Taylor's was the most bland performance for me.

Chris completely nailed it, great great performance.
Paris redeemed herself a little for me tonight, I had grown tired of her, but she showed some nice stuff tonight.

Ace, the cheese is strong with him.

According to DialIdol, it's not looking good for Mandisa.

One dud isn't going to send Taylor home. He still has the largest fan base.

Heard on Fox L.A. news which had Terri Seymour (Simon's girlfriend) reporting that next week is rock'n'roll. Just when I wanted Chris to go 2-for-2 on versatility.

I missed Taylor's performance tonight (Just saw the brief clip at the end) and he sounded drowned out by the violin. Is that how the whole performance was?

Wow - I would not have recognized Kenny Rogers if I bumbed into him on the street! His look shocked me. I guess I am used to the 70s and 80s Kenny Rogers.

LOL at Bucky's 'enunciation' during his song. Kenny Rogers makes the point to enunuciate and I sure listened hard. But I didn't understand the first five lines or so.

My bottom 3: Ace, Paris and Bucky - Ace going home.

I was saying the same thing to my husband. He was like a completely different person. I am sure most of those Idol contestants did not know he was anyway, but it would have been funny if they were like "You're not Kenny Rogers!"

They could have found a celebrity lookalike who would have been more believable.

Kenny looked grreat..

Bottom 3: Paris, Elliott, Mandisa with Paris going home.

I thought Bucky did well tonight -- and his number is the busiest I've encountered for him yet. (Though, as usual, most of my votes go to Chris.)

2nd week in a row they all stunk.

Listen to Taylor's several more times tonight, it was much better than I first thought.

He stuck to the "Rules" of the night and sang the song Country.

My bottom 3:
Ace
Katherine
Mandisa

[rant]I don't know who thought it was a good idea to speed up the arrangement of "Take Me Home, Country Roads", but it sounded all wrong. I love the song, but it was obvious Taylor was struggling to keep up. The sincerity and emotion of the lyrics were completely lost as he raced through it. This is a song that works best mid-tempo or even as an acoustic ballad, not at warp speed. This is one of those John Denver songs that is really a pop song more than anything, and was probably criticized back in the 70's for being "too pop when it made it on country stations (not John's fault). Like most of his songs, it has a real universal appeal (i even have a reggae version), but of course the AI people were trying to make sure it sounded country with the loud fiddle. I would've preferred something closer to the original. Or I agree with whoever said if he was going to do John Denver on country night, do "Thank God I'm a Country Boy", which definitely was a country sounding song. Anyway unlucky break for Taylor, but the Soul Patrol will probably rally for him. Fire Ricky Minor and the shitty band they keep pimping every week. So many of these arrangments have either been too fast or too loud/overdone, where they drown the performer out.[/rant over]

I didn't adore Kellie's performance as much as everyone else. Just because they're southern and like country, it doesn't automatically mean she and Bucky were the best. Paula is full of shit and had probably taken a swig from her hidden flask when she said that. I think "Fancy" is one of those great country "story songs", but compared to Reba's version Kellie's was thin and karaoke level. I'm sure guys enjoyed the red bustier, though. At least that's what it looked like to me. [kellie]What's a bustier?[/kellie]

The judges have really irritated me this season, and tonight was no exception. Simon bashes 99% of the song choices because he has a bias against country for whatever reason, and Randy pretty much calls every ballad boring and says it put him to sleep. And they bash them when they try something out of their niche, but then in the next breath tell them to stop playing it safe. Sheeesh. I seriously hope people aren't really taking their comments as some expert opinion, b/c all three of them have about 3 canned answers they slightly alter every time. Yo, yo, yo, dawg, get some new material. Even Simon's recycling his bitchy comments and seems to have lost a lot of the wit that made him fun and interesting in the earlier seasons. He seems to have already made his picks on who to like or sway the audience toward, and he does everything in his power most of the time to disagree with Randy and Paula. I know it's really all for entertainment value, the same with the snarking back and forth with Seacrest, but their bickering is coming off too phony to enjoy anymore.

The best for me were Chris, Elliott, Katherine, and Ace. I completely disagree with Simon and really like "Any Man of Mine", but Mandisa just got winded trying to sing that fast and just shouted the end. I doubt she'll go though.

