Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Jason Castro released a surprisingly solid CD last April.

I say surprising because Jason always seemed quite lackadaisical in his approach to his craft en route to a fourth-place finish on season seven of American Idol.

But impressive or not, the album wasn’t a major chart success, despite its release by a major label (Atlantic). The album debuted at number 18 on the Billboard 200, dropped to 73 the next week and was gone from the chart three weeks later.

Now Jason plans to release a “Who I Am” CD on Nov. 9. He calls it “a new version of his debut album” in the interview below and adds that “it’s very acoustic based.”

But that doesn’t mean it’s filled with entirely recycled material.

The 10-track CD features five songs from his debut album and five new tunes, including his latest single, “You Are.” You can hear that song on Jason’s website.  Here’s another surprise — it’s being pushed to Christian radio.

Among the recycled songs are his first single, “Let’s Just Fall in Love Again,” and his signature song from Idol, “Hallelujah.” Plus one of my personal favorites, “That’s What I’m Here For.”

Want more Jason?

Well, there’s more. At the same time “Who I Am” comes out, Jason is also releasing a Live from Studio 1290 EP. including five songs recorded live at Atlantic’s studio in New York.

Those five songs include one — “Learning to Fly” — that appears unavailable anywhere else at this point.

And for those not excited about buying a new CD that’s half old material, there’s a hybrid available from Jason’s website that includes the five new songs from “Who I Am” and the five new live studio recordings.

For my review of Jason’s April version of his debut album, go here.  And you can listen to several of his other songs on his MySpace music page, including “That’s What I’m Here For.”