Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Last week, Jax, Tyanna Jones, Clark Beckham, Nick Fradiani and Rayvon Owen nailed down spots on the summer tour.

The next milestone: Earning one of those trips homes where Idol near-finalists have typically been treated to a hometown parade, concert and basically hailed as returning heroes.

Now who knows how that’s going to work this year? In the past, Idol has sent home its Top 3. That becomes a little trickier when you don’t reveal the Top 3 until the end of the following week’s show.

So we’ll have to stay tuned to see how that works out.

In the meantime, the Idols will be serving up songs to fit a dual theme this week — Judges’ hometowns and “I Am Who I Am.”

They got some mentoring help last week during a visit to Nashville where the ladies worked with Martina McBride and the three remaining guys got some coaching from Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts.

For my latest rankings of the remaining singers, head here. For the first time since the finals began, I moved a new singer into the top spot.

And it’s time for some new Idol music … and Ryan just told us the singers who advance also get one of those trips home.

1. Clark Beckham: He’s the first to advance, which is good news. It would be better news if Clark can rebound froma couple of so-so weeks. He’ll open the night with “Living for the City” by Stevie Wonder. Right away, Clark shows off his range. Just when I was going to complain about a lack of pizzazz in this performance, Clark rushed over to his piano to bang out a few keys and picked up the vocal fireworks. Far from my favorite Clark performance, but worlds better than last week’s “Boyfriend.” Keith mostly liked it. Jennifer says Clark seems more comfortable with an instrument. Harry calls it a solid performance. Grade: B–

2. Jax: Hooray, Jax advances. She’s been the show’s best over the past two weeks. Jax is back at her piano. She’s going to perform “Empire State of Mind” by Alicia Keys. Jax is magic at the piano. And this young lady is on fire. I wondere about this song choice when I first ready about it. But Jax made the song her own and it still sounded like a potential hit the way she performed it. Jennifer wasn’t certain about the song choice, but says Jax has the potential to win Season 14. Harry says he “really dug it.” He also likes the really unique tone of her voice. Keith says he loved the song for her. Grade: A–

3. Nick Fradiani: He’s also decided to sing about New York, singing Matchbox 20’s “Bright Lights.” And he opens very strong. When the chorus started, he seemed to be drowned out by the band, but he quickly corrected that, by picking up the energy level in his vocals. This is turning into a bit of a manic performance. In a good way. That’s one of my favorites from Nick. Great energy. Very well done. Harry calls that his most comfortable performance and says he sang “the devil out of the song.” Keith likes Nick’s killer instinct and calls that “so good.” Jennifer says he’s peaking at the right time. Grade: A–

That means either Tyanna Jones or Rayvon Owen is going home. Based on recent performances, Rayvon is more deserving of the Top 4.

And after a marathon stretch of commercials, we’re back to find out who’s heading home for one of those special visits and who’s heading home because they’re eliminated.

The person who advances is: Rayvon Owen.

Honestly, if I could have picked a Top 4 from this year’s cast if would have been Clark, Jax, Joey Cook and Quentin Alexander.

Tyanna is going to sing Beyonce’s “Run the World” as her exit song. Rough opening, perhaps because of the emotion of being eliminated. But she gets more into the attitude of the song as it goes on. It winds up being a pretty solid exit performance.

4. Rayvon Owen: And now Rayvon gets to perform. Very strange format tonight. We get results halfway through. We have back-to-back commercial breaks. Just odd. Now Ravon is going to sing a huge country hit, “Need You Now.” He specializes in ballads, but I’m wondering if he can pull this one out. Emotionally, he seemed invested. But he oversang that badly in my opinion. That’s a song of emotion, not vocal flourishes and he flooded that with vocal flourishes. Keith says the same: He wanted less dramatics and more heart. Jennifer wonders if he made a connection, but compliments him on a pretty vocal. But Harry says he thought Ravon “sang the pants off it.” Grade: C

5. Clark Beckham: He’s going to sing Josh Turner’s “Your Man.” And he and Scott Borchetta aren’t seeing eye to eye on his approach to the competition. Scott reminds Clark that he’s not on “American musician.” Clark sticks to his guns, and says if he loses because of singing songs like this, he’d rather lose than compromise. He winds up turning in another solid, but less than exciting performance. Jennifer says she doesn’t buy that song as Clark’s “gravy” song. Harry says he has to think more about what songs will work with the audience and calls that performance “tepid.” Keith says he sang an album track when he needed to show up on stage with a hit single. Grade: C.

6. Jax: She’ll sing “Human.” Martina McBride is impressed by her during rehearsal. In contrast to Clark, here’s a singer who understands the importance of creating a moment at this stage of the competition. Jax’s vocal seemed a little off on that opening verse. But she made up for it with a lovely and plaintive chorus. And she must have been watching The Voice, because she drops to her knees for the next verse and run-through of the chorus. Watch out, the fog machine is about to swallow her up. Just joking. Jax nearly disappeared for a moment though in all that fog. And she gets rave reviews from the audience. Harry credits her for losing herself in the song, though he notes there were some pitch issues. Keith says she “killed it.” Jennifer calls it “really great.” Grade: A–

7. Rayvon Owen: He’s decided to sing “Believe,” and he’s dedicating it to his mom. Scott loves the way the mentoring session went. This song choice is a much better fit for Rayvon. And there’s no doubt that was a heartfelt performance. And a very nice vocal. Keith calls it “beautiful.” Jennifer wants him to perform that way every time he takes the stage and calls it “beautiful.” Harry says the writers of that song would likely love Rayvon’s version of that song. And Ryan is summoning his mom to the stage to share the moment with him. Grade: B+

8. Nick Fradiani: He’s going to sing Rascal Flatts’ “What Hurts the Most.” This is a change of pace for Nick, who hasn’t slowed things down too often. Nick is going to deliver another very nice performance. And he’s quickly moving into front-runner status with Clark’s star fading and him stepping up his performance level. Not sure that was a moment, but Nick delivered two of my favorite four performances tonight. Jennifer calls Nick the star of the night. Harry says he could hear Nick singing on his CD and thought Nick killed it. Keith also praised the performance. Grade: B+