Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Lee DeWyze and Crystal Bowersox square off tonight in the final performance episode of the season on American Idol.

The fun starts at 8 p.m., followed by tomorrow night’s season finale, with the crowning of the season nine winner. Check back here for live blogging during both shows.

Meanwhile, here are my picks for the best and worst performances of season nine of American Idol, counting down to number one — meaning the best and the worst — in both cases.

First, the best …

10. “Hold On, I’m Coming” by Casey James: In a season of sleepy performances, Casey James played electric guitar as often as possible. This isn’t the most challenging song vocally, but it’s Casey at his fun-loving best. He even found time for a short guitar solo near the end.

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9. “The Boxer” by Lee DeWyze: Early in the competition, the paint store clerk from Mount Prospect, Ill., seemed fearful of the Idol stage. But by Idol Gives Back Week, he’d found his comfort zone, and none of the songs he selected fit his vocal style better than Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Boxer,” first recorded in 1968.

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8. “This is a Man’s World” by Michael Lynche: Big Mike had already gotten lots of attention prior to the semifinals because his first child was born while he was performing in Hollywood. This performance comes from the second week of the semifinals, when Michael served notice that he was a vocalist to reckon with too.

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7. “Give Me One Reason” by Crystal Bowersox: It was week three of the semifinals, and this is the performance that prompted Simon Cowell to proclaim that MamaSox was the contestant to beat in season nine.

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6.”Jealous Guy” by Casey James: On Lennon-McCartney Week, the 27-year-old from Cool, Texas, put down his electric guitar, put away the cheesy smile and turned in a heartfelt performance of a song that first appeared on John Lennon’s “Imagine” album (1971) and has been covered by artists as diverse as Peter Criss of Kiss, Belinda Carlisle and Gavin DeGraw.

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5. “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by Crystal Bowersox: Take a classic Rolling Stones song from their 1969 “Let It Bleed” album, add a touch of MamaSox folk and blues, and it all adds up to one of the early highlights on season nine.

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4. “House of the Rising Sun” by Siobhan Magnus: Before she took to overusing her scream or screech or whatever you want to call it, the glass-blowing apprentice from Cape Cod, Mass., turned in this splendid version, complete with an a cappella opening of a hit made famous by “The Animals” back in the mid-1960s.

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3. “Me and Bobby McGee” by Crystal Bowersox: MamaSox was born to sing this song. With a vocal style reminiscent of Janis Joplin and dreads in her hair, it was a natural fit. And I don’t think Miley Cyrus’ tutoring that week had a thing to do with it. But perhaps the carpet Crystal brought on stage to make her feel at home did.

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2. “Hallelujah” by Lee DeWyze: Mr. Paint Store Clerk owes a huge thanks to Simon Cowell for this song selection. And Simon owes Lee a thank you for doing an oft-performed song so well. Lee’s vocal is so good, I almost which the choir hadn’t arrived mid-song to help out. But I still prefer Jason Castro’s understated performance of the same song in season seven just a little better.

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1. “Falling Slowly” by Crystal Bowersox and Lee DeWyze: The season nine front-runners paired up on duet night and provided one of the magical moments when they sang this Academy Award winning song from the film “Once.” Kris Allen covered the same tune on Songs of the Cinema Week on season eight of Idol.

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Now the worst.

Some of these have audio only. Oh, well, video wouldn’t help.

Yikes, I’d forgotten how bad some of these were.

5. “Blue Skies” by Casey James: Take the guitar away from a blues guitarist and make him sing a Frank Sinatra tune … and, well, the result isn’t likely to be good. And it wasn’t.

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4. “Under My Thumb” by Tim Urban: Idol contestants are encouraged to change up popular songs to fit their musical style. But how Tim could listen to the lyrics of this Stones tune and decide to go reggae with it … well, it ranks as one of the all-time strangest Idol ideas.

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3. “Against All Odds” by Paige Miles: Coming off one her best Idol performance — a blistering performance of “Honky Tonk Woman” — Paige unwisely decided to tackle this Phil Collins tune. To say she wasn’t up to it would be an understatement.

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2. “God Bless This Child” by John Park: Shania Twain went gaga over John during the Chicago auditions. She should have been forced to sit through this monstrosity, then critique him on his vocal, not his looks.

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1. “The Climb” by Haeley Vaughn: I never, ever thought someone could make me appreciate a Miley Cyrus vocal … until I heard this beyond-pitchy version of a Miley hit. I still can’t figure out how Haeley wound up in the semifinals.

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