Is American Idol stealing Taylor Hicks Soul?
I'm not going to bother ranking each of the performances this week. With just some minor variances up and down, I thought everyone was pretty much the same; average.
The judges say "song choice, song choice, song choice" and I have to say last night no one picked something really good. It left me wondering why.
Taylor Hicks did John Denver's Country Roads. An unusual choice considering John Denver is a particular country artist completely devoid of soul. I was a little hopeful at first, because Ray Charles does a great version of the song on one of his country albums.
Taylor's version pretty much stuck to John Denver though. It was too fast and seemed to focus on the violin player more than him. It was the first performance from Taylor that he didn't seem to have his heart and soul into. He didn't sound bad, but it was lacking his usual distinctiveness.
Maybe it was just on off week, but I can't help but wonder if Taylor has lost some of his heart for the show. There are a lot of reasons lately why this could be.
- Last week he gave what was probably his best vocal performance of the season, and barely received a reaction. In fact Randy Jackson was negative, saying he thought Taylor should be doing more of his moves and I don't know what really. Taylor had a what do you want from me look on his face. Paula and Simon were postive but unenthusiastic, and Simon threw in a comepletely unnecessary jab about Taylor's clothes.
- All the contestants should be a little put off about Simon's about face on Katharine last week. He likes her during the performance and then the next day says she wasn't good. How are they supposed to take him seriously?
- He might be disheartened by the judges constant double speak. One moments it's this isn't just about singing, then the next it's this is a singing competition. And of course with Chris it's praise for being original and true to hisself one week and then the next week they tear him to shreds for doing what he always does. So, kind of like Taylor, this week Chris does a boring country ballad sitting on a stool, and basically doing nothing to disprove his "one trick pony" status. I mean, like Taylor, he sounded ok, but where was the distictiveness?
One thing I found particularly disturbing about last night was when they showed the footage of Taylor working with Kenny Rogers. Kenny Rogers said he didn't know if Taylor liked the song or if he felt confident doing it. Why would Taylor be doing a song that he doesn't like and that he doesn't feel confident about singing? There are tons of country songs that would fit into Taylor's style of singing. Why did he get stuck with that one? And I am thinking he maybe did get stuck with it rather than choose it himself.
Another unusual element was Randy Jackson's repsonse. After weeks of him saying he likes Taylor's vocal performance but it "wasn't his best song choice" for him, this week he says Country Roads was the right song choice for him, but the vocal was average? Why, out of everything, would Country Roads be the right song choice????
So, I'm hoping it was just an off week for Taylor. As I said he gave one of his best vocal performances only last week. One thing that did touch me about last night was seeing Taylor's grandmother in the audience. In his American Idol profile he says his grandmother is one of his heroes. I was very close to my grandmother growing up as well. Seeing how excited and proud Taylor's grandmother was to see him up on the stage reminded me of my own grandmother's support and enthusiasm for everything I did. It made me a little sad that she had to be there when the judges tore him apart last night. As usual Taylor smiled and laughed despite the negative comments, which something I always admire about him.
***Update *** word on the street is Taylor was battling strep throat last night and just not feeling well. That would explain him not pushing his voice and not moving around much. So we probably don't need to be worried about him losing enthusiasm for the show, but I think most of the points I made about the show in general are still valid.
Bottom 3 tomorrow - no idea. Everyone was so much the same last night. I'll guess - Ace, Mandisa, Elliott.
The judges say "song choice, song choice, song choice" and I have to say last night no one picked something really good. It left me wondering why.
Taylor Hicks did John Denver's Country Roads. An unusual choice considering John Denver is a particular country artist completely devoid of soul. I was a little hopeful at first, because Ray Charles does a great version of the song on one of his country albums.
Taylor's version pretty much stuck to John Denver though. It was too fast and seemed to focus on the violin player more than him. It was the first performance from Taylor that he didn't seem to have his heart and soul into. He didn't sound bad, but it was lacking his usual distinctiveness.
Maybe it was just on off week, but I can't help but wonder if Taylor has lost some of his heart for the show. There are a lot of reasons lately why this could be.
- Last week he gave what was probably his best vocal performance of the season, and barely received a reaction. In fact Randy Jackson was negative, saying he thought Taylor should be doing more of his moves and I don't know what really. Taylor had a what do you want from me look on his face. Paula and Simon were postive but unenthusiastic, and Simon threw in a comepletely unnecessary jab about Taylor's clothes.
- All the contestants should be a little put off about Simon's about face on Katharine last week. He likes her during the performance and then the next day says she wasn't good. How are they supposed to take him seriously?
- He might be disheartened by the judges constant double speak. One moments it's this isn't just about singing, then the next it's this is a singing competition. And of course with Chris it's praise for being original and true to hisself one week and then the next week they tear him to shreds for doing what he always does. So, kind of like Taylor, this week Chris does a boring country ballad sitting on a stool, and basically doing nothing to disprove his "one trick pony" status. I mean, like Taylor, he sounded ok, but where was the distictiveness?
One thing I found particularly disturbing about last night was when they showed the footage of Taylor working with Kenny Rogers. Kenny Rogers said he didn't know if Taylor liked the song or if he felt confident doing it. Why would Taylor be doing a song that he doesn't like and that he doesn't feel confident about singing? There are tons of country songs that would fit into Taylor's style of singing. Why did he get stuck with that one? And I am thinking he maybe did get stuck with it rather than choose it himself.
Another unusual element was Randy Jackson's repsonse. After weeks of him saying he likes Taylor's vocal performance but it "wasn't his best song choice" for him, this week he says Country Roads was the right song choice for him, but the vocal was average? Why, out of everything, would Country Roads be the right song choice????
So, I'm hoping it was just an off week for Taylor. As I said he gave one of his best vocal performances only last week. One thing that did touch me about last night was seeing Taylor's grandmother in the audience. In his American Idol profile he says his grandmother is one of his heroes. I was very close to my grandmother growing up as well. Seeing how excited and proud Taylor's grandmother was to see him up on the stage reminded me of my own grandmother's support and enthusiasm for everything I did. It made me a little sad that she had to be there when the judges tore him apart last night. As usual Taylor smiled and laughed despite the negative comments, which something I always admire about him.
***Update *** word on the street is Taylor was battling strep throat last night and just not feeling well. That would explain him not pushing his voice and not moving around much. So we probably don't need to be worried about him losing enthusiasm for the show, but I think most of the points I made about the show in general are still valid.
Bottom 3 tomorrow - no idea. Everyone was so much the same last night. I'll guess - Ace, Mandisa, Elliott.
posted by Sherry L at 6:47 AM
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