I like Bucky and I can tell he's really sincerely trying his best to take everyone's advice, but his voice is just too low and comes out like he's mumbling half the time. I'd like him to stick around, but it's probably his week to go unless he's got a bigger fan base than I realized.

I thought Kenny Rogers, like Manilow, gave good advice and at least seemed to be trying to help and not just shill his new album. I'm dying to see what pearls of wisdom has for the gang. Please let the rumors be true.

I missed AI last night; but, I know coming to this board would give me a biased view of how the contestants really did last night. Reading these threads, it looked like Kellie was perfect and Paris was pitiful. So, I decided to view an objective article. It seems that Paris got the highest grade.
MSNBC [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12158736/] graded them:

Taylor Hicks John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” Grade: C+
Mandisa Shania Twain’s “Any Man of Mine” Grade: B
Elliott Yamin Garth Brooks' “If Tomorrow Never Comes” Grade:B-
Paris Bennett Mutiple Renditions “How Do I Live” Grade: A-
Ace Young** Keith Urban's “Tonight I Wanna Cry” Grade: C
Kellie Pickler Reba McEntire’s “Fancy” Grade: B+
Chris Daughtry Keith Urban’s “Making Memories of Us” Grade: B
Katharine McPhee Faith Hill’s “Bringing out the Elvis” Grade: B
Bucky Covington Ballad “Best I Ever Had” Grade: C

Oh, yes, I'll probably hear "who cares what MSNBC says". Well, the same can be said about all of our views.

Uh, how can any appraisal of the performances be considered "objective"?

I'm a big John Denver fan, and I think you nailed it. The arrangement was completely wrong for that song, it loses all meaning up-tempo. And that goblin on the violin was completely out of place. Still, "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" wouldn't really show off anyone's vocals.

My guess (not personal pick) for bottom 3:
Mandisa - Booted.
Taylor - Not invincible.
Ace - Just because.

Of course, I'm seldom right anymore.

not that hard...simply by telling the truth

I think all their performances are getting predictable. Kelly walking through the audience (just walking, stiffly I might add, and seriously with no performance value) and then finishing the song strong with a squat and a point has lost its appeal. She also loses the last word in every lyric when she goes sings low.

Taylor looked like he gave up last night. Cant say that I blame him, with all the gibberish that the judges talk, who is to know what the heck to do anymore.

And if Mandissa isnt singing powerful every note, she is just average.

What IS Kellie always pointing at? I must know!

They are dating.

Chris and Ace did well tonight. I have never liked Ace, but his performance didn't suck this time. I am in no way a fan of country music. I'd never heard most of these songs so they came off as lame to me. I don't understand why versitility is such a big deal on this show. Making a singer sing another style is an exercise in futility. Who cares how well a soul singer can sing country music? Or if a country singer can sing rock? If any one of these contestants make a CD, I'm sure it will only have one style on it anyway. These last two shows have been cringe-inducing for the most part. Taylor, who has been my wife's favorite, blew it last night. There have to be better country songs than those that were used. Hell even a Kenny Rogers song would have been nice. I think one of the girls could have done a Dolly Parton song like 9-to 5, (which is the only one I know) and done a better job.

I agree. I guess they do that to keep the show interesting and challeging, and to mix it up a bit, but it's kinda lame. Can you imagine if any of the Pop Stars of today had to go through all this? They sell records because they are good at the style they do. Dont really care if they can carry off a country tune or not. But I guess if they dont mix it up, the season cant last but a few episodes.

I get it!

Teri Hatcher told Access Hollywood that there's no way in hell she's dating Ryan Seacrest and would rather use a dating service.

She recently found a dating service business card in her handbag.

"...I didn't use it. Clearly, I haven't been using the right business cards. Everyone clearly knows about my pathetic, single, dating life right?!"

And what does she have to say for herself on being caught making out with that frog of a man?

"Well, I guess what's caught on film is caught on film and it would be hard for me to stand here and say that it wasn't me. I'm not a liar and I wouldn't do that, but I could say that I could still use the business card!"

The funny thing is that she didn't mention the $2,000,000 she received from Ryan in order to stage that kiss. I guess money and numbers aren't important to her! Furthermore, will she stop bitching about being single? Doesn't she know how pathetic she sounds. But I'm not sure which is more pathetic....caught fake kissing Ryan or bitching about being old and single?

I can't wait for R. Kelly night.

huh?

http://www.menwholooklikekennyrogers.com/gallery.html