Nashville Star - The Comeback Kid

It's downright cold in Nashville this week and honestly I had some serious reservations about leaving the cozy seat near my very warm fireplace to tackle the frigid air tonight, but alas the show must go on...

Ok, before we get into this weeks (brief) recap of Nashville Star, I'm going to highlight the Nashville Star Band mainly because it is common courtesy (at least in Nashville) for either the emcee and/or performer to thank and/or introduce the band at some point in the show.
The Nashville Star show is in it's fourth week and nobody, except for Angela Hacker who thanked them tonight, seems to think it important enough to do this. Way to go Angela!

In fact, it seems to me that the Nashville Star Band has literally been left standing in the shadows this year and we think that this is does not show any of the southern hospitality that the South is known for.
Now before ya'll go and start thinkin' about the North vs the South controversy, let me tell you that my ancestors fought for both the Confederacy and the Union as did many other families in Tennessee.
The simple fact of the matter is that we think it very RUDE not to introduce any backup band...so let us introduce the Nashville Star Band....

The Nashville Star band consists of:
John Bohlinger(Farm2Market Records}, Megan Mullins(Broken Bow Records), Pat Severs, Lee Turner, and three members of Sixwire; John Howard, Steve Mandile and Chuck Tilley.

More Nashville Star Band Information:
-Interview with John Bohlinger
-John Bohlinger Photo Gallery
Nashville Star Band Photo Gallery

Now everyone let's give a big round of applause for the Nashville Star Band!!
(now that wasn't so hard to do and it only took less than a minute)

Guest performers this week were the Wreckers, they were followed up by a performance from contestant Zach Hacker. Now, I'm jumping a bit here because Angela would perform later in the evening, but in true Alabama Rebel style, both of the Hacker siblings were very vocal about not liking their song choices of the evening. Needless to say both garnered the judges wrath for taking this stance. Now in our opinion, we've seen some of the worlds best performers become famous for doing the very same thing. We congratulate the Hackers for believing in themselves and more so for saying it on national television.

Joshua Stevens was next up performing "I'm in a Hurry, but Don't know Why", a song that Blake Shelton picked. He gave a decent performance, his stage presence still needs a bit of improvement but we hope Joshua can upgrade this fast or we might foresee a few problems.

We literally listened to the music from David St.Romain as he performed a Doobie Brothers song "Listen to the Music". We really couldn't figure out why the judges had chosen this song and we assume that will remain a mystery, although we did think that David did a great job with it!

With all of the guys making it through to the next week, we are down to the last three gals; Angela, Meg, and Whitney and one of them would be going home tonight. But first Jewel would perform a song, dedicated to her Dad, entitled "Be Loved by Anybody but You. Now to be honest this is the first time we've ever heard Jewel perform and while we like the lyrics and song in general we were not impressed with the vocals, in fact we have renamed the song to the "Yodel Yuck" and the whole scenario was very reminiscent to a similar performance done several years ago, on the same stage, by a former Nashville Star judge, Bret Michaels.

Called up to perform next was Whitney Duncan. While we tend to favor Whitney, her performance last week was not her best and we had doubts if she would make this weeks cut. She performed a Dwight Yoakam song, picked by Anastasia entitled "Ain't that Lonely Yet." Ouch, we felt that this song choice would not benefit Whitney in the least as Dwight has a very distinct sound and those who know it, like us, would not like it. We were right and while her vocals were good we still didn't like it. This might be the "Come Back Kid's" last ride onto the Nashville Star Stage.

Angela Hacker would be the last gal to perform tonight as Meg was chosen to go home. Angela, as mentioned above, disliked the song that Blake Shelton choose, but we thought Barbara Mandrell's "I was Country when Country wasn't Cool" was a brilliant choice and the best thing that Blake has brought to the show thus far. Needless to say Angela nailed the song vocally, but we were still left feeling a little disappointed in lack of heart her performance showed especially after her last three stellar performances.

Inside Nashville Star:
When this year's Nashville Star co-host,Jewel was announced many wondered why in the world this pop star was chosen, but it has become clear now as the word on the street is that Jewel is planning on doing her own Country Music Album.
Coming up next week on Nashville Star, Randy Owens Performing "Mountain Music" and it's Originals Week for the contestants. In years past, Originals Week has typically separated the shooting stars from the falling stars..

Set List:
Zach Hacker - Something to be Proud Of
Joshua Stevens - I'm in a Hurry, but Don't know Why
David St. Romain - Listen to the Music
Whitney Duncan - Ain't that Lonely Yet
Angela Hacker- I was Country when Country wasn't Cool

Stay Warm,
Jan

Nashville's Weather Report