American Idol - Top 11

Wow it's already Country Week! Usually they have a few weeks under their belts before they're all shoved into this most unforgiving genre but here we are so let's do a recap! I think the hardest thing about country week is that you take a bunch of people with phenomenally different musical styles and everyone freaks out because they just don't OWN a pair of suspenders and cowboy boots!!! A few of them made it through with flying colors, others got bucked off the mechanical bull.

Randy Travis was the celebrity coach for the week. He is one of my favorite singers and I really liked seeing him interact with the contestants. Some more than others... *cough* adamlambert *cough*...

Flying headfirst to the mats is Michael Sarver singing Garth Brooks' “Ain’t Goin’ Down Till the Sun Comes Up.” Simon nailed it when he said he couldn't understand a word Michael was singing. Kara gives him props for remembering all the words but you don't know, he could have been just mumbling through the parts he forgot, no one would have been able to tell. It was pitchy and awkward and I don't think the addition of the harmonica player made it more "artistic" as Paula put it, as much as just added someone else on the stage to look at when you couldn't look at Michael's goofy "country boy" facial expressions anymore. Too much growling and "WOOOOOOOO!"ing. I think Michael could be in trouble tonight. Plus, he backtalked to Simon, and that's never a good move. The voters don't LIKE it when the contestants get mouthy. When will these people learn??

Allison Iraheta is up next with Patty Loveless' “Blame It On Your Heart”. I love this girl! She is so good! Her vibrato was a little out of control tonight and again, a little too much growling, but she is pretty much right on with her pitch but loses it in some places, and this is one of my all time favorite songs. I definitely voted for her and I hope she makes it through to next week. Paula tells Allison to experiment more, and I'm going to hope she means "vocally" and not "pharmecuetically" because we all know where that's landed Paula! Randy loved it, Kara thinks Allison could sing the Alphabet, but I think what she meant to say was "phonebook" which is Paula's line, and Simon thought it was good but precocious.

Kris Allen sings Garth's “To Make You Feel My Love” and I thought it was beautiful! That's pretty much all I can say about that performance. There wasn't anything goofy or over the top about it. I loved it, he definitely got votes from me last night and I hope to see him back next week. Simon thinks Kris has shown that he has a shot at going really far in the competition. I'm not sure it's enough to ensure him a ticket to the top 5 or anything like that, but it was definitely an improvement on last week.

Lil Rounds is up next singing Martina McBride's “Independence Day”. Also one of my favorite songs and I think she started off really well. Lil's trouble was with her arrangement, it felt hurried. She didn't have enough time to spell out the story of WHY it was Independece Day before she hit the chorus and then she didn't have enough time to belt out the best notes of the song, which she's very capable of hitting. Hard song to sing, thought she nailed it best she could. The judges gave her a hard time with her pitch but I didn't think it was that bad. I was mad at Randy for suggesting she should have sang “I Will Always Love You” because that song has been done to DEATH on this show and I give her props for NOT taking that route, which would have been the easy way out of doing a COUNTRY song on COUNTRY week. Then, after trashing her performance, Simon keeps calling her "Little" because it's short for "Lil" but this isn't "Lil" as in "Lil' Kim"-"Lil", Lil's name is actually short for Lillian, which was discovered by SIMON during her audition when he ASKED her what "Lil" was short for. GAH!

Adam Lambert is up next and sings some horrible version of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire". Randy Travis looked like he just wanted to get Adam's sing-through over and done with as fast as humanly possible. It was awful. It was SO over the top and campy and actually kind of insulting. He sings a "middle-eastern sitar-inspired" version he says he found online. People need to realize that not EVERYONE can do the Daughtry/David Cook thing where you take a song and find a version that better fits your style. Different doesn't always = Better. Kara calls it right when she says it was strange. Simon calls it right when he says it was indulgent rubbish. Right on, Simon.

Scott MacIntyre is back behind the piano singing Martina's "Wild Angels”. He does a pretty version of it but it was kind of boring. He slowed it wayyyyy down. It was really nothing spectacular. Paula would like to see him out from behind the piano, but I disagree... it's distracting when he wanders around the stage, I'm always fearful he's going to fall over the edge. He's better off sitting down, and hey, if he's sitting, he might as well be doing something, so the piano works for me.

Alexis Grace is next, singing Dolly Parton's “Jolene.” She was flat through most of the song and I didn't think she connected with it at all. She has a good voice but there wasn't anything majorly interesting about this performance. I'm tired of the judges giving her props for being "dirty" and then ripping her down when she's not "dirty" enough. This is a family show for goodness sake!

Danny Gokey sings “Jesus, Take The Wheel”. This is the 1st week I haven't been head over heals with Danny's singing. I had to rewind it twice and listen again because I kept tuning out in the middle of the song. I hate sounding like a cynic but the whole "Inspirational Song From The Poor, Yet Cute and Cuddly Widower" act is wearing a little thin.

Anoop is up next! YAY! I love him! He sings “You Were Always On My Mind.” and probably had the best performance of the night. I loved it! The vocals were right on, very pretty, and I thought he nailed it. He definitely got my vote tonight. The judges loved it, too.

Up next is Megan Joy with “Walking After Midnight”. She misses a lot of notes and I don't like the way she purposefully minspronounces words. She doesn't talk like that in real life with that goofy accent, why is she singing like that? The weird arm-flappy dance was back in full force, too. It wasn't a bad song choice and i feel bad she had the flu because I, too, am just recovering from some week-long horrible flu thing but, no, that was just bad... She doesn't have that great of a voice. Again, with me please "Different does not mean Better". The judges like her because she's quirky, though, so... I have no idea where this girl will end up after tonight's song.

Matt Giraud is up last singing Carrie Underwood's “So Small.” It was really good, he's a good singer, has a nice voice, has been pretty solid in his performances, and I expect we'll be seeing more of Matt. I loved his version, very nice work with the piano, he definitely earned my vote and hopefully we'll see more of him next week.

I have no idea who the bottom 3 will be tonight. I'll go with Michael Sarver for sure. Based on tonight's performances I think Adam and Alexis should be joining him but I think Adam will pull through okay. I guess we'll have to tune in to see!