Idol Chatter

Katelyn Epperly says she’ll be pulling for Crystal

Katelyn Epperly admits she might have overcompensated and stepped out of her element.

And the move might have cost her a spot in the American Idol finals.

Two weeks ago, judges proclaimed her performance of Coldplay’s “The Scientist” as too slow, too sleepy.

That didn’t bother Katelyn. She called the two minutes she spent sitting behind the piano performing that song her most memorable moment on Idol.

The song is one Katelyn says she plays often when going through difficult times. And she wanted to slow it down, to put the focus on the lyrics.

“It’s a song that’s sad, but also hopeful,” she says.

This week, she opted to try something a little more upbeat — Carole King’s “I Feel the Earth Move.”

It wasn’t well received by the judges. Or by Idol viewers, based on the results of Thursday’s show.

“I definitely was trying to find a song that would portray me as an artist, which is difficult for a singer/songwriter in this competition because, first of all, I don’t listen to mainstream music and, second of all, I don’t typically perform covers,” the 19-year-old from Des Moines, Iowa said Friday in her exit interview with the media.

“So I kind of scrambled around, last minute, trying to do something … I brought out the Wurlitzer keyboard. I wanted to do something edgier. It didn’t work out for me. But I definitely don’t regret doing it, because I love that era and I love that song.”

Katelyn addressed several other issues in an unusally frank discussion that didn’t always toe the American Idol line.

She admits she had some “cred” issues with trying out for Idol, but decided to go ahead because Idol now allows instruments and seemed to welcome singer/songwriters this year — “people who are credible musicians and have been working at it their whole lives and truly deserve it (rather) than someone who rolls out of bed one day and wanted to be on a TV show and had an OK voice and a pretty face.”

Of course, voters gave two of those singer/songwriters — her and roommate Lilly Scott — the boot Thursday night in eliminations that caught many Idol watchers by surprise (count me among them).

Viewers got it wrong, according to Katelyn.

“I’m gonna say, it was a pretty big disappointment for me to see Lilly go home, because if I were to be home watching that show, she would, by far, over all the other girls, not be the one going home.”

Katelyn was asked which singer she’ll support through the rest of the competition. It’s a question most contestants dodge. First, Katelyn said she wishes all the members of the final 12 the best.

But she didn’t stop there. After all, singer-songwriters stick together.

“From the start, Crystal Bowersox has been a very, very true friend to me, and she is a genuinely good, true person and when she sings, it comes from the heart. I know you’ve seen it if you’ve watched her. It’s just natural for her. She totally deserves it, and I’m going to be pulling for her all the way.”

As for herself, Katelyn says she considers Idol a launching pad, one of the best from which to start a career.

She plays to head back to Des Moines and “start working” because she’s “flat broke.” But she plans to dive into writing new music with other artists, including an Ohio-based rock/pop/soul group called Lovedrug.

“I’m going to be recording as soon as I possibly can,” she said.

Idol has a final 12, and voters got the girls all wrong

If I were into conspiracy theories, I’d think someone was personally sabotaging American Idol’s female contestants this season.

It started in week one of the finals, when Janell Wheeler and Ashley Rodriguez were sent home. Potential season nine Idols? Perhaps not. But they showed potential.

The capper was last night.

First, voters jettisoned Katelyn Epperly, who admittedly wasn’t very good Wednesday, but had performed pretty well up to that point.

Then, just to prove they could be even more foolhardy, Lilly Scott gets a ticket home.

You read right: Lilly Scott. Now, Lilly did herself no favors by singing Patsy Cline’s “I Fall To Pieces” for her final semifinal performance. But, heck, to me she looked like one of Idol’s top four or five contestants this year.

Gone.

Instead, we have Paige Miles. She butchered Kelly Clarkson’s “Walk Away” two weeks ago. Just to prove it wasn’t a fluke, she did worse with “Smile” this week. I rated that as the worst performance among the girls this week.

Instead, we have Lacey Brown. I dubbed her Lucky Lacey because no way she should have survived week one’s “Landslide.” Week two’s “Kiss Me” wasn’t much better.

Wow, what were voters thinking.

Oh, well, time for the results recap in the format I’ll be following through the rest of the season.

Deserved his fate: Curiously, Todrick Hall turned in his best performance after being eliminated. It was certainly heads and shoulders above his performance during the first two weeks of the semifinals. He deserved to go home then. I wouldn’t say anyone else who was eliminated Thursday deserved to be. I predicted Alex Lambert would go home, but that elimination could have gone to any one of two or three guys.

