On Amanda: like many, she reminds me of Joplin–only I’m thinking she’s missing the head tone during most performances. When the judge’s told her that she needs to mix it up with a ballad or two, she didn’t seem to understand that not all ballads are saccharine. I felt like screaming “Bobby McGee!” Joplinesque, yes, but impassioned and sensitive. Maybe it’s Amanda’s dedication to image/age that blinds her to this?

Chikese: blew me away with that performance. I love the tone of his voice, his energy and his attitude.

Kristy Lee actually said on stage that she “really liked” the arrangement. You can work on technique and you can be taught to “perform”, but you can’t teach taste. To me, this is her greatest draw back.

Wasn’t surprised to see David H. go. He was far too hyper on stage to ever do his best.

I do wish Ramielle was a little older/more experienced; she has such a beautiful voice. I hope she lasts long enough to choose her own songs—that’s where I think she’ll shine.

Looking forward to your next review!

Glad to hear that Taylor is doing so well. Something tells me that he will be on Idol in the future – maybe not this year- but it will happen. He does serve a wonderful purpose in the music business.

I was wondering what was going on with David A. Does he have asthma or a palate issue? Love the kid and most of his singing, but it is a bit jarring with the breathing thing.

Chikezie was great last week – I was having flashbacks of Taylor. Speaking of Taylor, I too wish AI had supported him, but he is doing quite well without them. Made a few millions with his tour and is working on his 2nd post-AI album. He has a DVD coming out soon from the Warfield concert playing his git, piano and of course harmonica. Good stuff. Anyway, I hope Chikeze will continue in that vein, he is quite the performer.

I like David C – a real rocker, not a poseur. I also like Brooke, Amanda (Joplinesque), Michael, Carly and Ramiele when she is “on.” Hope she will conquer her nerves.

P.S. I am distressed to say that I am channeling Simon on the critiques. Scares me LOL.

As much as I love Daughtry and am glad he got the support of Clive Davis and the record company, it does frustrate me that Taylor and many others have not gotten the same level of support.

I think that the music industry is much too slow to realize that nurturing smaller artists can be beneficial and profitable. It’s a shame that they let former AI artists go so easily just because they don’t have multi-platinum numbers.

I like the fact that you take artistry into consideration (and I’ve seen you do it)! I love your reviews and have learned a lot from them. Keep em coming!

So was Taylor Hicks. He didn’t have the strongest voice, but was a master at interpretation. Also, he really knew how to entertain and stimulate his audience. He had great respect for the music and the listeners.

I took singing lessons once upon a time, but it’s hard for me to recognize technique in other people – which is why I come here to this site. I love reading the analysis of the singers because Rosanne can pick out so many things I would never see or hear.

Even with the things I do notice, though, I tend to be pretty forgiving. I can’t help but love Jason Castro, despite the bum notes. Although I admit that I am probably more forgiving with him because, as someone on another site said, “he brings the pretty in truckloads.” I can’t help it.

But my musical tastes are pretty broad – I love Clay Aiken and I love punk music – and one has to be pretty forgiving regarding technical singing in order to love punk.

This has been a real stickler for me as well. So many songwriters – David Foster, Burt Bacharach, etc. would never have made a name in the music business were it not for great singers like Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Michael Buble, Dionne Warwick and so many more.

Singers should be judged on their own merit, not whether or not they can carve out and tune or two.

Not everyone is lucky enough to be blessed with singing and writing talent. Brilliant songwriters often need singers to sing their songs – otherwise, their songs would never be heard. Brilliant singers often need to get songs from songwriters – otherwise, their voices would never be heard.

I do love people who can do both. And if I can feel the heart and emotion of a singer, I often find that I don’t care as much about how good they sound in a more technical way, especially when they have written the words to the song – but sometimes even when they haven’t.

It really grates on me when people say that singers aren’t artists if they don’t write their own music, and that opinion is SO prevalent. A great singer IS an artist, because he or she still has to connect with the song and find a way to make it mean something to those who are listening. That takes artistry.

I know that the comment above that was dealing with artistry was more directed at American Idol than at the singing/writing issue in general, but it reminded me of my feelings about the singing/writing issue in general.

I think American Idol THE SHOW has made great strides in allowing people to show artistry. They are allowing and encouraging more and more experimentation, and that is great. There has been some regression in the aspect that they started the Top 24 with theme nights instead of allowing more freedom to choose songs. But overall, it’s so much more exciting now than it was in the past.

I do agree that American Idol THE FINISHED PRODUCT when packaged into CDs tends to lose some of the artistry. I purchased Bo Bice’s first album, but I haven’t been able to make myself listen to it after learning that it was not what he wanted to produce. To this day, I still haven’t heard it. I loved Taylor on AI, but when I heard that his album wasn’t what he wanted, I didn’t purchase that one either. It’s so disheartening to cheer on contestants who are showing me what I want on the show and then be discouraged about their albums afterwards.

I don’t think the American Idol concept is terrible – I love that the public gets to let “the powers that be” know what they want to hear. There are flaws, but I’ll take what I can get in this case.

However, as you pointed out, several singers have battled this problem and overcome it to great success. I really credit them – it is a difficult hurdle to face during a performance and, in many cases, it can be crippling.

However, young David is still managing to keep the technical aspects at the core of his performance. Good for him – anxiety or no.

I don’t know if you have ever heard Idna Menzel sing..she played Elphaba in Wicked when it first opened on Broadway, she also plays Maureen in Rent. Anyway, there is a performance of her on youtube performing “Defying Gravity” (from Wicked) and you can quite noticeably hear breathing…however she has incredible vocal talent…just a side note and another example of an incredible singer who sometimes has the same problem as David A.

Looking forward to Lenon-McCartney next week and reading the reviews again…Thanks MCL!!

You are correct I am not a David A. fan because I find him highly overrated and the lisping, breath gasping and lip licking make him both unlistenable and unwatchable.

I used to find your analysis good, but in the past few years I am not hearing what you are apparently.

When will people realize they’re being sold on a inferior product? This is just mass marketing.. take someone with a decent voice (not to be confused with an actual ARTIST) and have someone write them songs, put them in a studio, and pop out an album in the short time that the AI audience can remember who they are.

Thankfully crappy product like this usually spawns rebellion within the REAL music industry. If there’s any consolation to American Idol it’s that maybe we’ll get another Ramones, Sex Pistols, Pearl Jam or Nirvana out of it.

Something creative, new and real.