Nashville Star Thoughts

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

I have been watching this season of Nashville Star pretty closely. The contestants/performers this year so far really have impressed me, overall. There is some chance that a few of them could end up with a record deal, especially on a independent label.

I do have 2 complaints about it.

1)Why so many non-country songs being performed as country songs? Come on, if this is a country artist competition, they should be singing country songs. Now one week's theme would be perfect for doing non-country songs as a bit of a challenge, but not every episode these non-country songs are performed. Last night's show was a lot better with this as well, but still the pop songs did make its way in.

2) I don't feel the personal connection to this group like I have to previous Nashville Star series. Last night helped with that a little bit, with their families on the show. However, we need more about their lives and personal tidbits that allow us to learn more about them other than they can sing throughout the series. Country music artists do more than record records and perform. They have to connect with their fans on a personal level. Country fans are a bit different than fans of other styles of music.

I must say my 2 complaints seemed to be really worked on last night, hopefully next week's show we will see even more improvement.

What I'm loving is seeing John Rich. I'm not a huge fan of Big & Rich, but I do love Rich. He is such a talent. In songwriting, studio work, and understanding country music. He is one of the industry leaders these days. It is nice to see this series on NBC, getting network exposure, rather than cable. I also really like the look into how they got ready for the week. It seems to show how hard this group of people are working on their materials.

The contestant choices for this series I really like as well, though don't know too much about them, other than their performances. What a great group overall, not sure if it is the strongest series, but really enjoyable performers.

At this point we have 8 left: Ashlee, Coffey, Gabe, Laura & Sophie, Melissa, Pearl Heart, Shawn, and Tommy.

Let me predict the final 4. Ashlee, Gabe, Melissa, Pearl Heart.
Then, 3: Gabe, Melissa, Pearl Heart.
Then 2: Melissa, Pearl Heart
Then 1: Pearl Heart