Peanut Butter & Fried Bologna: Top 4 Go To Graceland

Hey, but you were always on my mind, really…


SPECIAL “ON LOCATION” EDITION
No, sorry -- we didn’t make it to Graceland to get an up-close and personal look at the bullet hole in The King’s TV screen, or that large bee-sting swelling just below Priscilla’s nose and above her chin. But anyway, perhaps both of these can be repaired soon with the royalties garnered from tonight’s Elvis Presley licensing mega-deal.

As many of you know, Idol Blather originates from the greater Greensboro, NC area, where Chris Daughtry makes his home and works, when he’s not in Hollywood making Ford commercials and eating calamari. And where do the hardest of hard-core Greensboro Daughtry-ites go every Tuesday night at 8:00 to watch him on American Idol? No, silly -- it’s too early to head back to their trailers! They congregate en masse to Chris-worship on giant screen TVs with a 150-decibel stereo PA system, where the $2 Newcastles are flowing and the hot wings are winging -- at Hugo’s, to be precise, on Spring Garden Street in Greensboro. Regular readers also know that Chris (who I often dub “homeboy” in the blog) has never been at the top of my favorites list, but I always give him credit wherever & whenever it is due. I will own up right now to the fact that Chris is a stand-up guy, even when he is sitting down. But seriously, he is an undeniable talent who seems to have hung on to some humility on this long crazy ride -- and I do appreciate that in an American Idol wannabe [see Elliott Yamin for the official benchmark on this issue]. And more importantly, Chris Daughtry the favorite to win the entire shooting match, according to every oddsmaker in the universe, and that is significant at this juncture. You can believe these odds or not; but either way, you can bet your sideburns he’ll be back for at least 2 more Tuesday shows.

What with only 4 idol-wannabes left, it's become a challenge to keep the blather interesting. So I have raised the excitement quotient (whoo-hoo!) by taking it out on the road tonight -- on location at the aforementioned Hugo’s, which has been hosting a gala Tuesday night Daughtry-thon for several weeks now. Always in attendance: the hosts, local broadcasters Neil Whicker, Julie Kaye & Skip the Prize Guy from 98.7 Simon FM radio, and in the audience, Wayne & his wife (sorry, didn’t catch the surname), AKA Chris Daughtry’s parent-in-laws. Yes, they live here -- but they’re actually from the Boston area; so a conversation with Wayne is something like talking to Cliff at Cheers -- but more about that later. Tonight's first impression: parked outside the front door at Hugo’s was a big white truck with a sign mounted on the roof reading “Official Nascar Member Club Local Number 274061 Supports Our American Idol Chris Daughtry.” So I supposed I was in for something interesting.

I positioned myself in a part of the semi-cavernous club I would describe as the “living room” section at around 7:45, and settled in to catch some of 98.7’s pre-show banter. Watching an episode of American Idol in a room filled with a couple hundred rabid Daughtry fans was part experimental adventure, part anthropological study, and all in all, a pretty good time. At Chris’s first brief appearance onscreen, stepping out of a car at Graceland, the crowd went beserk. I began to wonder if I was going to be able to catch any audio on this show. I was happily surprised that the sufficiently amplified sound level cut through much of the Hugo's crowd noise. And speaking of cutting, let’s cut to the chase:

Taylor Hicks - If ever there was a theme hand-picked for Taylor Hicks, this one is it. His rendition of Jailhouse Rock was charismatic and effortless. He looked good as he moved through the crowd in a snazzy new brown suit. But…I won’t let him off that easily. Once again, this is straightforward rock-n-roll, not the sort of song to showcase vocal talent -- in other words, he was able to sleepwalk through it, as he seemingly rocked the house. Like me, Simon was underimpressed.

Chris Daughtry - It was happily appropriate (for me) to witness Chris at his vocal best in this venue, surrounded by his loving peeps. But let me keep this real: this actually may have been my favorite Daughtry performance of the year, which included a well-timed but somewhat cheesy removal of shades in mid-song). A great song (Suspicious Minds) done really, really well, and a spot-on-the-money brilliant song selection for Elvis night. Chris is a shoe-in, so he didn’t necessarily need a triumph here, but this was one. The Hugo's crowd went absolutely bananas after this one (need I tell you?), and likewise again after all 3 judges gave their thumbs up.

