 5 performances as opposed to 11, something you’ll all be grateful for as I’m pretty sure by the time I finish this it’s going to be past midnight. Not that I’m not coherent after midnight, some of my better ideas happen after midnight, but they’re not usually fulfilled with better grammar. So Michael Sarver, Allison Iraheta, Kris Allen, Lil’ Rounds and Adam Lambert come on down.
As you all know this week it was Grand Ole Opry night; and to make it clear how out of my depth I am here I’ve just had to look up how to spell that. Country music is not something that has travelled to the UK; it would be a bit like the UK garage scene trying to make it in Oklahoma. Sure we’ve had Johnny Cash, a few Shania Twain songs, the goddess that is Dolly Parton, and that one LeAnne Rimes song that was played repeatedly, was endlessly depressing and asked how she would live without someone if they left. Country music is, as far as I’m aware, all about standing by your man, leaving your man, loving your man, and, where The Dixie Chicks are concerned, killing your man. So you can imagine my excitement at the prospect of an entire evening of the stuff. And so I thank the powers that be for Kris Allen and Adam Lambert. But that would be to jump ahead, that wouldn’t be organised, and I’m all about the organised, so we’re going to take this in the order they sang.
Oh, and although I’ve not yet seen the final 6 contestants or the results show I have heard who has been voted out, I’m not gong to pretend I haven’t and make a prediction or anything, but I’m going to try and write these without that influencing my ideas about the contestants.
Michael:
In Michael’s video we learnt that his song has lots of lyrics. LOTS of lyrics!!! We’re talking Bob Dylan circa ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’. I have been reliably informed, thank you wikipedia, that the song he’s singing is ‘Ain’t Goin’ Down (‘Til the Sun Comes Up)’ by Garth Brooks. Not that I would have known that, or even been able to figure that out, because that would indicate that I was able to understand a word he just sung. But I realise that it’s not aimed at me. I lived in Arkansas for a year and although I can now understand the accent without looking people in the face when they talk understanding singing in the accent is still WAY out of my aural ability. But Randy Travis seemed to really like it, and him, so I’m going to bow to his far greater knowledge.
His performance was hindered by the fact that he always looks uncomfortable. In his week during the final 36 I put it down to nerves and I let him be. But now, although it could still easily be nerves, it is something he needs to get a grip on. I don’t like the harmonica, I own one and it stayed in my box with my hair-bands for years but I don’t like it. The Blues Brothers can pull it off, Dylan would sound weird without it, but everyone else should leave it alone. It’s an instrument that works in folk songs and the occasional blues song, but when the rest of the band isn’t visible and all you have is one guy sat on the corner of the stage playing the harmonica twice as loud as everything else it’s just a little odd. However, when Michael was sat next to him on the stairs it was the one point throughout that he looked comfortable being up there.
One big point in Michael’s favour for me was his reaction to the judges, Simon in particular. Sometimes I think talking back can make you look like a jackass but he was right, country music fans will have understood what he was singing. Simon is a middle class English boy whose mother lives a village away from me. You can only understand, linguistically, what you’ve been taught; I don’t understand the lyrics of J-Pop but it doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy the music, I simply don’t speak Japanese. But the music isn’t aimed at me, just as country music isn’t. It’s a different language, the words may be, on the surface, mostly the same, but it’s for a completely different audience. And I think by now that Simon’s been in America long enough to realise this. You don’t move to another country and then piss on their culture, which for a whole hell of a lot of the States country music is. So I say go Michael, you talk back to Simon, just do it politely otherwise he’ll never get past it. Don’t let yourself be trodden on for doing something like singing a song which is, to some ears, completely incomprehensible; after all, it didn’t do Hanson any harm.
Allison:
So the kid took ‘Blame It On Your Heart’ by Patty Loveless. Once again I had never heard this song before, in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever heard any Patty Loveless song before.
I noticed that Randy Travis pointed out the wisdom and grown up qualities in Allison’s voice. And I can’t fault him there, the vocal precision she has, the “I’ve lived life through a bottle” tone is phenomenal. But with Allison you come up against the same problems you get with Joss Stone, it doesn’t matter how good the voice is if the emotion behind it is absent. Life needs to be lead before you can feel what you’re singing. And as country music is, according to Xander Harris, the ‘music of pain’ (which I’m guessing is a little like the music of the night) then life needs to have been lived at least slightly before you can grasp the true meanings of the songs.
