Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Could a young male country singer win American Idol for a second straight year?

Well, Richie Lawson of Centennial, Colorado, has a deep voice working in his favor, and that did the trick for Scotty McCreery.

We got to hear that voice very briefly in the Aspen audition episode, when Richie won the judges over with his rendition of Josh Turner’s “I Wouldn’t Be a Man.”

“You got a strong powerful voice right there,” Randy Jackson said.

A vocal performance major at Nebraska Wesleyan University, Richie has been working  on that voice for some time.

In his golden ticket interview, he told Idol he first sang for an audience at age 3, as part of an effort to collect money for children in need.

And in an October interview with the university’s student newspaper, Richie said he’s been performing gigs with a band since he was 16 and has toured all over the country.

He comes from a musical family.  His mother was a professional dancer; his father is also a country musician.

Richie says he started playing guitar at age 15. He writes his own music, too. And he apparently performs under the name Richie Law.

“I’ve just been trying to make a career as a professional musician. And this is one of those great opportunities. It’s a great door,” Richie, 19 at the time of his audition, said of Idol in his golden ticket interview.

If you blinked and missed his appearance in the Aspen episode, here it is again, plus a performance of “Country Strong” for a CMT competition.

Idol audition

“Country Strong”