Bowersox, Dewyze Rock 'Soul Night' on American Idol

Crystal Bowersox traded in her Berkinstocks for stilettos and her six-string  for a piano, delivering a show-stopping rendition of the Jim Weatherly-penned Gladys Knight classic "Midnight Train to Georgia," while Lee Dewyze power-shifted his raspy baritone into high gear on an up-tempo adaptation of the Cornelius Brothers' "Treat Her Like a Lady," highlighting several strong vocal performances among American Idol's Top 10 finalists tonight.  

Not far behind was Southern-rocker Casey Jones, who showed off Clapton-like guitar and vocal riffs on a blue-eyed-soul reading of the Sam & Dave classic "Hold On, I'm Coming," while Big Mike Lynche finally graduated from karoke-school oversinging and posturing with a sensitive reading of India Arie's "Ready for Love," and young Aaron Kelly sparkled on Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine."

Katie Stevens delivered a competent "Chain of Fools," but once again, let her poor choice of songs stunt her artistic growth and sense of direction - no one is ever going to confuse her version of the soul classic to Aretha's.

Biggest disappointment of the night was an off-key and uncertain performance of the Chaka Khan jewel "Through the Fire," by Siobhan Magnus, who, since her powerful and innovative version of the Stones' "Paint It Black" several shows ago, seems to have lost her way amid a couple of weak R&B song deliveries.  Siobhan belongs in alt-rock, ala Alanis, but just hasn't seemed to figure it out yet.

Stumbling through predictably weak performances were: Tim Urban with a surprisingly on-key - but woefully soul-less version of Anita Baker's "Sweet Love," Didi Bonami's butchering of the Motown chestnut "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?," and Andrew Garcia's Dave Matthews-like rendering of Chris Brown's "Forever."

R&B heartthrob and superstar recording artist Usher showed class and sensitivity in his guidance to contestants in their preparatory work - handing down smart stage-presence tips and singing subtleties to his young minions - with wisdom, kindness and clarity.

Once again, Simon and Kara argued whether young Katie's singing career belongs in country-pop (Simon's assertion), while Kara and Randy agreed that her strongest suit is in R&B-pop.

The AI show tonight had some redemptive qualities:  it was much better than last week's competition, when it seemed only about two singers rightfully deserved to be in the entire competition.  Based on tonight's show, Didi deserves to be the next AI finalist to get the door - closely followed by Tim and Andrew.

And that's our view from the "A&R Room."