Don’t get me wrong, I really hope that Allison hasn’t lived life yet, hasn’t experienced all the shit and joy that comes hand in hand. To have lived enough to have loved enough to be as pissed off as that song is you need a bit of experience. Just like Joss Stone will NEVER understand the true feelings behind the lyrics she sings, the true pain the original blues women went through, so Allison Iraheta doesn’t understand the joy of the broken heart. That you can be that mad at someone because, intentional or not, they fucking stomped on your heart and your head because you were dumb enough to put yourself in that position in the first place. Just as she won’t yet understand that even through all the hurt you’d do it again in a heartbeat.
And that’s good, let her be a child, but then don’t ask her to sing like an adult. Yes she sang it well, she knocked the ass off of the vocals, but she can do that with anything. But to be more than just another voice, to be an artist that people will remember she has to bring more than just good pitch and tone. Janis Joplin meant it when she sang ‘I Can’t Stand the Rain’ and that’s why we’re still listening to it all these years later. It wasn’t her song, it was written by Ann Peebles who sang a rendition of it I urge you all to go hunt out, but she lived it so we love it.
But Allison is safe for several weeks yet. I was so sure about her place in the final last week, but she’s going to need to show that she can shake it up and be more than just a great voice. Kelly Clarkson has something else, some quality, Leona Lewis was boring as hell off stage but brought a luminescence to it with her singing, David Cook…well I love David Cook’s ‘Light On’ and his performances on the show…well once again there was just something there. Allison needs to bring that something to place her up there with certain contestants. Of course, she has enough talent in her to give her the time to find what that is and bring it. She found it for ‘Alone’, let’s just hope she can get it again.
Kris Allen:
Oh Kris Kris Kris. I have no idea what ‘Make You Feel My Love’ normally sounds like but you made it sincere and sweet and, through all the boyband sitting on a stool and singing softly, it sounded genuine.
His video showed a rehearsal process in which he practiced the song with his guitar. The idea of him playing his guitar and practicing his song for the week makes me happy. It’s an affirmation of serious intent, something which could be seen as lacking from someone who comes across so relaxed. No, not Jason Castro relaxed, but outside of certain social circles I’ve rarely seen anyone quite that relaxed. But we want our idols to take this show seriously, we want to see the effort they put in, we don’t want this to be too easy because if it is how do we know they’re trying at all? So the guitar was a lovely touch, plus, it showed that he didn’t just use the instrument to gain him the ‘I’m a real musician’ points.
I think he made the right choices performance wise, the only way he could have improved it would have been to stand at a mike stand, it would have been slightly less lounge-singer-esque (I never like stools). But all in all I agree with the judges. He did the right thing. He showed for the first time that he could be a contender. And here I was thinking he was just a pretty face. OK, so the performance wasn’t anything inspired, but during a long concert of singing, dancing, guitar playing, don’t you just love it when your favourite pop artist puts it all away and just sings for once. Take That put on phenomenal concerts but when they pull it all back and let loose on ‘Wait for Life’ they bring the house down, hell, even Linkin’ Park rein it in for ‘My December’. People like it to slow down every once in a while, and Kris just proved that he trusts his voice enough to do that…and now so do we.
Lil’ Rounds:
Ignoring that whole kafuffle at the end with her name this really wasn’t that great. Part of me loves that she tried something different, that she didn’t let them stick her in her box and stay there. However, I kinda wish that she’d made that decision for a week when she actually liked the music. I love that she did it because she wanted to be respectful, but I wish it had been out of passion. And I can’t help but hate the way she relented in the end and agreed to never try something new ever again. Surely the whole point of having different weeks is to see if you can make any genre your own? Not just to sing the same type of song over and over again.
I am glad as anything that she didn’t sing ‘I Will Always Love You’ because she would have Whitney’d it and I could quite happily never hear anyone do that ever again. It’s a pretty song but that woman over cooked it by about half an hour.
You know what, I really find it hard to write about Lil’. There’s just nothing interesting about her to me. Yes, she has a good voice in that generic powerful singer way. She’s an absolutely stunning woman and tonight she looked gorgeous. But the song was dull. I have no idea if the original is that boring but this was just blah. Where she pulled off last week, this week she was completely forgettable. I think she’ll make the top 6, maybe top 5, but much further than that? I think she’s just going to have to bring something else to the table and I’m not sure she has it.
Adam:
Firstly let me say I was watching this ready to cringe. I was preparing myself throughout the video package and interview. Adam comes across as a nice guy, genuinely someone I would hang out with happily. He’s always polite, even if sometimes you can see an inner thought process going on behind his eyes, and he’s unfailing honest about everything he’s being given leeway to be honest about; and let’s just see as the weeks progress how much that is. He’s admitted that one of the reasons he wanted to go to Hollywood was to get a fantastic house. He’s not denying the fact that on stage, he’s a massive diva. All this endears him to me.
