‘American Idol’ notes: Lauren Alaina, Adam Lambert, and Lee DeWyze

As we near the end of “American Idol” this season, we’ve almost seen the full spectrum of notable former contestants appear with a few exceptions. One of them is of course Adam Lambert, who has appeared every year on the show ever since being a part of season 8. So what gives here? He’s been overseas for a good chunk of the season, and our guess is that this is one of the primary reasons why we haven’t seen him.

On a different note, we wanted to announce that Adam will be a part of the Universal Studios live concert series, and will be performing a show on Saturday, June 29. So if you’re in the Orlando area and want to see something special to go along with your theme park experience, this is probably the perfect time to go.

About Lauren Alaina’s appearance – Lauren will be making an appearance on the show for the second consecutive year, and this time around, she will be performing her new single “Barefoot and Buckwild” for the first time on TV. You can hear a 30-second snippet of it below, and it’s definitely a song that plays to a much older audience than songs from her original album “Wildflower.”

Lee DeWyze talks new album – How would you like a description of Lee’s upcoming new album straight from the man himself? Speaking to Billboard, he describes the disc as “folk story telling anthem pop rock,” and goes on to say that he really did not go into a studio with the idea of focusing in on one particular genre:

“We didn’t go in the studio and say, ‘We’re going to make this kind of album.’ We were like, ‘Let’s just make music. You play the banjo? OK go’.”

We should hopefully have more details on Lee’s upcoming album in the months ahead, so be sure to stay tuned for more on that.

In case you want to read a little bit more on some of the current “American Idol” singers’ hometown visits this weekend, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: Fox