'Any Man of Mine' Is Siobhan Magnus' Swan Song on American Idol

Just as we predicted after her unsettling Tuesday night performance, Siobhan Magnus' rendition of Shania Twain's "Any Man of Mine," proved to be her swan song, as she was voted off American Idol's competition last night.

Crystal Bowersox, Lee DeWyze and Aaron Kelly were the only contestants judged "safe" by voters, while Casey James and Big Mike Lynche joined Siobhan in the bottom three, before she eventually got the boot.

Crystal was lucky not to finish in the bottom three, after a lackluster performance of "No One Needs to Know," on Tuesday night, as the field of contestants each adapted and performed a song from Twain's country-pop song catalog.

We disagree with the American public's vote tally that put James in the bottom three:  his performance of "Don't" was his best of the season, followed by a very strong but sensitive showing by young Aaron Kelly on "You've Got a Way."    Big Mike turned in a decent but predictably vibrato-exaggerated performance of "It Only Hurts When I'm Breathing." Meanwhile, Lee picked the best song from Twain's repertoire - her pop classic "Still the One" - but despite his nice styling of that song, we were bothered by his continuing pitch problems.

Next week, we think it's time for Aaron to step up and show he can vocally deliver and capture an audience with an up-tempo tune, while Casey needs to remain unfazed by this week's vote - and continue to deliver progressively strong vocal performances in his Huey Lewis meets Southern rocker tradition. 

While we believe that Lee has a vocal style that is both commercial and contemporary, it's high time that he and the AI judges honestly address his persistent and distracting pitch issues.  If not, even if he wins the contest,  his unlucky producer will have to seriously auto-tune everything he sings in-studio.   And that won't address the pitch issues he will continue to have in his live shows - much like Taylor Swift, the Jonas Brothers and other young artists whose singing chops are very weak and artistically unsatisfying.  Lee's strength is that he has a highly identifiable voice and an alt-rock, singer-songwriter style that are well-defined and relevant to today's market.  He just has problems hitting and sustaining pitch when he pushes his voice into its higher register.

We still believe the competition is Crystal's to lose.  But she needs to stay away from weak material like Twain's "No One Needs to Know," avoid the contemporary-country genre like the plague - and continue to play to her strengths as a folk-blues-rocker ala Janis Joplin and Bonnie Raitt.

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

Casey James, Aaron Kelly Shine with Shania's Tunes on 'Idol'

Casey James tonight regained credibility and momentum as a real contender to win this season's American Idol competition, with a fresh and highly stylized interpretation of Shania Twain's "Don't," while 17-year-old Aaron Kelly showed off his sensitivity and Country chops with Twain's "You've Got a Way," while delivering the second-strongest of the evening's six performances.

Lee DeWyze showed his smarts by picking the best song in Twain's entire catalogue, with an interesting, if pitchy alt-rock version of her wonderful pop classic "You're Still the One."  While DeWyze has a great alt-rock vocal sound, he is frequently flat and sharp in pitch, a fact that the Idol judges steadfastly refuse to address.

Crystal Bowersox had her weakest performance of the competition with a straight-ahead and plodding traditional Country version of  "No One Needs to Know," which judge Simon Cowell correctly identified as one of Twain's weakest - and not very memorable songs.

Big Mike Lynche brought tears to mentor Twain's eyes with an over-sung version of "It Only Hurts When I'm Breathing," while Siobhan Magnus resorted to some powerful but predictable screams at the end of Twain's boring country traditional tune, "Any Man of Mine," with the judges about equally split on whether her finale was artistically exciting - or just another display of her usual vocal histrionics.

At this point, we believe Casey, Aaron and Lee turned in the strongest performances of the night, followed by Big Mike, Crystal and Siobhan, respectively.  We think it's time for Siobhan to hit the road, since her only really powerful and commercially artistic performance of this season, was her version of the Stones' "Paint It Black" several weeks ago.

And that's our view from The A And R Room.

'Momma 'Sox' Shows She's Ready to Win Idol with 'People Get Ready'

Crystal Bowersox left the comfort of her six-string to deliver an emotional "People Get Ready" tonight to showcase why she is the odd's-on favorite to win this year's American Idol, as she sparkled in competition featuring Idol's final seven contestants.

On a night on which contestants were asked to perform inspirational songs, and the young contestants were mentored by R&B superstar Alicia Keys, only Bowersox and young Aaron Kelly showed wisdom in song selection and delivered anything close to inspirational performances.

Kelly sang a spot-on interpretation of R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly."  Meanwhile, Teflon Tim Urban came through with a relatively in-tune but uninspired version of the Goo Goo Dolls' "Better Days," Siobhan Magnus completely missed the mark with a flat and banal performance of the Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey classic "When You Believe," and Big Mike Lynche accompanied himself on acoustic guitar on a passable but boring version of "The Hero."

