‘American Idol’ notes: Casey James, Adam Lambert, Kree Harrison, Bon Jovi

We’ve got quite a bit to get through with our Wednesday “American Idol” notes, but we want to start things off with a man who we think is vastly under-appreciated by the show, really to the extent that they never really gave him a chance to perform a song from his last album on the show: Casey James.

It was announced on Wednesday that the season 9 star, who is the process of readying his second album, will be embarking on Taylor Swift’s “Red” concert tour as an opening act for some of the selected dates. These performances span the months of August and November, and you can check them out below.

8/6 – Wichita, Kansas
8/7 – Tulsa, Oklahoma
8/10 – Chicago, Illinois
8/15 – San Diego, California
8/19 & 20 – Los Angeles, California
8/23 & 24 – Los Angeles, California
8/27 – Sacramento, California
8/30 – Portland, Oregon
8/31 – Tacoma, Washington
9/6 – Fargo, North Dakota
9/7 & 8 – St. Paul, Minnesota
9/12 – Greensboro, North Carolina
9/13 – Raleigh, North Carolina
9/14 – Charlottesville, Virginia
9/19, 20 & 21 – Nashville, Tennessee

This marks a pretty great opportunity for Casey to expose his music to some enormous audiences, especially some who may not remember him years ago from the singing competition. One of the reasons that we admire him so much is that like someone else that we are talking about soon in Adam Lambert, he prefers to take his time and get involved in the writing process rather than rush something out before its ready.

You can check out a version of Casey’s new song “The Good Life” below.

Adam’s new interview – Speaking of Adam Lambert, he’s been overseas for his “We Are Glamily” tour for most of the month, and one of the interviews to come out of it was a chat with Asia One.

While most of the questions are things that any fans have heard a hundred times before, he did have an interesting thing to say about how he feels that the show’s contestant pool is a little more diverse this year, even to the point of having a contestant actually talk about their sexuality on camera:

“I noticed that, too… It’s a diverse group. There are all types (of people on the show) this year. Sexuality has been treated as more of a non-issue, which makes me think that we are moving forward as a society, as far as acceptance goes. I applaud the producers for being so progressive.”

Quick hits – Here are a pair of quick stories that may catch your eye.

-First, check out what Paul Jolley and Kree Harrison (a personal favorite) had to say about this season so far in a new interview with the Fox affiliate in Nashville.

Also, you may be curious to know that Bon Jovi is pre-taping a performance on the show early next week, which will air during the March 14 show. (The same one that will feature Phillip Phillips.) You can find out some more information here.

If you want to see who we think are the contestants to watch out for during Wednesday’s “American Idol,” you can do so over at the link here.