Elliott Yamin - As I always enjoy pointing out, Elliott’s performances are a notch above the rest before he even begins, because he always presents himself with a huge vocal challenge in his selections-- songs that require carefully measured doses of power and nuance. And as always, he absolutely delivered it on If I Can Dream, The King’s famous concert show-closing tune. My heart was warmed to hear a large and rather surprising positive reaction from many in Hugo's Daughtry throng when Elliott finished up. Lot’s of spontaneous whoo’s, and even some applause. That's right, the Daughtry Gang was applauding Elliot. The moral here: Believe in Elliott Yamin. He is still capable of wrapping up Season 5 in a big package and taking it home.

Kat McPhee - McPheever is a powerful thing. Objectivity on my longtime favorite girl is generally difficult to conjure. And while I cannot criticize the essence of her performance of Hound Dog/All Shook Up, I was disppointed that it was not the grand slam she needed at this stage of the game. The competition is tough, and (as the judges pointed out), being the only girl on Elvis night is an inherent disadvantage. Yes, the mini-medley was infectious; yes, she was energetic & loose, and was clearly having fun. But Kat fares best when she can show off her extraordinary voice with more subtle material, and this performance was not predestined to acheive that for her. But I should note that a large Kat contingency behind me shouted out their appreciation loudly.
2 other cents: Simon Cowell is making a very conspicuous effort to steer voting toward keeping this one in or running that one out. In this critical hour, it became apparent that Simon has abandoned Kat for Elliott, i.e. who he wants to put up against Chris (or Taylor) in the finals. Someone has to go, and Simon has [apparently] officially decided that it should be Katharine. My own opinion is that it should be Taylor, whose brand of vocal talent is on a much lower plane than that of Kat or Elliott. But Taylor has an invisible shield around him apparently impervious to bad song choices, mediocre singing, ridiculous dancing, and green kryptonite.

Taylor Hicks - In the Ghetto, maudlin tear-jerker that it is, was (as the judges concur) a masterful song selection for Taylor, and he pulled it off fairly well. No smiling, no dancing, no Joe Cockerization. Just plain old poke-salad-balladizing. All three judges lit up like fireflies on an Alabama summer night.

Chris Daughtry - AHHHHHHGGGGGG!!!! WHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOO!!!!! SCREEEEEEEEAAAAAAM!!!!!!!!! The crowd carried on loudly through most of the pre-song Tommy Mottola discussion, and didn’t settle down till Chris begain wailing on A Little Less Conversation. Lest you think this gonzo crowd has unfairly swayed me in Daughtry’s direction tonight, allow me to set the record straight. This performance was as not-so-good as his first one was good. Chris was back in his droney lower register -- and to make matters worse, this song literally has no more than one octave of range, at most. In other words, he had to sing only about 6 or 7 different notes to get through the song. Simon & I agree again -- “just OK,” and “flat.” Oh, booooooooo, mean Simon!

Elliott “Amerian Idol” Yamin - (Trouble) I’m just going to hand this call over to all three judges: Randy: “Your best performance ever;” Paula: “Your previous performance was second only to this one, which was your best performance ever;” and Simon: “Based on that performance, you deserve to go to the next round.” Amen, Yamin. I'm happy for E-dub, but is this a conspiracy or what?

Kat McPhee - The radiant and captivating Katharine continued her long tradition of choosing favorite songs of mine, and delivered the beautiful I Can’t Help Falling in Love With You. This is a deceptively difficult song to sing well, and I believe she pulled it off, and even took it up a notch in mid-song with a challengingly high key modulation. But once again, she needed to shock & awe America; to blow us all away tonight -- and I don't think that happened. She is perennially golden, but I’m still worried that Elvis Night is a Man’s Man’s World. Simon (see previous Kat song discussion) is ready to put her on a bus back to Sherman Oaks. And I'd be ready for that, too, but only if she'd agree to share a seat, and sit on my lap. What, is that asking too much? I should note that cell phone voting (for Chris, of course) began in Hugo's while Kat was still in mid-song, crooning “…some things are meant to be…” By 9:03 it was announced that someone in the crowd had already voted 40 times for Daughtry -- and everyone else there seemed to be working on doing the same.

As I left Hugo's, I met and chatted with Wayne (Chris’ father-in-law), a true salt-of-the-earth kind of guy, a gregarious storyteller, a Red Sox fan, who hugged me and fake-cheek-kissed me when I told him I was from Massachusetts (which is true). I told him about my blog, and I had to admit to him that I am not always so big on Chris Daughtry. And he had to admit the same to me. I liked Wayne.

Tonight, the voting phone numbers are answered by recordings of the contestants themselves (why didn't they think of that sooner?); but as always, it was nearly impossible to get through.