Why do they have country week? The judges hate it. The voting public doesn’t love it. Why can’t it just go away?
Now, on with the recap 
Taylor Hicks sang first. You all know that I love Taylor. And I really think he has a voice that could sing country well. But, to quote Randy— this was just alright for me. He just didn’t look like he was having any fun singing “Take Me Home Country Road”.
Mandesa sang “Any Man of Mine”. I have no problem with Mandesa’s weight. I think she is really beautiful, but that outfit was so distracting and made her look so big, I could hardly listen to the song. The judges seemed to be listening, though, and none of them cared for it.
I really like the song “If Tomorrow Never Comes”, but Elliott Yamin should not decide to switch over to singing country. Randy may have produced the song with Garth Brooks (tonight’s name-dropping moment), but I’m not sure he was listening to it. I would have called it tonight’s “what were the judges listening to” moment, but Simon wasn’t that crazy about it. Of course, Simon HATES country music, so it was difficult tonight to tell whether he was critiquing the singing or the songs.
Paris Bennett had a new hairstyle. She should have picked a new song, rather than butcher a perfectly lovely song like “How Do I Live”. Randy and Paula did not like it. Paula even got booed for her comments. Simon said he liked the song, but I’m not sure he wasn’t just enjoying Paula getting booed.
I really thought Ace Young might have been well-suited for country music. I thought he might be the surprise “hey they really SHOULD sing country” performance. But, alas, that was not the case. He may be well-suited to country, and at least he stopped doing that annoying hand pointing thing. But mostly his performance of “I Want to Cry” was just boring. Paula thought it was fine, but, come on— it’s Paula. Apparently, though, Ace is now single. Has he been taking advice from Kevin Covais?
Kellie Pickler sang “Fancy”, which I thought was a great choice for her. I have to agree with Simon’s assessment: “It would be a shocker if you didn’t do well this week.” It was one of the only songs this week that actually made me stop and pay attention.
Chris Daughtry looked dead in the eyes singing “I’m Gonna Love You”. Maybe the country music just does that to him I thought he should have saved “Walk The Line” for country music week, but I was glad that he didn’t scream this week. At least the song didn’t give me the creeps.
So, that brings us to this year’s “maybe you ought to switch to singing country” award. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you (drum roll, please) Katharine McPhee. She sang “Bringing Out the Elvis in Me”. My only other exposure to this song is the reality show “Tuckerville” (yes, I’ll watch anything that’s reality television). Tanya Tucker’s daughter sang it. Katharine McPhee was MUCH better than Tanya Tucker’s daughter. Simon hated the song, but Katharine called him on the fact that it’s really just that he hates country.
I can’t even tell you the name of the song Bucky Covington sang. I think it must have been “It’s Not So Bad” because those are the only words I could understand in the whole song. It was like he was singing in Scottish or Welsh. I felt like I should be able to understand it— I just couldn’t. Other than that, it sounded fine.
So, another vaguely disappointing country music week on American Idol. What more can I say? Anyone for some Queen?
