Kevin Fowler To Entertain Bull Riding Fans And Vince Gill Auctioning Roses For Valentine’s Day

I suppose this is superfluous until some of you see the GAC special, but for those interested I’ve commented on the Colgate Country Showdown National Finals below.

I thought the first two contestants, Hailey Stout and Lindsey Earl, had potential but were very unpolished. Hailey sang an original, “Rock Country,” and Martina McBride’s “How Far.” Rock country is just like it sounds, a “Put Some Drive in Your Country” type tune that was fun and performed well but not particularly distinctive. I thought that Hailey was much more comfortable singing her own material than the Martina song, when her body tensed up and she had some pitch problems. Furthermore, I think that too many young female artists make the mistake of performing Martina songs. They’re easy choices for young people with powerful voices, given that Martina simply belts most of her songs with little regard for phrasing or interpretation, but singing this way can leave the audience somewhat flat and the song is further diminished when sung by young artists who are less than technically perfect.

Lindsey Earl also made the mistake of singing a Martina song, “When God Fearin’ Women Get the Blues,” but I thought that she acquitted herself better than Hailey. Lindsey is very young (senior in high school) and I liked her voice, which has the potential to be gritty and soulful, but it’s not well developed and somewhat inconsistent. Also, her stage presence needs a lot of work. If I didn’t know better I’d have thought that her facial expressions and body gestures were meant to be a parody of a bad country performer; I really have no idea what she was doing with her body. She finished with the classic “I Want to be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart” and her yodeling was adequate but her voice failed her a bit at the end. I said after the performance that she had a lot of potential but lacked the polish to win the competition this year.

Megan Peeler dismissed the house band for her first song and became the first contestant to play an instrument as she accompanied herself on piano for Waylon Jennings’ “The Wurlitzer Prize.” The song was not mixed well as the mic was too hot, but it was still apparent that Megan had the best voice of the three contestants (although maybe inferior to a mature Lindsey Earl) and her interpretation of the song was unique, nuanced and moving. She closed playing guitar with the full band on a fun original, “Damsel in Distress.” The song is a lot like Blake Shelton’s “Some Beach” in that it plays on several curse words except that its turns of phrase are cleverer. Several people around me commented that Megan seemed like the first contestant who was really comfortable on stage and I agree. Perhaps the instruments helped contain her body language, but her performance was powerful in a subtle kind of way and she had undeniable stage presence.

The most unique act of the night was J Juliano with Adrienne Grove, which, unlike the other contestants, seemed more influenced by southern rock than classic country. J Juliano reminded me a lot of Brad Paisley and even somewhat physically resembled him. He was a great guitar picker and his voice was adequate but he seemed to be using it simply to fill the time between guitar solos. Adrienne Grove’s voice was not disagreeable but was less distinctive than those of the preceding female performers. It was apparent that they had more experience than the other artists in performing before a large crowd and gave a fun, high energy performance, though I felt that it relied a bit too much on local bar tricks and gimmicks. First song was, “Play Some Skynyrd,” an original out of the “Play Something Country” vein, and they closed with a guitar version of “Devil Went Down to Georgia.”

The final performer, Jill James, had the weakest voice of all the contestants. Furthermore, she performed two original songs that sounded like they belonged more in the acoustic/coffee house genre than in country music. Furthermore, the songs were not well written and I thought that her choice to perform two mediocre originals was somewhat self-centered. She introduced the first song with a prolonged and boring story about its inception as though she thought she was introducing some classic cut at the Bluebird Café. The two songs, “The Child Inside” and “With You” were both very autobiographical and lacked the universal appeal necessary for songwriting success. After all five performances, when contestants were given a chance to perform snippets of songs that represented their musical influences, while the other contestants chose classics, Jill performed an original written by her husband. Given these poor choices and her mediocre voice, I felt that she was the worst of the five contestants.

LeAnn Rimes hosted the show and kicked off the festivities with a performance of “Something’s Gotta Give,” which was received indifferently by the older crowd. Predictably, her performance of “Blue” near the end of the show was the evening’s highlight.

Megan Peeler won the contest and the $100,000 grand prize.