I thought it was wrong of Ryan to attempt to stir up more confrontation than there was in the meeting between him and Randy Travis. Yes, I’m sure that under normal circumstances even if they’d found themselves with occasion to be in the same room they’d never have held a conversation. But I thought that, with an eye to the viewing public, they both stayed the right side of civil and polite. No, Travis didn’t have the nice things to say about the performance that he had about the others but to give him his dues Adam didn’t exactly play fair when it came to…well….expectations. There was no way in hell Travis could have, under any circumstance, expected what was placed in front of him, and I don’t mean the person, I mean the song arrangement.
The song came alive with the performance. The lighting, the stage and the audience all added to it. The vocal talent and control behind it surpass by a clear mile everything else I’ve seen tonight, keeping in mind that’s only half the contestants. The control he showed over those notes was astounding. But let’s face it, the vocals were the least interesting thing about this entire performance. I admire Adam no end for repeatedly refusing to be anything other than who he is. I’ve said before that he’s portraying a version of himself and I still stick to this but that version is unchanged. From the moment he sang Cher during Hollywood week it was a statement of what was to come; following it up with The Stones only added to that. What we got tonight was a combination of the two. I can’t believe I’m going to say this but I agree with Randy (Jackson), it was a little Nine Inch Nails. I understand that he only came by that reference due to Cash’s cover of ‘Hurt’ but Trent Reznor couldn’t have produced a more over the top, industrial-rock version if he’d tried, and oh how I wish he’d tried, he could have put it on ‘The Fragile’ just after ‘The Great Below’.
I know people were hoping for Adam to go with Dolly Parton, to not “bottle out and choose a Cash song” but I think taking this song and performing it this way was braver than anything he could have done with a Dolly song. This wasn’t just a performance; this was a political and social statement. There are only so many ways you can take the lyric “I fell into a burning ring of fire” and pretty much every single last one of them was covered here. This was taking the Man in Black, taking one of the most masculine songs ever released, and making him almost avant garde. This was performance art. And I loved every single second of it. I still do not believe he can win, go all the way to the top 5 yes, possibly even the final, but win….I’m just not so sure; however, I don’t believe not winning would affect his chance at a career at all.
And that’s all I have. I’m all out of contestants, nearly out of vowels and completely out of day. Tomorrow we tackle Gokey, Alexis, Anoop, Scott, Matt and Megan; well I might split them into two groups. Night.
As you all know this week it was Grand Ole Opry night; and to make it clear how out of my depth I am here I’ve just had to look up how to spell that. Country music is not something that has travelled to the UK; it would be a bit like the UK garage scene trying to make it in Oklahoma. Sure we’ve had Johnny Cash, a few Shania Twain songs, the goddess that is Dolly Parton, and that one LeAnne Rimes song that was played repeatedly, was endlessly depressing and asked how she would live without someone if they left. Country music is, as far as I’m aware, all about standing by your man, leaving your man, loving your man, and, where The Dixie Chicks are concerned, killing your man. So you can imagine my excitement at the prospect of an entire evening of the stuff. And so I thank the powers that be for Kris Allen and Adam Lambert. But that would be to jump ahead, that wouldn’t be organised, and I’m all about the organised, so we’re going to take this in the order they sang.
Oh, and although I’ve not yet seen the final 6 contestants or the results show I have heard who has been voted out, I’m not gong to pretend I haven’t and make a prediction or anything, but I’m going to try and write these without that influencing my ideas about the contestants.
Michael:
In Michael’s video we learnt that his song has lots of lyrics. LOTS of lyrics!!! We’re talking Bob Dylan circa ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’. I have been reliably informed, thank you wikipedia, that the song he’s singing is ‘Ain’t Goin’ Down (‘Til the Sun Comes Up)’ by Garth Brooks. Not that I would have known that, or even been able to figure that out, because that would indicate that I was able to understand a word he just sung. But I realise that it’s not aimed at me. I lived in Arkansas for a year and although I can now understand the accent without looking people in the face when they talk understanding singing in the accent is still WAY out of my aural ability. But Randy Travis seemed to really like it, and him, so I’m going to bow to his far greater knowledge.
His performance was hindered by the fact that he always looks uncomfortable. In his week during the final 36 I put it down to nerves and I let him be. But now, although it could still easily be nerves, it is something he needs to get a grip on. I don’t like the harmonica, I own one and it stayed in my box with my hair-bands for years but I don’t like it. The Blues Brothers can pull it off, Dylan would sound weird without it, but everyone else should leave it alone. It’s an instrument that works in folk songs and the occasional blues song, but when the rest of the band isn’t visible and all you have is one guy sat on the corner of the stage playing the harmonica twice as loud as everything else it’s just a little odd. However, when Michael was sat next to him on the stairs it was the one point throughout that he looked comfortable being up there.
