Four years removed from her appearance as a finalist on American Idol, Lindsey Cardinale still hasn’t released that debut album.
She still hopes to, someday. But right now, she has another priority — finishing college.
The Louisiana native and Nashville, Tenn., resident was in college when season four of American Idol interrupted her education.
Now 24, Lindsey is a journalism major with a minor in songwriting at Middle Tennessee State. And she’s just a semester shy of a spring graduation.
“I’m ready to finish school,” she says. “I think that’s important, and I feel like I’ve been in school forever. So that’s my main focus. And I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
On Dec. 5, however, fans will have a chance to see Lindsey perform. She’s one of 12 former Idol contestants booked to appear in an American Christmas, a show set for the Lincoln Theater in the Napa Valley. The show will also be webcast. You can go here or see the banner below for more information.
Meanwhile, here’s the Idol Chatter interview with Lindsey Cardinale.
Chatter: How much had you done musically prior to Idol?
Lindsey: I’d probably been performing since I was about 10 or 11. Just doing stuff around my small town, fairs and festivals and stuff like that. As far as doing a lot of things professionally like I can do now, not very much. I was pretty well known for singing as far as singing in my hometown (Ponchatoula, La.), but prior to the show (Idol) just from talent shows and choirs and things in church.
Chatter: In terms of experience, how do you think you stacked up against the other conestants on Idol?
Lindsey: Honestly I wasn’t going to audition because of that. There were so many people coming in from different walks of life. I didn’t know their level of success. I had no idea what to expect. I’m thinking, “All I do is stuff in a small town. I don’t know if I’m going to be up to par with these guys.” But then I decided, “Oh, well, I’ll just try it.” Waiting in line and auditioning is an experience in itself. It worked itself out. So I’m glad I did.
Chatter: Where does your musical talent come from? Were your parents into music?
Lindsey: My mom and dad are not into music. We always laugh because we say it skipped a generation. My grandmother — my mom’s mom — they said she could sing like an angel. I was the youngest grandchild and the only one who didn’t get to meet my mom’s mom. I was never able to hear her, but I believe she gave me her voice. Because my parents don’t sing. It definitely comes from my mom’s side of the family.
Chatter: Clearly, listening to MySpace, you’re a country singer. I don’t recall that from Idol. Did you get to sing much country music on the show?
Lindsey: I did not get to do a lot of country on the show. We had weeks when we had to do genres and stuff like that. And then before Hollywood Week, we had group numbers. And they’d give us a list of 12 to 16 songs to choose from. And I don’t think there was ever a country song on those. The one week we got to choose whatever song we wanted as long as it was approved, I did do a country song, “The Woman In Me” by Shania Twain. But for the most part, we usually had a genre or a list to follow, so I really didn’t get a chance to show that much on the show.
Chatter: All in all, how do you think the Idol experience worked out?
Lindsey: Idol was an absolutely amazing experience for me. There’s so many things I get to do now just from being on Idol. It was great. And there were so many things that I learned performance wise and just in the music industry itself. I made some great friends. It was just a great experience.
Chatter: Have you stayed in touch with any of the contestants from your season?
Lindsey: Carrie (Underwood) is one of my really good friends. And Scott Savol was here. And Bo Bice. Bo’s a good friend. They all live here in Tennessee, so I get to see them quite often. Carrie’s doing absolutely amazing.
Chatter: I just have to ask — your MySpace events calendar includes something called Team Roping Event in San Antonio, Texas, next March. Will you be performing there?
Lindsey: No, I’ll actually be roping there. I’m a big horse person. I have horses at home and I do a lot of that rodeo stuff. A lot of times it kind of works out both ways. I’ll do the national anthem or something like that. Sometimes I got just for that. Sometimes I get to ride. I used to be at rodeos all the time. But since Idol I don’t get to do it as much. My horses (she owns three and wants her own miniature horse) aren’t here in Tennessee. They’re back home in Louisiana. I don’t even get to ride as much as I’d like to. I used to ride every day. The last time I roped was probably in August. And I won’t rope again until the event in March.
Chatter: So what are your future plans musically?
Lindsey: I’m kind of dipping into both aspects (of music) as far as performing and writing as well. Writing for other people. Writing with other people. But right now, my focus is to finish school.
Chatter: Do you have plans for an album or anything like that?
Lindsey: I do. There’s a lot of people here that I’ve worked with, and we’re just kind of waiting for me to get out of school. Because I want to be able to do it full time. I want to be able to put everything into it. I’m an honors student right now and I don’t want to lose that. Both to me are big projects. An album’s a big project, and school’s a big project. And I can’t do them both at the same time. I would love to try … it’s hard, and it’s a lot of self discipline because, trust me, there’s a lot of times when I just want to be in the studio again, but I have to finish school before I can start another big project.
Chatter: It looks like you did get to do a duet called “Let It Rain” with Steve Cochran back in 2007 on his self-titled album.
Lindsey: That was fun. I had never done a duet before and we were pretty good friends at the time, and he just called. He had another girl that was going to do it, had actually laid her vocals down. And he was like, “Let’s see what it’s like. Let’s just try it.” I literally did that song in a day. They flew me into Nashville in the morning, recorded, flew me back out that afternoon. It was fast, but it came out really well.
Chatter: I understand you’ll be performing a new song during the American Christmas show.
Lindsey: Yes, I’ll be doing a new song called “Try.” I’m also doing a song from the American Christmas album, “Away in a Manger.” “Try” is a song that Joe (Cannizzaro of Chenoa Music, producer of the American Christmas show) pitched to me, and I really love it. It’s a nice power ballad. I really like singing that song and kind of making it my own.
Chatter: And what are you hoping to do with that journalism major?
Lindsey: Before Idol, I was just kind of like, “I just want to write” and I didn’t really know anything specific about what I wanted to do. And I thought, once I get to Tennessee and see all their opportunities, maybe I can narrow it down. And now it’s made the choice a little bit harder because there’s so much I could do. I would like to write maybe for a magazine or just for artists or something. I’m honestly not really sure because I thought when I got here it would help narrow it down. But I think it just gave me many more options.
If you want to check out some of Lindsey’s music, head to her MySpace page and you’ll find three country songs she recoded a couple years ago, including a lovely cover of “Always On My Mind.” A YouTube version of “Nothin’ Like a Dream” appears below.
And here’s a banner, showing the other performers who will participate in that Dec. 5 show. The webcast can be viewed anytime within 30 days of the show.
This is the third in a series of interviews with former Idol contestants participating in the American Christmas show. Here are the links for interviews with Brandon Rogers and Nikki McKibbin.
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