Hi Everybody,

First of all, let me start by saying that I hate country week.  Don’t get me wrong, I like country music, but I just don’t want to hear it on American Idol.  I don’t think it’s fair to make everyone perform such a specific genre of music.  But I guess it’s an American Idol tradition so here we go.

The evening starts out with Texan Michael Sarver.  He is so suited for this type of music I would guess this is why he is first up tonight.  I think this is where he should concentrate his talents, but the judges don’t see what I saw.  This is exactly my point.  You have an American Idol performer sing a country song on country night and the judges don’t like it.  What do they want?

Allison Iraheta took a country song and put her rock solid spin to it.  Randy called it “dope”.  That it was.

Next up is Kris Allen.  From the beginning, I’ve been backing this guy.  Tonight he chooses a ballad-type performance–just him and the microphone.   All the judges loved him but what is most impressive is Simon using the words “terrific” and “smart choice”.  Simon actually CLAPPED at the end.  Wow.

There has been a lot of talk about how soulful Lil Rounds would do during country week.  She chose Martina McBride’s Independence Day.  Different from her regular type songs, the judges couldn’t handle the change.  I have to say, I get chills when she sings.

Singing Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire is Adam Lambert.  He definitely stripped the country out of this song.  Way to go Adam!  The judges say he’s always true to himself.  I think he’s unique and I can’t wait to see what he does next.

Scott McIntyre’s number was called “safe” by the judges for the second week in a row.  He really needs to step it up to catch up to some of the others.

I really hate “Jolene”, the song that Alexis Grace sang.  The judges aren’t really impressed.  My husband says she’s not going anywhere yet.  So far I don’t see a performance standing out as “most likely to get voted off tonight”.

Nerves really got to Danny Gokey when he met Randy Travis.  Thank goodness he doesn’t do that when he performs on stage.  Danny sings Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus Take the Wheel”.  This kind of song is right up his alley and he nails it.  Simon actually agrees with Paula and complements Danny, but then criticizes his outfit.  That’s our Simon.

All throught the series of commercials, I worry about the next performance by Anoop Desai.  He chooses “You Are Always On My Mind”.  Randy Travis is very complimentary during his intro.  Simon said and I quote “you have just gone from zero to hero” and “one of the best performances of the night” AND “I take back what I said last week”.  Woohoo…you go Anoop!!!

Megan Joy sang “Walking After Midnight” while battling the flu.  I wish I look like that when I have the flu.  Never mind, I just hope I never get the flu!  But anyway, she did a good job…very sexy and the judges all were happy with what they saw.

Last tonight is Matt Geraud.  Similar to Michael Sarver this should be an easy night for him.  He accompanies himself on the piano and sings a Carrie Underwood song.  The judges rave.  For the third time tonight, Simon is very positive and complimentary.  Simon says Matt reminds him of Michael Buble and Randy says he reminds him of Justin Timberlake.

This is a tough week for picking who will be at the bottom.  I thought everyone sang well.  I’m a bit concerned about Adam Lambert because his version of Ring of Fire was really “out there”.   Michael Sarver isn’t going to make it to the top so he can be eliminated any time now.  If I had to pick who I thought was the least impressive tonight I’d have to go with Scott McIntyre.

We’ll see tomorrow.  Bloggergal1