One big point in Michael’s favour for me was his reaction to the judges, Simon in particular. Sometimes I think talking back can make you look like a jackass but he was right, country music fans will have understood what he was singing. Simon is a middle class English boy whose mother lives a village away from me. You can only understand, linguistically, what you’ve been taught; I don’t understand the lyrics of J-Pop but it doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy the music, I simply don’t speak Japanese. But the music isn’t aimed at me, just as country music isn’t. It’s a different language, the words may be, on the surface, mostly the same, but it’s for a completely different audience. And I think by now that Simon’s been in America long enough to realise this. You don’t move to another country and then piss on their culture, which for a whole hell of a lot of the States country music is. So I say go Michael, you talk back to Simon, just do it politely otherwise he’ll never get past it. Don’t let yourself be trodden on for doing something like singing a song which is, to some ears, completely incomprehensible; after all, it didn’t do Hanson any harm.
Allison:
So the kid took ‘Blame It On Your Heart’ by Patty Loveless. Once again I had never heard this song before, in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever heard any Patty Loveless song before.
I noticed that Randy Travis pointed out the wisdom and grown up qualities in Allison’s voice. And I can’t fault him there, the vocal precision she has, the “I’ve lived life through a bottle” tone is phenomenal. But with Allison you come up against the same problems you get with Joss Stone, it doesn’t matter how good the voice is if the emotion behind it is absent. Life needs to be lead before you can feel what you’re singing. And as country music is, according to Xander Harris, the ‘music of pain’ (which I’m guessing is a little like the music of the night) then life needs to have been lived at least slightly before you can grasp the true meanings of the songs.
Don’t get me wrong, I really hope that Allison hasn’t lived life yet, hasn’t experienced all the shit and joy that comes hand in hand. To have lived enough to have loved enough to be as pissed off as that song is you need a bit of experience. Just like Joss Stone will NEVER understand the true feelings behind the lyrics she sings, the true pain the original blues women went through, so Allison Iraheta doesn’t understand the joy of the broken heart. That you can be that mad at someone because, intentional or not, they fucking stomped on your heart and your head because you were dumb enough to put yourself in that position in the first place. Just as she won’t yet understand that even through all the hurt you’d do it again in a heartbeat.
And that’s good, let her be a child, but then don’t ask her to sing like an adult. Yes she sang it well, she knocked the ass off of the vocals, but she can do that with anything. But to be more than just another voice, to be an artist that people will remember she has to bring more than just good pitch and tone. Janis Joplin meant it when she sang ‘I Can’t Stand the Rain’ and that’s why we’re still listening to it all these years later. It wasn’t her song, it was written by Ann Peebles who sang a rendition of it I urge you all to go hunt out, but she lived it so we love it.
But Allison is safe for several weeks yet. I was so sure about her place in the final last week, but she’s going to need to show that she can shake it up and be more than just a great voice. Kelly Clarkson has something else, some quality, Leona Lewis was boring as hell off stage but brought a luminescence to it with her singing, David Cook…well I love David Cook’s ‘Light On’ and his performances on the show…well once again there was just something there. Allison needs to bring that something to place her up there with certain contestants. Of course, she has enough talent in her to give her the time to find what that is and bring it. She found it for ‘Alone’, let’s just hope she can get it again.
Kris Allen:
Oh Kris Kris Kris. I have no idea what ‘Make You Feel My Love’ normally sounds like but you made it sincere and sweet and, through all the boyband sitting on a stool and singing softly, it sounded genuine.
His video showed a rehearsal process in which he practiced the song with his guitar. The idea of him playing his guitar and practicing his song for the week makes me happy. It’s an affirmation of serious intent, something which could be seen as lacking from someone who comes across so relaxed. No, not Jason Castro relaxed, but outside of certain social circles I’ve rarely seen anyone quite that relaxed. But we want our idols to take this show seriously, we want to see the effort they put in, we don’t want this to be too easy because if it is how do we know they’re trying at all? So the guitar was a lovely touch, plus, it showed that he didn’t just use the instrument to gain him the ‘I’m a real musician’ points.
