Posted on 05/08/2006 4:22:13 AM PDT by silent_jonny
BURBANK, California — Kellie Pickler has one complaint about the upcoming American Idols Live Tour.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1535017/20060623/taylor_hicks.jhtml?headlines=true
"I'm really upset that we're not going to Albemarle," the Southern belle from — yep! — Albemarle, North Carolina,
"Where're we going to perform if we go there?" Mandisa shot back.
"Well, you know, there aren't stadiums, but there are farms," Pickler replied. "We can have a hoedown."
Pickler's had a hard time convincing tour promoters to hit her hometown of 15,000, but the good news is, she's bringing her hoedown with her.
Pickler's peppy country vibe is just one of a vast variety of styles taking center stage at this summer's annual "Idol" tour, which kicks off July 5 in Manchester, New Hampshire (see " 'American Idol' Top 10 Add 20 More Shows To Summer Plans").
"We've got so many different genres of music for the tour, I think everyone will find a song they'll like," Pickler promised. "And we've got a lot of surprises. We've got group songs and duets and everything."
The Idols — the top 10 from the 2006 season — would like to keep the show full of surprises, but MTV News managed to get a few details out of them Thursday, beginning with Pickler's duet.
"Bucky [Covington] and I are singing a song together," Pickler revealed. "It's a song off of 'Grease,' I'll tell you that, but it's still country."
"Yeah, we could sing a song about a Big Mac with no cheese and they'd say, 'Is that a country song?' " Covington added. "We checked out a bunch of country duets, but we wanted something kinda funner, you know? And there aren't that many country duets out there."
"They're all love songs, and Bucky's not that lucky," Pickler quipped.
Also singing together will be Paris Bennett with Lisa Tucker and Mandisa with Ace Young. "I'm going to try to sing over the screams of girls in the audience," Mandisa said.
"[The concert promoters] definitely want us to do our compilation songs, but I think all of us are so tired of doing genres that we just want to sing, we just want to do what we do," she continued. "I can't do anything out of my niche. When I tried to do it, I got kicked off, so I'm gonna stick to what I know."
Chris Daughtry and runner-up Katharine McPhee were absent from Thursday's rehearsals, but winner Taylor Hicks was present and coughing up more than anyone else about his American Idols Live set.
"Expect some vintage rock and roll. I'll probably do some Beatles, some obscure Beatles," Hicks said. "And Kat, I love singing with her. I'll do some stuff with other people. Harmonica, of course. I'll be playing a lot of guitar. On the show I wasn't allowed to be an instrumentalist. Now I'm free as an artist, and I'm very excited about that."
And he's not the only one. Covington's been teaching Young guitar, so don't be surprised to see either with an ax around their neck.
"And I can tell you I finally get to play piano and sing, so I'm so excited about that," Tucker said.
And Bennett is promising both her of signatures from the show.
"I get to shake one more time, but this time I get to do it in full-fledge, and it's not just a minute," she said, referring to the Beyoncé moves she showcased on "Idol." "And if I wear my hair the same for every song, people are going to be like, 'No, that's not her.' So trust me, I've got some tricks under my sleeves."
Third-place finisher Elliott Yamin is also looking forward to the comparative freedom the tour will offer.
"There's no cameras and no judges, so I think all of us are gonna be a little more natural," he said. "I know I'll be a little more natural, less nervous. We're gonna have a lot of fun."
"We're gonna do the crowd favorites, obviously," Ace said. "But on top of that, I wanna show the world what's to come from Ace Young, what my style is, what I write like, what to expect. It's gonna be crazy, but I'm gonna definitely take the whole world on the ride with me."
I am waking up this thread because I have seen and eard the most fantastic talent perhaps ever. She is only 11 years old and has a voice bigger than you can possibly imagine.
She was on "America's Got Talent" which is the 21st Century "Gong Show" but they have a few great acts.
I didn't get her name but she was amazing. If they would let her perform on AI she would have kicked everyone's butt, including Taylor's. She sang a VERY difficult song with huge key changes and knocked it through the rafters.
I literally got goosebumps.
If anyone caught her name, please let me know. This little girl is potentially the Judy Garland of her generation. She is the real deal.
I only caught her first name, it is Bianca.
After running it on 'Idol,' Underwood showing drive
http://www.charleston.net/stories/?newsID=95171§ion=preview
BY DEVIN GRANT
As much as America loves to hate Simon Cowell, folks still listen intently when he has something to say.
This is because the music producer and judge on the wildly popular American Idol television show is almost always right when it comes to picking a winner.
After Cowell watched American Idol contestant Carrie Underwood sing a cover of Heart's "Alone" last year, he made a bold prediction "Carrie, you're not just the girl to beat," said Cowell on the March 22, 2005 broadcast, "you're the person to beat. I will make a prediction, not only will you win this competition, but you will sell more records than any other previous 'Idol' winner."
As it turned out, Cowell was correct about Underwood being the winner on that season's show.
The Oklahoma native, who performs Friday at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center, beat out Bo Bice and released her debut CD, "Some Hearts," the following November.
The country album has proved Cowell right in the other part of his prediction. "Some Hearts" sold 315,000 copies its first week out, which launched the CD to the No. 1 spot on the country charts.
