By MARK FRANKLIN
Five days between audition episodes of American Idol allows for plenty of time to snoop around the Web and see what you can find out about the contestants who have already gotten their golden tickets to the Hollywood round.
First tidbit, Katrina Darrell might have showed up her audition clad in a tiny bathing suit, but she isn’t Idol’s real bikini girl.
That distinction goes to Casey Carlson (right), who earned praise for her singing ability during the Kansas City auditions.
Seems Casey posed for a Campus Girls USA calendar. She’s featured on the home page of the Campus Girls USA Web site. A scrolling line at the top of the site confirms that, yes, this is the same Casey who auditioned on Idol.
The site also urges viewers to order a 16-month calendar filled with pictures of Casey and other gals of the Big 10 modeling swimwear. Casey’s swimsuit calendar interview, where she talks about her love for singing, appears below. (Sorry, guys, she’s fully clothed during the interview).
Apparently, these calendars are being sold for a good cause. The site promises that 100 percent of the profits go to Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
Here’s guessing Casey won’t suffer any sanctions from Idol over the bikini shots. I mean, it would be a bit hypocritical to boot Casey from the competition after giving a gal who auditions in a bikini a ticket to Hollywood.
On the other hand, this doesn’t seem like a very promising start to Casey’s Idol journey, at least not if she wants to be taken seriously as a singer rather than a pinup model. Curiously, I couldn’t find any examples of Casey’s singing ability, barring her Idol audition, anywhere on the Web.
Other tidbits:
* Brent Keith Smith’s rendition of a Bad Company song was one of the highlights of Idol’s Louisville, Ky., auditions. But it turns out this guy is anything but a rocker.
Back in 2004, he placed sixth in the second star of the Nashville Star competition. More recently, he sang the title track — “Looking for a Road” — to the 2007 documentary “Dale,” made by County Music Television about the life of racing legend Dale Earnhardt Sr.
A video of the song appears below, and several other videos of Brent are availabe on the CMT Web site under Brent Keith. Best of luck, Brent. Every year’s Idol competition needs a couple of country crooners.
* Kai Kalama is the topic of a Jan. 21 story in the Orange County (Calif.) Register. Kai was the male singer profiled at the end of the San Francisco auditions, the one who had put his music career on hold for a year to care for his sick mother.
Apparently Kai and his brother Ryan formed a band, Off White, that is quite popular in the San Clemente area. According to the band’s Web site, Kai and Ryan learned to sing in a church choir and the band specializes in “soul rock.”
Register on the Web site, and you’ll be able to download three of the band’s songs as MP3s for free. “Couldn’t Do It Til Now” is particularly impressive.
* Adam Lambert was the other saving grace of that horrible San Francisco audition show. Go to YouTube and you can find lots of videos of him singing at the Upright Cabaret in Los Angeles. The kid has a voice. Here’s a link to a video of� Adam singing “Dust in the Wind.”
A check of his artist profile on the Upright Cabaret Web site also indicates that he’s done theater, playing Joshua in “The Ten Commandments” opposite Val Kilmer at the Kodak Theatre and that he’s a member of a band called The Citizen Vein.
Now, go to the Citizen Vein MySpace page and Adam is curiously missing from the list of band members, though the site urges visitors to “stay tuned for exciting news.” Click on pics, and there’s the band with Adam (above, Adam is the guy on the left), wearing black eyeliner and looking a whole lot different from when he performed at the Upright Cabaret.
Now, for the videos …
Casey Carlson talks about her dream job, which has nothing to do with bikinis.
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Brent Keith, now Brent Keith Smith, sings “Looking for a Road.”
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