Very, very lucky: We’ve already covered the luckiest — Paige Miles and Lacey Brown, neither of whom deserves her spot. Among the guys, the luckiest might be Andrew Garcia. Not that he shouldn’t be in the finals. But he’s been a disappointment ever since establishing high expectations with his acoustic version of “Straight Up” during Hollywood Week. I really wasn’t certain who would stay and who would go when he and Alex Lambert were standing side by side on the stage last night.

Stock rising: Siobhan Magnus. At least the people voting for the girls got that one right. I still think Crystal Bowersox is tops among the female talent, but I wonder if she’s as versatile as Siobhan, who had a punk rock and theatrical background. Anyway, Siobhan hit that big note and got rave reviews from the judges two weeks ago, then topped that with a brilliant job on “House of the Rising Sun” this week.

Stock sinking: Aaron Kelly’s, or at least it should be. He didn’t stand out once in the semifinals, after bungling his lyrics in Hollywood and still getting a free pass. His week three semifinal performance was his weakest yet and he was singing to his strength, country music.

On the bubble: Tim Urban squeaked into the top 12. Will he be a sleeper among this year’s finalists? My guess is that he’ll need to deliver “Hallelujah”-like performances to survive the next couple of weeks. If he does that, he should hang around. Someone else among a rather mediocre final 12 will surely stumble.

Of course, after Thursday night, whether they pay the prices for stumbling is anyone’s guess.

Coming tonight or tomorrow morning: The Associated Press should move photos of the Final 12 Party. When they do, I’ll post them.

Coming tomorrow evening: Exit interviews with the unfortunate four — Katelyn Epperly, Lilly Scott, Todrick Hall and Alex Lambert.

Two shocking eliminations among the Idol girls

So tonight we find out who makes the final 12 on American Idol, who has the chance to be the next Kris Allen, David Cook, Jordin Sparks or Carrie Underwood.

Speaking of Carrie, right about now she’s opening her “Play On” tour in nearby Reading, Pa., with what she promises will be a bigger show with more frills than fans are used to at one of her shows.

Tomorrow, I’ll post links to any coverage I can find of that performance.

But back to the matter at hand, American Idol season 9.

So who do you think’s going to make it?

My sure-shots among the ladies include Crystal Bowersox (consistently excellent), Lilly Scott (consistently distinctive) and Katelyn Epperly (consistently solid … OK, until this week).

My sure-shots among the guys include Casey James (Mr. Eye Candy, who really can sing), Michael Lynche (he can sing, too, but I didn’t think last night was as brilliant as the judges did) and Lee DeWyze (who has been as consistent among the guys as Crystal has among the girls).

I used to have Andrew Garcia and Aaron Kelly in that list. Then, last night, they sang like they didn’t belong while Tim Urban, Alex Lambert and Todrick Hall turned in their best peformances yet.

Bottom line: Lots of contestants on the bubble. Lots of suspense on Idol tonight, which is always good for a results show.

And we get to hear from Scott MacIntyre and Matt Giraud during this evening’s show. I’ve been listening to Scott’s new CD “Heartstrings” (available via iTunes and his MySpace) on and off all day. I’ll post a review of it Sunday.

Speaking of new CDs, if you didn’t hear, Danny Gokey’s CD debuted at a very impressive number four on the Billboard 200 today.

The predictions I posted the last two nights had Todrick and Alex Lambert heading home among the guys; Katie Stevens and Paige Miles among the girls. In the case of Alex and Katie, it’s not what I would prefer to see happen, simply what I think will.

We just learned next week’s themes: Songs from the Rolling Stones.

Didi Benami makes the top 12.

Siobhan Magnus makes the top 12.

Paige Miles makes the top 12.

Katelyn Epperly goes home. No way. Voters got that one wrong. Paige was terrible the last two weeks.

Now for some guys.

Casey James makes the top 12.

Tim Urban makes the top 12.

Lee DeWyze makes the top 12.

Todrick Hall goes home. Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! The wonderful wizard of butchered songs and canceled Oz shows is going home.

And now, we get a mix of guys and girls advancing.

Crystal Bowersox makes the finals.

Michael Lynche makes the finals.

Lucky Lacey Brown makes the finals. Bad, bad news for Katie Stevens.

Aaron Kelly, Mr. Lucky, makes the finals.

Either Andrew Garcia or Alex Lambert is going home. My guess is Alex, but it could go either way.

And Andrew is in; Alex is out. Shame, that elimination follows his best performance and Andrew’s worse.

