St. Louis brought the audition rounds to a close but it also brought it to a very satisfactory conclusion too. (It wasn't supposed to be the last audition round however but I'll save that reference for my own paragraphical conclusion at the bottom of my recap.) They gave us five very talented singers and you could tell by the blatant invoking of Carrie Underwood that they feel that Lauren Gray could be their next big female star. Let's take a quick peek at each of the five highlighted ticket getters.
1) John Keyser - 22 - Pampano Beach, FL - Server
"Change Is Gonna Come" (Sam Cooke)
Steven - Yes Jennifer - Yes Randy - Yes
(All 3 "Yeses" Implied)
I couldn't help but think that Keyser looked a bit like a young Matt Damon or at least to an extent. He is exactly the kind of singer the predominately female voting American Idol audience covets. I found his voice to be incredibly strong and he is definitely going to be a major factor going forward. With Colton Dixon and Phillip Phillips lurking, the competition for that key voting block contingency will be stiff but Keyser should prove a worthy foil to the entire competition. Should he advance to the live rounds, he will almost certainly go far.
2) David Coleman - 28 - St. Louis Park, MN - Seminary Student (No)
3) Rachelle Lamb - 26 - Mountain View, CO - Construction
"Find Somebody New" (Faith Hill)
Steven - Yes Jennifer - Yes Randy - Yes
Once again American Idol proved there is no shortage of scorned single mothers with dreams held back by their ex-husbands. Rachelle came in with her daughter Madison, hardly a subtle rue by the Idol producers, and left with a golden ticket. Still, I felt that Lamb did an excellent job in her audition but I remain unsure just exactly what her ceiling is or at least at this point in time.
4) Oliver McCrary - 27 - Minneapolis, MN - Musician (No)
5) Reis Kloeckener - 20 - St. Louis, MO - Student/Pizza Maker
"Lean On Me" (Bill Withers)
Steven - Yes Jennifer - Yes Randy - Yes
First off, if this audition really made Steven Tyler cry then the bar has been severely lowered. Besides, you couldn't exactly see Tyler openly weeping. Kloeckener had very nice tone and pitch and the judges were right to heap generous praise on him. Like Eben Franckewitz, he does invoke some sense of Justin Bieber resemblance but the vaguely alluded bullying backdrop felt far too forced. I don't doubt the sincerity and validity of the story but I do wish the producers would just tone it down already.
6) Ethan Jones - 22 - Pontoon Beach, IL - Musician
"I'll Be" (Edwin McCain)
With his father-bandmate voluntarily committed in rehab, the charismatic and affable 22 year-old musician nailed his audition. He had scratched a cut until it bled, and he had received a rather craftily staged pep talk by Steven Tyler before he entered the room which he claimed calmed him and made him more audition-ready than he had been the previous three minutes. If he were to go live, he would be another popular contestant with women.
7) Mark Ingram - 28 - Collingsville, IL - Auditor
"Overjoy" (Stevie Wonder)
Steven - No Jennifer - No Randy - No
8) Lauren Gray - 22 - Hardy, AR - Waitress/Singer
"One and Only" (Adele)
Despite J. Lo's best efforts to hijack the 22 year-old Arkansas waitress-singer's moment in the sun by tearing up over Lauren's song choice, Gray put all the aforementioned men on notice that she is, as the Dawg loves to say, is "in it to win it" and she just could be the right amount of beautiful and vocally gifted to persuade young women to channel their inner-girl power instead of channeling their inner-well, insecurity. While Gray does need to turn her voice down a notch or two, it's hardly cause for concern. Nerves are a huge part of the audition process and can be corrected anyway. The over the top Carrie Underwood panning aside, I'd be stunned if she's not Top 24.
For some reason they aren't showing this year's East Rutherford, New Jersey auditions (which for this native Jersey boy is heresy) but I do know that under the radar Season 10 stalwart Brielle Von Hugel is looming. I found St. Louis to still be a very worthy way to close out the audition round phase of the competition. While they only showed five positively talented singers over the course of the show, it's a pretty decent bunch. Now we get to Hollywood Week, perhaps the best portion of the competition in many respects, and we get to see the much hyped and publicized exhaustion induced feinting spree of certain contestants that Nigel Lythgoe had tweeted about a few months ago while it was happening in real time. Let the madness begin!
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