Two other yawn-inspiring performances were delivered by Casey James with Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop (Thinkin' About Tomorrow),"  while Lee DeWyze sang an uneven and pitchy version of the Simon and Garfunkel masterpiece "The Boxer."

At this rate, it looks like barring an unforeseen injury, sickness or Act of God, Bowersox is almost a certain shoo-in to win this year's competition.  Part of our rationale for this prediction is that Bowersox is a consummate performer and truly ready to become a recording star.  Our other reason we believe she will win is because the Idol field this year is extremely weak.

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

Teflon Tim Escapes Again, Idol Fans Send Katie, Andrew Home

American Idol's fans got it half right tonight, sending home Andrew Garcia after a woeful rendition of Elvis' "Hound Dog," Tuesday night.  However, they screwed up mightily by sending home Katie Stevens who delivered a strong "Baby, What Ya Want Me To Do," when, instead it should have been the lacklustre Tim Urban getting the boot for his limp and mumbled version of "Can't Help Falling In Love."

Once again, Idol displayed the banality of pubescent young girls who apparently kept Urban in the competition despite his lack of singing talent.  Of course, Urban also had the "X" factor working for him, a subversive Blogsite that early this season identified him as the least-talented Idol performer and vowed to "stuff the ballot" to keep him on the show as long as possible, ala Sanjaya Malakar.

Tonight's voting results also demonstrated again why Idol needs to eliminate multi-texting and limit voting to one text per phone number, per show.  The only one benefiting from this voting abuse, besides Urban, is AT&T, which keeps racking up the minutes of network usage and revenues.

If Urban goes on to win this competition, no one in the music industry will ever take this show seriously again.

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

Elvis Rolls Over in His Grave While American Idol Singers Butcher His Songs

With the exception of strong and memorable performances by Crystal Bowersox and Lee DeDwyze, Elvis was surely rolling over in his grave as the majority of American Idol's final nine singers completely butchered songs from "The King's" catalogue tonight.

Bowersox opened the show with a spot-on rocking version of Elvis' gospel "Saved," while DeWyze stepped into a growly and soulful version of "A Little Less Conversation."

With those exceptions, the show dragged and sagged as Tim Urban mumbled his way through "Can't Help Falling in Love," Aaron Kelly stumbled through "Blue Suede Shoes," Siobhan Magnus completely destroyed the melody and flow of "Suspicious Minds," and Casey James delivered a throw-away and hardly recognizable reading of "Lawdy Miss Claudy."

The only other performances that rang with any resonance and honesty were Katie Stevens powerful, if predictable delivery of "Baby, What Do Ya Want Me To Do?" and big Mike Lynche, who came through with a soulful if abbreviated reading of "In the Ghetto."

Tonight's show further demonstated the banality and futility of Idol's having young singers trying to interpret songs from catalogues that they're removed from by four to five generations.  While I appreciate Simon's lack of tact in criticizing most of tonight's performances, a great deal of blame has to go to the show's producers who insist on these pointless "theme nights" in which young singers are asked to perform songs in genres and from time periods that they cannot relate to, and which have no relevance to today's music scene.

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

'Big Mike' Gets Saved by American Idol Judges

After finishing last among the Bottom Three, along with Andrew Garcia and Aaron Kelly, "Big Mike" Lynche earned a charitable and unanimous reprieve from the American Idol judges - to escape elimination in the AI competition tonight.

Proving once again that AI is first and foremost a popularity contest and not a true singing competition, American voters unbelievably let two far worse singers survive.  Both Garcia, who on Monday night sang a rather dull Big Band-Stray Cats version of the Lennon-McCartney classic "Can't Buy Me Love," and "Teflon Tim" Urban, who managed to make it through an uninspired rendition of "All My Lovin'." deserved to be sent home ahead of "Big Mike."  However, Big Mike fell into disfavor on Monday night by delivering an over-wrought rendition of "Eleanor Rigby."

Lee DeWyze also deserved to be in the Bottom Three tonight, after delivering a pitchy reading of  "Hey Jude," on Monday, inexplicably accompanied by a kilt-wearing bagpiper.

Casey James turned in the strongest performance of the week with a poignant reading of John Lennon's "Jealous Guy," while accompanying himself on acoustic guitar.  He was closely followed with a rousing rendition of "Come Together" by Crystal Bowersox and an uplifting interpretation of McCartney's pop-anthem "Let It Be" by Katie Stevens.

Two usual strong performers in the AI field had off-nights Monday, with Aaron Kelly looking and sounding a bit lost on "The Long and Winding Road," and Siobhan Magnus playing it a little too safe on a very timid version of "Across the Universe."

While we guessed that the judges would not let "Big Mike" go home early, the reality is that, considering how the AI demographics are skewed to pubescent female and predominantly white Middle America, his chances of surviving and winning the competition are slim to none.

We still think that Crystal, Casey and Aaron are still the class of this year's talent crop, but that Siobhan remains a wild card, who on a given night, is capable of delivering an inspired performance to tilt the voting her way.

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