Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Wow, talk about a busy week in the world of Idol. Let’s see, what’s happened so far …

* Bucky Covington released a new single. Read about it and get a link to where you can hear it here.

* We Are the Fallen (with Carly Smithson as lead singer) announced that its first album will be out May 11. Read about it here.

* Carrie Underwood has been nominated for entertainer of the year for the Academy of County Music Awards again. Read about all six of her nominations here.

* Remember the gal who auditioned for Idol earlier this year in a dominatrix costume. Well, there’s a story behind the costume. Read about Erica Rhodes’ story here.

* Danny Gokey just released his first album and will be performing on American Idol Thursday night.

* On a more serious note, season five Idol contestant Elliott Yamin is apparently stuck in Chile after the earthquake there and is running out of diabetic supplies. Read about his situation here.

* And, finally, there’s the strange twist on Idol tonight. Crystal Bowersox is unable to perform due to an unexplained medical condition. So tonight, we get the guys performing instead of the girls. Tomorrow night, the girls instead of the guys.

Now I’m a big fan of Crystal. I think she has the potential to be the season nine Idol. But I’ve been watching Idol since the beginning, and I’m pretty certain this is unprecedented — rearranging the schedule of 19 contestants because of a medical condition affecting one.

Wonder if we’ll get an explanation tonight. This being Idol, I wouldn’t count on it.

OK, so the deal is Crystal was taken to the hospital and was under doctor’s orders not to perform tonight. Pretty sure that’s unprecedented, too.

Well, let’s hope the guys put on a better show than a week ago. And that tomorrow night, Crystal’s ready to go.

Here we go, the guys, song by song:

* Michael Lynche sings James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s World.” Wow, what a difference a week makes. Big Mike — or Giant Mike as he said his new nickname might be — comes out looking stylish and picks an R&B song that’s more his style.

Gone is the guitar. Back is a certain swagger that makes you think this guy could be a serious contender for the Idol crown. A week ago, that would have ranked as the best performance from the guys. Grade: A-

* John Park: The good news, I could understand what John was singing tonight — John Mayer’s “Gravity.” The bad news: It was way too grave. There was about as much excitement in that performance as there was in the stage attire John chose for tonight’s performance.

Simon called it a “so-what” performance, and was right on the mark. Kara advised that John get away from the sleepy ballads, and was right on the mark. Simon predicted Purple Haze — the college a cappella group John sings with — might get its lead singer back after that performance. Grade: C-

We’ll see. Lots of guys who were unimpressive in week one still have to sing.

* Casey James: OK, that came off like imposter rocker to me. I mean, Casey played the electric guitar just fine. But he seemed to get lost, and incapable of cutting loose with his vocal performance. Ellen nailed it on the head; there was a certain stiffness that you’ll never find in an over-the-top rock song.

Wow, and give Kara credit. Not only did she keep her “eye candy” comments in check, she gave Casey a brutally honest critique, declaring that he took two steps backwards with that performance of Gavin DeGraw’s “I Don’t Want To Be.” Grade: C+

* Alex Lambert: Hey, and now it’s time to give the guys credit. Four performers in, three have done much better than a week ago. Major improvement, Alex Lambert. And the judges were correct, who wouldn’t be rooting for him. He’s clearly not experienced on the stage. He clearly suffered from a major case of the nerves last week.

That said, I wasn’t quite as thrilled with that rendition of John Legend’s “Everybody Knows” as the judges were. Compared to last week, world’s better. Compared to the other performances so far tonight … well, Alex comes in third. Grade: C

* Todrick Hall: My advice to Todrick, go back to dancing. My advice to Idol voters, pull the plug on Mr. Oz.

This week, Todrick stopped dancing and set out to prove he belonged on Idol based on his voice. He proved the opposite and squeezed every bit of life out of Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got To Do With It” in the process. Grade: D minus one grade for the Oz fiasco, which equals a big fat F.

* Jermaine Sellers: I think a new reality show was just born. “The Real World: Jermaine and Simon Go To Church.”

Seriously folks, that run of performances that were better than a week ago. Well, they’ve come to a screeching halt. To date, Jermaine has been style over substance. I mean, how do you miss so badly with Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.” Again, Jermaine managed to squeeze all the life from the song. Did he and Todrick rehearse together? Grade: C.

* Andrew Garcia: Yikes, another of the top males just took a step backward. The good news for Andrew is that he turned in that memorable performance of “Straight Up” that everyone remembers … and that it’s going to take a couple of giant steps backwards for him to fall back to the level of some of the other male contestants.

But, gee, that version of James Morrison’s “You Give Me Something” just seemed bland. And the judges were right; it was filled with a surprising number of pitchy moments for a guy who’s been one of the better singers to this point. Grade C+

* Aaron Kelly: The youngster among the guys at age 16 takes on the Temptations’ “My Girl.” And proves he can sing. OK, he might have tried to do a little too much with the song. But after a string of performances that left me wondering what in the world the contestant was doing, you could follow Aaron’s logic.

He wanted to show more confidence on stage. He did. He wanted to show off his vocal prowess. He did. He wanted to play to his strength by putting a country-bent on the song. He did. As good as Michael Lynche? No. But better than everyone else so far. Grade: B.

* Tim Urban: Simon did his best to get Tim booted off the show last week. This week, he just might have saved the young singer with that closing critique.

I agreed. This week’s acoustic version of “Come On Get Higher” was much better than Tim’s performance a week ago. Good enough to keep him in the competition? Time will tell. But I hope he hangs around. There have surely been worse tonight. Grade: C.

* Lee DeWyze: The guy who turned in the best performance in week one gets to close out the show and proves worthy of the honor with a solid version of Hinder’s “Lips of an Angel.”

Hey, there were a few pitch problems. Hey, Lee could use a bit more swagger. But compared to most of the performances tonight … well, Lee and Michael were in a league all above the rest. Simon just told Lee that he’s “vocally, heads and shoulders agove everyone else” and that he “may be the one to beat.” Grade: B+

That’s very high praise from Idol’s crankiest judge.