The CD, which has since sold more than three million copies, also proved to be the biggest debut for a country artist since SoundScan was first used to track record sales in 1991.
But even if she hadn't won on American Idol, the truth is that Underwood would have most likely succeeded in just about anything she tried in life.
Raised in a rural part of Oklahoma, Underwood performed for a local talent show every year since she was a child. She also graduated second in her high school class, then went on to graduate magna cum laude with a degree in communications from Northeastern State University.
Since winning on American Idol, it seems that the jobs have begun to come fast and furious for Underwood.
She sang the national anthem before Game 4 of the NBA finals last year, and she has been seen on television and in print advertisements for Hershey's candy bars and Skechers shoes.
Teen People magazine named Underwood one of its "25 Hottest Stars Under 25" and PETA honored her as "the World's Sexiest Vegetarian" (Underwood stopped eating meat early in her teens).
She even has a day named after her, courtesy of Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn. As a result, May 25 is Carrie Underwood Day in Oklahoma.
When Underwood performs here Friday night fans will have a chance to see the country star close-up.
Heavily influenced by country stars such as Martina McBride, Underwood has nonetheless developed her own special sound.The fact that she plays guitar and piano certainly doesn't hurt either.
Expect to hear hits such as "Inside Your Heaven" and "Jesus, Take the Wheel," as well as other songs from Underwood's debut CD.
She might even treat the crowd to a bit of yodeling, a talent she showed off to Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show" soon after winning American Idol.
Whatever the case, those going to see Underwood's performance will be seeing a woman who it seems could accomplish just about anything she sets out to do.
Oh well, Taylor is a gentleman and will have a great future. He's played harmonica with Snoop and he played with Widespread Panic last night. He got some rave reviews from people who loathed him from the show. They said he tore the hell out of that harp. I'm waiting to find the mp3 of the performance.
He's going to do the Stadium of Fire concert tomorrow and from what I've read folks are working on getting video from the Armed Forces Network feed.
Listen to Taylor Hicks on Harmonica jamming with WIDESPREAD PANIC.
CLICK HERE :
http://panicstream.net/streams/6_29_06/player.html
just scroll down in the box to the last song its called Fishwater and press play ( Taylor is on harmonica )
cheers
FOR THOSE WHO CAN'T BE THERE, I HEARD THAT THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY TO VIEW THE STADIUM OF FIRE CONCERT.
If you go to the following link : http://myafn.dodmedia.osd.mil/tv/schedule/ you can put in your current time (Eastern, Pacific etc.) and it will show you what time the Stadium of Fire Concert will be airing.
I'm in NY, supposedly for the Eastern time zone it will air on Monday, July 3rd at 90 pm on the Pentagon Channel. We should be able to view it on the streaming video at http://www.pentagonchannel.mil . They will also air the show on the same pentagon channel on the 4th at 2 pm Eastern.
Kellie appeared on David Spade's Showbiz Show in a skit where she critiqued Spade's karaoke skills. She did well in it, but her makeup was horrible.
TAYLOR HICKS LIGHTS SOUL FIRES AT THE STADIUM OF FIRE !
This is sort of Kelly Clarkson and Bo Bice and Ayla Brown and Clay Aiken related, but I thought it was interesting.
Kara DioGuardi is a pop song writer/background vocalist/producer who has written with Kelly (Breakaway, Gone, Walk Away, Where is Your Heart, You Found Me, I Hate Myself for Losing You, and Hear Me) and Bo Bice (his "Real Thing" single and others) and many others (Gwen Stefani's megahit "Rich Girl", Ashlee Simpson's megahit "Pieces of Me", Hilary Duff's megahit "Come Clean", Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten"-- sung by Ayla Brown, songs from Lindsay Lohan's "Speak" album-- a pretty good pop album, actually, that doesn't get a lot of props because it's Lindsay Lohan and not some established pop singer, and on Clay's "Measure of a Man" album, etc.).
She's joined up with the guy from the Eurythmics for this band called "Platinum Weird" that is an actual band with a fake history-- VH1 is helping to promote its fake history in a fake documentary coming up.
For those who have never heard Taylor's original composition, THE DEAL, which he performed for 50,000 at the Stadium of Fire A LA Bob Dylan with Guitar on hand and a harmonica stand, listen to it here :
For those who want to experience listening to THE DEAL again, it's here in our board.
SEE HERE :
http://www.theofficialsoulpatrol.com/forum/index.php?topic=1521.0
could be Bianca Ryan. There are videos of her here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqs_-Jj1ul4&search=bianca%20talented
Yes, that is it!
Thanks for the video! I get GOOSEBUMPS listening to her.
She hits it without vamping it. AND SHE IS 11 YEARS OLD!!
She was like 150% over the best AI has ever produced.
Jonny, can you ping the gang to this link? I'd like more opinions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqs_-Jj1ul4&search=bianca%20talented
I know this is different but you have to make the reference -- It's a rule ;)
It's almost bizarre to watch her because you don't expect that voice to come out of that person.
She's very good. Thanks for the link.
I haven't been watching this tread in a while but Kat is off the tour for a while with "throat" problems. Everyone has to pick up some slack while she's out. Projected to be 3 weeks....
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