Jordin, Kat and Kelly Celebrate Thanksgiving

Idols were everywhere on Thanksgiving…

Jordin Sparks “performed” in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. She did a good lip synch of “Tattoo” (For the record, everyone lip synchs in the parade.)…

Katharine McPhee sang the National Anthem at the Lions-Packers game. She was doing pretty well, until she forgot the cardinal rule of singing the anthem. Don’t start on such a high note that you can’t reach the higher notes that come later…

Kelly Clarkson performed at halftime of the Cowboys-Jets in conjunction with the Salvation Army’s kickoff of the red kettle campaign. She did a medley of “Walk Away,” “Never Again” and “Since U Been Gone”—or at least that’s what I heard before my mom turned the channel because she couldn’t handle Kelly’s screaming. In Kelly’s defense, her sound mix was WAY off since you couldn’t hear her backup singers at all. But she REALLY needs to give up on “Never Again.” There are at least two tracks from “My December” that would be radio hits, but I guess everyone’s just dropped it all together—including Kelly...

You can see part of her performance here.

Kelly Hits the Road with Reba

Kelly Clarkson is teaming up with Reba McEntire for the “2 Worlds 2 Voices Tour.”

The tour will kick off January 17th in Dayton and visit 15 cities through February 16th. Unfortunately, Dayton and Morgantown are as close as the tour will get to the Tri-State.

Speaking of Kelly and Reba, Reba told “Billboard” that “Because of You” was not what the duo originally planned to record. They recorded it after Reba’s husband/manager (and now Kelly’s manager) Narvel noticed “a spark” between them on the song when they were rehearsing for their “Crossroads” special…

Kat Celebrates "Christmas in Washington"

Katharine McPhee will be one of the performers for “Christmas in Washington.”

The concert will be taped December 9th at the National Building Museum and will air December 12th at 10 p.m. on TNT…

Are You Kidding Me?

So did anyone watch Kellie Pickler on “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” last month?

Holy cow…

I have just one question. Is Kellie really that ditzy or is she that good of an actress?

The best part to me was when she was asked what European country Budapest was the capital of. You can see it for yourself here.



By the way, Katharine McPhee helped her prepare for the show by playing the home game with her…

If Kellie is just acting, she deserves an Emmy. But if she isn’t, that doesn’t really say much for the Ablemarle, NC school system…

Blake CD Review: A Familiar Ring

There’s no doubt that Blake Lewis is the most original “Idol” contestant ever. However, I can’t really say that his album, “Audio DayDream” is all that original.

When compared to other Idols, it is absolutely completely different, but when compared to today’s music, it does have a bit of a familiar ring to it. I guess that’s what happens when your main collaborator is a Timbaland collaborator (Ryan Tedder of One Republic).

But in this case, that’s not a bad thing. In fact, it’s a very good thing…

Reaching into the Justin Timberlake playbook, Blake gives us interludes between some of the songs, which personally I would have preferred he leave off. However, the first one, “Silence Is Golden…(Intro)” is a perfect setup for the first single, “Break Anotha.” I know that “Break” is not everyone’s cup of tea and I can see how it would drive some people crazy, but I love it…

“Gots to Get Her” actually borrows from “Puttin’ On the Ritz.” How does that work, you might ask? Quite well, actually, as it makes for a very catchy tune. I could do without the vocoded ADD as the interlude, though, because it kind of takes away from the song…

The chorus of “Know My Name” is a little weak, but the beat is so catchy, you hardly notice. In fact it’s those infectious beats that save most of the songs on the CD. The guest rap on this one is completely unnecessary…

“How Many Words” is a great song with a real late-80s feel. One reviewer compared some of the tracks to Erasure, and that’s a great comparison. I would say this song is Erasure meets Breathe, if you remember them…

“Surrender” starts out pretty weak, and all of the verses are weak, but it has a good chorus. “Hate 2 Love Her” sounds a little similar to “Surrender,” but it’s still a good song…

A bad interlude leads us into the CD’s only real ballad, “Without You.” It’s pretty, but it’s a little out of Blake’s range…

“Here’s My Hello” sounds like it came straight from a late 80s/early 90s Erasure CD. And since I love Erasure, I love this…

