By MARK FRANKLIN
I’ve watched and I’ve waited.
Seven American Idol audition episodes. Nine hours of TV viewing time, chock full of way too many commercials. Auditions from New York to San Francisco; Salt Lake to San Juan.
I’ve endured them patiently. OK, sometimes impatiently.
And I’m still wondering. Where is she? Where’s the country gal that’s going to make this season’s show worth watching?
Like Kristy Lee Cook did last year. The singing might have been marginal. But her moxy and her mixed metaphors sure kept things interesting.
Like Kellie Pickler did back in season five. At times, the singing was great; always, her naivete was captivating.
Remember, Idol is a show about formulas. Same process year after year. So the producers must know by now, a key ingredient to the formula is having an entertaining county gal in the final 12.
Seven audition episodes later, zilch.
But let’s remember, we didn’t get to meet all the recipients of golden tickets to Hollywood. So I went off on a search of my own.
After all, there are several Idol bloggers out there anxious to spoil the show’s suspense by predicting who does well in the Hollywood round. In fact, Vote�for the Worst.com has posted names of the 32 supposed semifinalists. I refuse to look. I’d prefer to be surprised.
Anyway, I spotted one name several times. Bottom line: I think I might have found her.
Folks, meet Kristen McNamara (right). She’s known as K Mac to her friends. She was a contestant on season four of Nashville Star. She finished sixth. Never mind that.�The best thing to come out of Nashville Star in six seasons is Miranda Lambert. And she didn’t win either.
This K Mac gal is wacky. In her video blogs for Nashville Star, she soaks in a hillbilly hot tub. She interviews Lobster Bob, who she’s about to eat. She shows us a squirrel skin she uses to keep away creeps. It doubles as her good-luck charm. She assures us she loves animals, even though she shot the squirrel when she was 7. She has the photo to prove it.
She yodels. Don’t laugh. Jewel yodels, too. Which puts K Mac in pretty darn good company in my book. (Remember, Jewel plays Lancaster Wednesday night).
K Mac is 23. She hails from Napa Valley, Calif. We got to see her for a milli-second during the Louisville auditions, with purple streaks in her hair. She says she prefers singing adult contemporary pop in her American Idol mini video. But you just know she’s a country gal at heart. According to her Nashville Star bio, she taught herself to sing by practicing Patsy Cline’s “Crazy” over and over.
And, yes, this K Mac gal can sing. Deep in the bowels of YouTube I uncovered the following two songs. She apparently helped write both. They sound ready for prime time.
Hopefully, K Mac’s ready for prime time, too. Idol 2009 needs her. Or someone like her.
Check out the songs yourself.
K Mac sings “Now That I Found You.” The video is taken from her Nashville Star blogs and some recording studio silliness. You even get a brief glimpse of the squirrel.
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K Mac’s video for “Tonight is Goodbye.”
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