I think he made the right choices performance wise, the only way he could have improved it would have been to stand at a mike stand, it would have been slightly less lounge-singer-esque (I never like stools). But all in all I agree with the judges. He did the right thing. He showed for the first time that he could be a contender. And here I was thinking he was just a pretty face. OK, so the performance wasn’t anything inspired, but during a long concert of singing, dancing, guitar playing, don’t you just love it when your favourite pop artist puts it all away and just sings for once. Take That put on phenomenal concerts but when they pull it all back and let loose on ‘Wait for Life’ they bring the house down, hell, even Linkin’ Park rein it in for ‘My December’. People like it to slow down every once in a while, and Kris just proved that he trusts his voice enough to do that…and now so do we.
Lil’ Rounds:
Ignoring that whole kafuffle at the end with her name this really wasn’t that great. Part of me loves that she tried something different, that she didn’t let them stick her in her box and stay there. However, I kinda wish that she’d made that decision for a week when she actually liked the music. I love that she did it because she wanted to be respectful, but I wish it had been out of passion. And I can’t help but hate the way she relented in the end and agreed to never try something new ever again. Surely the whole point of having different weeks is to see if you can make any genre your own? Not just to sing the same type of song over and over again.
I am glad as anything that she didn’t sing ‘I Will Always Love You’ because she would have Whitney’d it and I could quite happily never hear anyone do that ever again. It’s a pretty song but that woman over cooked it by about half an hour.
You know what, I really find it hard to write about Lil’. There’s just nothing interesting about her to me. Yes, she has a good voice in that generic powerful singer way. She’s an absolutely stunning woman and tonight she looked gorgeous. But the song was dull. I have no idea if the original is that boring but this was just blah. Where she pulled off last week, this week she was completely forgettable. I think she’ll make the top 6, maybe top 5, but much further than that? I think she’s just going to have to bring something else to the table and I’m not sure she has it.
Adam:
Firstly let me say I was watching this ready to cringe. I was preparing myself throughout the video package and interview. Adam comes across as a nice guy, genuinely someone I would hang out with happily. He’s always polite, even if sometimes you can see an inner thought process going on behind his eyes, and he’s unfailing honest about everything he’s being given leeway to be honest about; and let’s just see as the weeks progress how much that is. He’s admitted that one of the reasons he wanted to go to Hollywood was to get a fantastic house. He’s not denying the fact that on stage, he’s a massive diva. All this endears him to me.
I thought it was wrong of Ryan to attempt to stir up more confrontation than there was in the meeting between him and Randy Travis. Yes, I’m sure that under normal circumstances even if they’d found themselves with occasion to be in the same room they’d never have held a conversation. But I thought that, with an eye to the viewing public, they both stayed the right side of civil and polite. No, Travis didn’t have the nice things to say about the performance that he had about the others but to give him his dues Adam didn’t exactly play fair when it came to…well….expectations. There was no way in hell Travis could have, under any circumstance, expected what was placed in front of him, and I don’t mean the person, I mean the song arrangement.
The song came alive with the performance. The lighting, the stage and the audience all added to it. The vocal talent and control behind it surpass by a clear mile everything else I’ve seen tonight, keeping in mind that’s only half the contestants. The control he showed over those notes was astounding. But let’s face it, the vocals were the least interesting thing about this entire performance. I admire Adam no end for repeatedly refusing to be anything other than who he is. I’ve said before that he’s portraying a version of himself and I still stick to this but that version is unchanged. From the moment he sang Cher during Hollywood week it was a statement of what was to come; following it up with The Stones only added to that. What we got tonight was a combination of the two. I can’t believe I’m going to say this but I agree with Randy (Jackson), it was a little Nine Inch Nails. I understand that he only came by that reference due to Cash’s cover of ‘Hurt’ but Trent Reznor couldn’t have produced a more over the top, industrial-rock version if he’d tried, and oh how I wish he’d tried, he could have put it on ‘The Fragile’ just after ‘The Great Below’.
I know people were hoping for Adam to go with Dolly Parton, to not “bottle out and choose a Cash song” but I think taking this song and performing it this way was braver than anything he could have done with a Dolly song. This wasn’t just a performance; this was a political and social statement. There are only so many ways you can take the lyric “I fell into a burning ring of fire” and pretty much every single last one of them was covered here. This was taking the Man in Black, taking one of the most masculine songs ever released, and making him almost avant garde. This was performance art. And I loved every single second of it. I still do not believe he can win, go all the way to the top 5 yes, possibly even the final, but win….I’m just not so sure; however, I don’t believe not winning would affect his chance at a career at all.
And that’s all I have. I’m all out of contestants, nearly out of vowels and completely out of day. Tomorrow we tackle Gokey, Alexis, Anoop, Scott, Matt and Megan; well I might split them into two groups. Night.