American Idol Recap

A few things before we get this thing started. Got to meet up with Jennie and Inga last weekend. I'm still kind of working on a recap of that one. Secondly, I'm becoming more and more addicted to Guitar Hero II. There has been a slight improvement, but I still can't do a song on the hard difficulty. My one complaint is that most of the bonus tracks I have no interest in playing. This might be my one glaring problem with the game. The more difficult songs all tend to be metal songs. It makes sense that this would be the progression in the game, but it causes someone like me to stop playing once I reach a certain level. Do I want to keep playing to earn the right to play Drist? Trogdor? Yes.

So tonight is country night, with Martina McBride being the coach for this evening. It must be nice to have someone who can actually sing this time. When Eric and I were interning in Nashville, we got to see McBride sing an old gospel song at the Grand Ole Opry. The girl can sing. Of course the big question is if this is the night that gives the sisters leading the pack the most problem. The second is can Midnight Oil do anything to keep him from getting the ax?

As if the show is reading my mind, Midnight Oil kicks the night off with "Where the Blacktop Ends." I'll say now that I'm not going to know a lot about the songs that will be sung tonight. Is there anything more awkward than when the singer tries to interact with the audience by giving high fives and the like? He did pretty well for Midnight Oil. All the judges seemed to say that country is his style. It won't be enough to save him.

Jordin is the first contestant this night to attempt to kiss the guest coach's ass by singing McBride's song "Broken Wing." Not to be confused with "Broken Wings" by Mister Mister, but I wish Jordin would've made that mistake. Wow, Jordin nailed it. She actually performed the song rather than just sang it. I think she wins this thing.

Looks like Indian Barry Gibb is dressed for Springsteen night and not country night. Maybe they were doing a cover of Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl" and he didn't have time to change?

After the commercials IBG is going to sing "Let's Give Them Something to Talk About." He says he wants to do Bonnie Raitt justice. That's not going to happen...and it didn't happen. I beginning to like that this is really getting to Simon. He's right but him lashing out is always fun. The whole back and forth between him and Seacrest was nice. Seacrest coming to the defense of IBG I'm pretty sure was done just to infuriate Simon. If IBG actually won this thing, what would Simon do? Would he quit? I almost want to see what happens.

Big Momma will be singing former Idol Winner Underwood's song "Jesus Take The Wheel." Will a single contestant sing a country song released before 1990? Big Momma struggled with this one. Still, she's not in any danger.

The Other Chris is up next with "Mayberry" by that Rascal Flatts group. I can't stand his voice so I'm going to go ahead and mute it. Can I say I'm hypnotized by McBride's eyes? Are those contacts? They can't really be that blue can they? The Other Chris is finished, so let's see what they say. Apparently, they didn't feel it. Finally, Simon has been saying what I have for the past 10 weeks. He's too nasal in his singing. I agree with The Other Chris that he's been singing like this the whole time. He has, and it's been driving me up the wall. I don't know why Simon is starting to complain about it now.

Keeping the "screw old country" theme going, Bobblehead's song choice is "Trouble is a Woman." Martina hasn't even heard of the song. As always Bobblehead did really well. It seems unfair to sort of take for granted that Bobblehead sing well. It is, and I think that's going to hurt her in the end.

We wrap up tonight with CCM singing some Tim McGraw song. You'd think I'd be a fan of McGraw what with him being bald yet still landing Faith Hill as wife. You would think that something like that would give me hope. You'd think wrong. There's something about his tan in a can look or something that makes me doubt he is really any kind of cowboy or something. What the hell? This is a Ryan Adams song not Tim McGraw. After a little research it seems Tim McGraw covered it. Still, CCM should be giving the credit to Ryan Adams not McGraw. Now everyone is going to be picking up McGraw's album and not Ryan Adams.

So, there really isn't going to be any surprise tomorrow when Midnight Oil goes home. Then the real competition begins sort of. I mean IBG will still be around, and The Other Chris is clearly not as good as the rest of the competition. Maybe after those two go home then the competition will really begin.