That leaves two girls and one stool. And the girls are Lilly Scott and Katie Stevens … hmm.

And Ryan promised us surprises at the start of the show. We just got a huge one.

Lilly Scott heads home. Voters got it wrong again.

It almost seems as though someone is trying to sabotage the girls this year. In three weeks, the only elimination I really agreed with was Haeley Vaughn.

Lacey Brown and Paige Miles in the finals? After the last three weeks?

Were they adopted by Vote for the Worst or something?

Idol Guys Week 3: Who should stay and who should go

What got into the American Idol guys Wednesday night?

I mean, all season we’ve been hearing about how this year’s girls are better than the guys.

And through the first two weeks of the semifinals, that appeared to be the case.

Subtract John Park and Jermaine Sellers, add stepped-up performances from Alex Lambert and Tim Urban, and I thought the episode we jsut watched was the best Idol semifinal show this season.

Nice going guys.

And way to make tomorrow night’s show more suspenseful. Now I’m not the least bit sure who will be going home.

But I’ll give it a shot in this recap blog. You’ll find the song-by-song rundown from tonight’s show here.

Best of the night:

OK, Mike Lynche got all the accolades at the end of the show. What did Simon call that performance? The best of the semifinals? I wouldn’t go that far. But Big Mike hit notes high and big, and certainly nailed down his spot in the finals. Hey, and he’s still looking stylish.

Just as impressive to me was Mr. Eye Candy himself, Casey James. No pretend rocker with a baby blue guitar this week. Just Casey sitting on a stool, playing his guitar and singing a heartfelt version of Keith Urban’s “You’ll Think of Me.” I thought it was easily his best performance of the semifinals.

Somewhat forgotten, perhaps because he sang first, was Lee DeWyze, who has been the most consistent performer among the guys during these early rounds. Those three should be finals bound, because there’s a big gap between them and the rest of the field.

Deserves to go home:

What were the judges hearing when Aaron Kelly sang — or tried to sing — Lone Star’s “I’m Already There?” He got credit for picking an upbeat song. Hey, great. Admittedly, there were an awful lot of ballads being trotted out Wednesday. But you have to sing well, and Aaron didn’t. The weakest vocal of the night, for a guy that hasn’t had a “wow” moment in the competition yet.

What were the judges hearing when Todrick Hall sang? The background singers sounded really good. Todrick sounded OK. And just OK isn’t good enough, not after butchering Kelly Clarkson and Tina Turner songs in the first two weeks.

Please keep him:

Tim Urban. Simon basically told him he didn’t belong two weeks ago. Remember? After Tim’s tepid version of One Republic’s “Apologize.” Well, Wednesday night, Tim showed why he belonged. He trotted out “Hallelujah,” a song that’s familiar to Idol fans. And it was a risky song choice because so many people probably remember Jason Castro’s version at this very same point in the competition. But Tim pulled it off.

Surprise of the night:

Andrew Garcia tried to surprise everyone by singing Christina Aguilera’s “Genie in a Bottle.” Well, we’ve come to expect unexpected song choices from him. I’m sure lots of people were hoping he’d return to “Straight Up” form, especially with so much on the line in Wednesday’s show. He didn’t. Suddenly, the dad who looked like an early frontrunner among the guys looks like he’ll be lucky to squeak into the top 12.

Baffled by the judges:

Darn right I was baffled, by the way too complimentary reviews for Aaron Kelly and Todrick Hall, and for the lukewarm reception Casey James got for what I thought was one of the best efforts of the night.

Best line of the night by the judges:

Simon, after Kara told Aaron Kelly he sang a song that didn’t fit his age. “Kara, I think what you just said is complete and utter rubbish.” Wow! I would love to have been able to read the thought bubble over Kara’s head after that.

Prediction for Thursday:

I’m predicting Todrick goes home. For starters, I don’t want to see the wicked wizard of canceled Oz shows in the finals. Then there’s this: the benefit of this semifinal format is that we get to see who can perform well week after week. Todrick followed up awful and horrendous with an OK performance Wednesday. Add it up, and it isn’t finals worthy.

Alex Lambert is likely to be the second elimination. He looked less nervous and sang better last night. But add up all three performance, and he hasn’t been finals worthy either. That said, I wouldn’t be the least bit disappointed to see him stay and the overrated Aaron Kelly get the boot instead.

 Song-by-song grades:

Michael Lynche: A-
Casey James: A-
Lee DeWyze: B
Tim Urban: B
Alex Lambert: C+
Todrick Hall: C
Andrew Garcia: C-
Aaron Kelly: C-