Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Lee DeWyze tweeted earlier today that he’s offering a free download of a new song on his website.

The bigger news: He adds: “Countdown to Frames 40 days.”

Lee DeWyze is offering a free download of a song from his upcoming album, “Frames.”

“Frames” is the followup to his first post-Idol album, “Live It Up.”

And if the 40-day countdown holds, that would put the album release date at Tuesday, Aug. 20.

The new song Lee is offering for download is “Fight,” one of the songs from the album.

The album is also sure to include “Silver Lining,” the single Lee released this spring and performed on American Idol.

“Frames” will be Lee’s first album for Vanguard Records.

He was dropped by RCA Records after “Live It Up” flopped. It debuted at number 23 on the Billboard 200 and turned out to be the lowest-selling first post-show album from an American Idol winner.

Yahoo Music posted an interesting interview with Lee early last month in which he said he was thankful for the Idol process and opportunities, but also described the “Live It Up” album-making process as “one of those too-many-cooks-in-the-kitchen kind of things” because of all the people with whom he was expected to collaborate.

“And the difference between that album (‘Live It Up’) and this album is that on this album there aren’t too many cooks in the kitchen.

“(‘Frames’) is the album I’ve always wanted to make, this is the album I knew I could make, and I think it’s the album that most represents who I am as an artist.”

Anyone who listened to Lee’s pre-Idol music — like the impressive “Slumberland” album — knows “Live It Up” wasn’t Lee at his best.

For the complete Yahoo Music interview and to listen to three of his new songs, head here.

And don’t forget, Lee will be performing in Annapolis next week, has a StageIt show planned for July 16 and a new tour with Serena Ryder that kicks off Aug. 2. Head here for more on that tour.

Here’s Lee performing “Silver Lining” on Idol.