Idol Ramblings

Dang, there are a couple of kids on American Idol worth watching this season. I'm finding myself drawn in again! If you you know my tastes, you'll understand why both Elise Testone and Phillip Phillips have some appeal for me. Elise is a low voiced girl (surprise, surprise!) who sings with a bluesy vibe reminiscent of recent Grammy winner Susan Tedeschi. Both these singers have unique, kind of gravely voices. Heaven knows AI needs unique! Phillip Phillips came out this week with his own spin on Phil Collin's In the Air Tonight that really excited the crowd and the judges. The kid can really wail and he plays the heck out of his guitar. Elise had the gall to sing Adele's One and Only and not only got away with it but really slayed it! Others tried Adele and ended up on the trash heap. Kudos to Elise for making it work. (Adele's already being overworked by AI contestants. I hope they move on. That's a tough cover.) It appears that the voters get these 2. Let's hope they last awhile. Both of these singers made it into the top ten and didn't require being saved by the judges as were 3 others who were added in to make the total 13 going into next week.

Thus far I've been really disappointed with the judges. On the guy's night this week they were merely cheer leaders with little to say of benefit to the singers. On the girl's night Randy at least acknowledged they'd gone too easy on the guys and attempted to make up for it on the girls. His efforts weren't anything to write home about. Where's Simon when we need him! The one saving grace, and I give the producers props, was the inclusion Thursday night of Jimmy Iovine's critiques. He's a record producer who's mentored Idols in the past and really knows his stuff. His hard hitting remarks put the judges to shame. His was a breath of fresh air!

American Idol, in its 11th season, is still holding up well. There were 33 million votes this week. Perhaps it's still relevant even with stiff competition from The Voice and X Factor. I haven't paid much attention to either, but was somewhat interested in local girl Dia Frampton's run on The Voice last year. An audition from this season's The Voice was recently shared by April Meservy on Facebook of a singer friend from Nevada named Whitney Myer. She can blow! I may tune in once in awhile to see how she goes.

Here are vids for my 2 AI favorites:

 
Phillip Phillip's audition may have been the best I've ever seen. He wowed the judges enough to get an encore with guitar. Interestingly enough both singers auditioned in Charlston, SC. I liked Elise' remarks about exposure. Pretty honest. She's been a pretty hot artist on her local scene in Charlston. AI may just give her the bigger stage she's looking for!