At this point of listening to the CD, I was pretty excited. I was already drafting in my head what I was going to say about the best “Idol” CD recorded. And then I heard the Chris Richardson collaboration, “What’cha Got 2 Lose.” Blake, I know he’s your friend, but let him record his own album. The song is bad with way too much vocoder (the computer that changes your voice, a la T-Pain). Even the beat can’t save this one because it’s lousy, and so is the chorus. Plus it drags on for WAY too long…

Blake doesn’t do himself any favors with the next song either as he does his worst Prince impersonation on “She’s Making Me Lose It.” The synthesizers are weird and it too drags on for what seems like an eternity…

Then, Blake feels the need to remind us what made him famous as he does a beatboxing interlude called “Bshorty Grabs the Mike.” I think Blake is a great beatboxer, but this is a little weak…

Thankfully, the CD does not go completely down the tubes as we get the most Erasure-like song, the beautiful “End of the World.” Blake wisely chooses to stay on that path with two more good ones, “1000 Miles” and “I Got U”…

The CD ends with “…I Choose Noise (Outro),” which is a little strange, but I guess you can’t really have an intro without an outro…

If you don’t like highly produced pop music, you will hate “Audio DayDream.” But if you don’t mind some synthesizers with well-placed beatboxing, then you’ll love it. If I were to give it a grade, I’d give it a very strong A-.

The minus is for those two lousy songs, but they shouldn’t be enough to scare you away from buying this one…

You can listen to the CD for yourself here. Be sure to post a comment or send an e-mail to hdstaytuned@hotmail.com after you listen to it. I’m anxious to hear what you think…

"Next Great Band": The Light is Still On

I wasn’t all that anxious to watch “The Next Great American Band” this week since I knew Thursday who was eliminated thanks to an Internet spoiler. But last night, I finally got around to watching the bands perform the music of Rod Stewart.

So who got eliminated? Unfortunately it was the most fun band on the show (and also the one with the best name), Tres Bien.

Here’s the rundown on the five remaining bands…

Dot Dot Dot: “Young Turks”
It was a little too tame for me since I prefer Adam without the guitar, so I almost agreed with the judges’ criticisms this time—although I think Sheila was too harsh on Adam. But John said it was their best performance ever, and I completely disagree with that. B+

Denver and the Mile High Orchestra: “Baby Jane”
In the opening, we saw these guys struggling to pick a song, because many Rod Stewart songs have lyrics too risqué for their faith. They chose this one I’m not familiar with, so I didn’t know what Dicko was talking about when he chastised them for taking out too much of it. Denver’s vocal was good, but he’s still too stiff. B-

Sixwire: “Hot Legs”
This one gave the guys the chance to rock a little, complete with guitar solos. I don’t really like the song, but it was a good performance—despite the heavily criticized bass solo. A

The Clark Brothers: “You’re In My Heart”
The guys tried to turn this one into a slow, heartfelt ballad, but it didn’t work. Ashley’s vocal was extremely weak and the arrangement was sluggish. But apparently the judges were listening to something else because they loved it and Sheila was brought to tears. C

Light of Doom: “Infatuation”
Tres Bien had to know they didn’t stand a chance against the crowd favorite. And Erik responded with his strongest vocal of the season (He’s apparently taking voice lessons.). I never really thought of this one as a possible hard rock song, but it somehow worked. A-

So who should go home? Even though I gave The Clark Brothers the worst grade, I think it’s time for Denver and the Mile High Orchestra to go home. Obviously, Light of Doom is the worst of the remaining bands, but based on the audience, they’re not going anywhere—especially after a good performance.

Again, I have to express my concern that Light of Doom is going to win this thing. And Vote for the Worst will take all the credit, but they have nothing to do with it. It’s all about the novelty—although I’m terribly concerned that Mitchell, the 12-year-old drummer is inspired by Tommy Lee…

It’s interesting to note that according to Dicko, the bands can hire and fire anyone they want at this stage (which surprised The Clark Brothers). Dicko encouraged The Clark Brothers to bring in a fourth member, but I hope they don’t. If I was Denver and the MHO, I’d fire Denver…

Next week, the four remaining bands take on the music of Queen one hour later (9 p.m.). I’m going to go out on a limb, and predict that Light of Doom will do “We Are the Champions”…

Fashion Update

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