Back in the Saddle....Again!

Oh, America Idol, you heard my cries! Am I blinded by the country music theme week? Did you really not suck tonight? Ok, so I have to be out of the office all day tomorrow-I'll be rubbing elbows down at the Capitol in the morning for some advocacy work....so I thought I would go ahead and post my AI recap thoughts NOW, while I still remember, than wait until Thursday when it's all fuzzy. Let's see. Where to begin? Did I already say that I didn't totally hate it tonight? Was it low expectations allowing me to be suprised? Is it that I've seen these folks perform three times now, and I feel like I am starting to get a sense of what the contestants are really about and what they are capable of musically? Are my feelings all just a result of the awful Top 36 format they used this year? Anyway. On to the music.

First up...Michael. Garth Brooks! Score one for Mattie. I told yall someone would sing Garth! Bad song choice though. Michael, you have obviously never seen Garth perform this. His energy is cra-zazy when he does! Mikey was kind of like a limp noodle. He did appear to remember the gazillion words to this song, Ain't Goin Down, but he has no star quality. Really, we had to sacrifice Ricky Braddy for this guy?

Ok. I may not remember the exact order everyone went in. Who was next? I don't know. Let's just move on to Lil. She sang a Martina song. Score 2 for Mattie! Maybe I am better at this than I thought. I was sooo glad she did not sing IWALY a la Whitney. She actually tried to sing a country song! The judges HATE it. They told her she should have sung IWALY. WHAT? Judges clearly on drugs. Was it great? No. But that is because Lil is no as good as they have led us to believe. Not because of the song. What was with the Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend getup? That is what I thought she might sing based on the outfit. LOLz.

Oh, and Randy Travis is the mentor. Love me some Randy Travis! His "wife" is in the audience. *cough* sorry, couldn't resist. Anyway....Randy is pretty cute with the Idols, and acts like he actually has watched the show before. He tells every contestant that "Garth" or "Dolly" or whoever is REALLY going to like the Idol's version of their song. Its cute.

Back to singing. (This is what you get when I blog at night....I get a little ADD.) Kris! I told yall Kris would do well tonight. He sings...another Garth! To Make you Feel My Love. Ohmygosh I LOOOOVEEE this song! Its from Hope Floats. Trisha Yearwood has a version of it too, but Garth's is soooo pretty. Kris sings it, no guitar, changes up some melodies a little, and its quite pretty. I worried it might be a little too understated for the judges (they love ADAM, and if they love him how will they love something this simple?) but they ALSO loved it. Mattie is on FIRE with the predictions!

Allison....sings Patty Loveless's Blame it on Your Heart. Makes me think of my childhood! Not a great choice for her. She sang it fine, and I love Patty, but she should have toned it down a bit. She should have done Patty's You Hurt Me Bad (In a Real Good Way). Its slower but not a ballad. I did not predict anyone singing Patty. Mattie's record begins to slide.

Let's see....I totally cannot remember when anyone sang. LOL. SVU is wierd tonight. Let's see...Scotty on the piano. He ALSO sang Martina-Wild Angels. Kind of strange. He rearranged it, but he's got to break out of the slow-piano inspirational sounding mode. Pianos can rock out too! OMG it is almost my bedtime. Best part of Scott's portion of the show was when he went rogue and told the judges as they were knocking his song choice that he "lost a lot of hat-draws" this week-indicating-ANOTHER POINT FOR MATTIE-that there was a lot of fighting over songs this week! I knew it! I wonder what he really wanted to sing. Hmmm. I bet ALways on my Mind.

Yep, Anoop redeemed himself this week. I knew he had it in him! He sang a lovely arrangement of Willie Nelson's Always On My Mind-so beautiful. Perfect choice. The judges adequately acknowledged his return to greatness, and Simon apologized for saying last week that he was sorry they put him through. Woo-hoo! More like this, please.

How have I written this much and not talked about ADAM yet? O.M.G. What the HELL did he do to Johnny Cash? He sang this bizarre-at best-version of Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire. Um, I think June is rolling over in her grave as she did not intend for that song to ever be abused like that. Adam had a major fall from grace this week. Simon hated it. Paula loves him. Kara is on the fence. Randy thought that if NIN covered Johnny Cash, that's what it would sound like. Um, no. Johnny covered NIN and there is no way that they would do that to his song in return. BAD. BAD. Might this not be a Gokey v. Theater Boy finale after all?

Speaking of Gokey. When I heard that Danny-boy was going to sing Carrie Underpants' Jesus Take the Wheel, I changed the channel. I did not need to see that. I did see a clip during the recap at the end of the show, and I was right-I did not need to see that. I don't know why I want to smack him. That jacket he had on was not cute. Aren't people dressing them?

Poor Megan. Who is apparently now Megan Joy, not Megan Joy Corkrey. She did Patsy Cline's "Walking After Midnight" (I am soooo psychic!) and actually did a god job! She looked pretty too-much better makeup this week. I haven't been "getting" her, but I did this week. And apparently she went to the hospital with the flu this week. Good for her! She really doesn't seem to feel well.

Matt....Matt did very well too-another Carrie Underpants song (if Jorge and Jasmine had been in, they were singing Carrie too-good grief, might as well have Carrie night next year) and Randy Travis told him he did not think it would be a good choice before Matt sang it for him. Randy changed his mind-Matt als changed it up, and since this is one of the few Carrie songs that I actually kind of like, I was happy. The judges loved it. He obviously got the pimp spot for a reason, they like to go out on a high note. Who have I forgotten? That's only ten.

Oh no-Simon was right! ALEXIS! He said that people would forget about that in ten minutes, and I totally did. Not good! She sang Jolene. It was just average. She wanted to show a softer side, but I don't think she went soft enough. Hello, listen to the lyrics. This is a desperate song. She lacked the emotion and relied on oversinging instead of interpreting Dolly (holla, another point for me!) She talked back when the judges criticized her. Is she getting a little "high school bitchy" to quote Tina Fey? She is rubbing me the wrong way tonight.

Ok...so overall, I was pleased. I will keep going into Motown week next week. *sigh* I wish I could quit you, AI. All of the judges' pets got ragged on, and that made me happy too. Of course, it could just all be part of the producer's diabolical plan....

I think Alexis or Allison will get sent home. They both underwhelmed tonight. A lot of the contestants got smart with the judges, and people don't like that. If Alexis makes it through, I hope she improves her attitude.

ps blogger won't let me spell check, so sorry for all the typos. lol