I continue to be underwhelmed by this year’s Nashville star crop. It seems like in the early seasons of the show, even when the contestants lacked commercial polish, they were artists, creative singer-songwriters. If the pop-country pretty boys like Joshua Stevens stick around much longer, I have a feeling that original song week is going to be quite painful this year.

I appreciate the kind words. With your outlook on things I take it as a compliment! LOL

Tim

Anyways, I agree with Matt about Randy Owens and his comments, but I think Blake Shelton is always hilarious. He can always put a smile on my face. I could care less of the lady judge, everything she said was so superficial and corny. I acutally liked some of Jewel’s questions, she asked questions I’d want to know the answers to.

Angela was definitely my favorite of the night and Dustin would be my favorite male. I wasn’t impressed with Joshua’s performace either, but that might have to do with the Rascal Flatts song.

Say Matt, do you have a website of your own. You seem to have a lot of insight into the country music world, it would definitely make an interesting read.

I thought this year’s judging panel would be great but they disappointed. Blake Shelton is not nearly as funny as he thinks he is, which produced such groaners as, “I think that you have a great bottom end, and your voice is great too.” Randy Owen apparently didn’t want to talk about music and instead made it his job to summarize each contestant’s video biography instead of commenting on their performances. Maybe I’m setting the bar too high, but I expect a country music hall of famer to be able to provide a 20 second critique of a vocal performance. Anastasia Brown is decent, but, along with the other judges, fell into the trap of telling practially every performer that they just might win the competition. The only positive thing I can say about the judges is that they definitely eliminated right two contestants.

Hosts: Cowboy Troy continues to be unremarkable in every way. Jewel is much easier on the eyes than Wynonna was, but asked canned, inane questions like “how do you expect that your poker-playing abilities will help you on Nashville Star?”

The only memorable performer of the night was Angela Hacker, who got a standing ovation for a powerful rendition of Patty Loveless’ “You Don’t Even Know Who I Am.” Based on the first week, I’d call her the most talented contestant. Yes, the judges, especially Anastasia, raved about Joshua Stevens, but I found his performance nauseating. He performed “My Wish,” one of my least favorite “country” songs, and was only slightly less obnoxious that Gary Levox.

If I had to pick a winner, I’d go with Dustin Wilkes, who performed Travis Tritt’s “Put Some Drive in Your Country” and also looks a lot like Darryl Worley. The judges weren’t crazy about his performance, but he won the crowd over. It’s much easier for a male to win Nashville Star than a female. Wilkes had an outlaw appeal that the other males lacked and seems like the only male contestant that has the chops to perform classic-sounding material, an ability that seems characteristic of those contestants that do well on Nashville Star.