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!

Erin Bode

I've been enjoying Erin Bode's music for several years now. I first learned about her through a post on a Yahoo Group for Eva Cassidy: http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/evacassidy/
Erin is a sweet voiced singer from the St Louis area with a smooth jazzy vibe. I didn't have to think twice about it. Once I heard a sample track of her music I was hooked! I love the way she approaches a song with a light, sweet touch. You don't have to be a diva to please me! Erin's so easy on the ears! Much has been written about her impeccable phrasing. I totally agree. The only cd I own is the one shown above, Don't Take Your Time, but they're all great. I started cherry picking from her other albums when people started giving me I-Tunes gift cards, so I have a goodly number of her tracks on my Ipod. The only down side is that I can only enjoy the one album at work, where I do most of my listening. That means I'm going to have to break down and buy some more of her hard copies soon! I'll list some of the tracks I particularly like with a brief explanation:

The title track of Don't Take Your Time is a good place to start. It's a song she and band mate Adam Maness co-wrote and is pretty typical of their stuff. It just swings nicely along grabbing you as it goes. Her take on Bill Monroe's In the Pines is a change of pace. It comes on as a chiller - almost sinister. Interesting choice for a jazz singer. I love the jazzy vibe she attaches to Dylan's Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You. Great stuff! Her take on Cindy Lauper's Time After Time while maybe not as unique as Eva Cassidy's is definitely Erin's own interpretation. I love it! The last songs on Don't Take Your Time that really grab me are I've Never Been in Love Before and Gee Baby Ain't I Good to You. Both swing and are great takes on classic songs. Songs I really enjoy from some of her other albums are: Holiday, Graceland (you gotta check this one out!), New England Friends, Chasing After You, The Little Garden, Photograph and Telescope. These are just sample. Like I said before, her stuff is great and all albums are worth giving a listen to. Her latest album, Photograph departs from her jazzy vibe taking on a more adult contemporary approach, still beautiful. Erin also has a wonderful Christmas album called Cold December Night that she and her band recorded in a cabin in the woods of Erin's home state Minnesota. Chilly setting, but the music is warm and wonderful. Here's a Utube link to one of the songs from her Little Garden cd:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK7RG8bNt1A 

Don't know if I'll ever get to see Erin perform. She keeps pretty much to her home state of Missouri, but I'll sure continue to enjoy her music. The Internet is such a blessing!

Rating for Don't Take Your Time: 4 stars

Downton Abbey?

Before I talk about Downton Abbey I need to make some clarifications about the subject of my last post, Mountain Blue. It was pointed out to me that a link to their website would be a good idea. Turns our Blogspot allows adding an invisible link to the title of a post which I normally do. It might seem a little obscure, but if the title is blue in color simply click on it and it will take you to the website. For example if you click on today's title you will find yourself at the IMDB listing for Downton Abbey. I did neglect to include a link to Mountain Blue's Facebook page. It's: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mountain-Blue/126377264083880. One more thing I'd like to say about Mountain Blue is that they've managed to achieved a fine balance between entertainment and inspiration. Their music goes right to my heart. Love it!

Now on to the main subject of this post. I must make a confession to being totally hooked on the PBS Masterpiece Classic series Downton Abbey. This is the second season of the show. I got into it last year. I'd have to call it a guilty pleasure because it's really nothing more than a high class Soap Opera, but come on, where else can you go for an Edwardian soap with excellent writing and acting? Leave it to the Brits. Nothing in the U.S. comes close. So why am I making it a subject of a musical blog other than to cleanse my soul? Turns out there really is a musical connection to the show and I'm not just talking the music in the show itself as per Michelle Dockery singing If You Were the Only Girl in the World in this year's episode 2. What I'm referring to is Sadie and the Hotheads. That's the band of Elizabeth McGovern who plays the Countess of Grantham, the lady of the house. She's a pretty good singer and her band ain't too shabby. Who knew? See what you think at:

http://www.sadieandthehotheads.com/

Push on the I Can Wait button to hear some samples.

Michelle Dockery who plays lady Grantham's eldest daughter in the show also sings occasionally with Elizabeth's band, the two being friends, and as far as I can tell she's an even better singer than Elizabeth. They have plans of doing an album together. That could be interesting.

Here's and example of Michelle singing a jazzy number:

 Oh yes, another low voiced female singer. This has potential! Stay tuned. Mean time I'm enjoying Downton Abbey... I just can't help myself!

PS - Be warned. Downton Abbey is an adult drama and not ideal family viewing. I'd guess it would get a PG-13 rating if it were a Hollywood movie.