‘American Idol XIII’ review: Meet Casey Thrasher, Dexter Roberts, Kenzie Hall, and more
Salt Lake City has for some reason been a huge talent pool for “So You Think You Can Dance,” but who saw it coming for “American Idol?” What we saw during tonight’s episode was a series of very strong auditions across many different genres. From a talent perspective, this was our favorite episode of the show since at least season 10. There weren’t as many kooky moments from the judges, but we’re okay with that when there is so much talent.
Heck, we’re not even going to focus on the negative auditions here; instead, this is all about the people who managed to wow us and make us want to see so much more of them the rest of the way.
Austin Wolfe – We agree about this being a great name, and she did a pretty great twist on “Radioactive.” Did we really think that she believed and understood the lyrics of what she was singing? Not really, but this was a move in the right direction.
Kylee Adamson – She’s a lumberjack and she’s okay! That joke is for the 5% of the reading audience that watches both “American Idol” and “Monty Python.”
Alex Preston – We previously previewed Alex, and he feels like someone who we are going to see quite a bit of moving forward this season. He seems to be pretty experienced with performing, and his emotion transfers perfectly. The best original that we’ve heard on the show since Angie Miller’s “You Set Me Free.”
Samantha Calmes – What a good season this is for original artists. Seriously. Please don’t make people like Samantha sing Whitney Houston or Celine Dion covers all season. Heck, we’ll be cool with an entire night of original songs. Also, she apparently comes from the Cole Vosbury school of doing theme songs.
Lebryant Crew – You know that going to this preacher’s church is gotta be pretty fun based on the way that he was moving around the stage.
D.J. Bradley – Otherwise apparently known as NOT Ed Sheeran, which sounds like the perfect name for a Twitter account. A pretty nice voice at the center of this audition, but compared to what we saw earlier with Alex, he wasn’t extremely strong.
Kenzie Hall – A 16-year old playing the guitar and singing John Mayer? Surprising, especially since Kenzie looked so comfortable being on stage and performing for the judges. Serious potential here. What did they put in the water this year?
Paisley Van Patten – A very good country singer, but we found her entire barrage of sad stories to be almost off-putting. Maybe that was the producers fault, but did she really need both a story about losing her shot in Nashville, alcoholism, and also a fiance who wasn’t supportive of her dream?
Tiquila Wilson – Wait, so you name your daughter after a drink … but with one letter different? What’s the reason for that? We really like Tiquila. In addition to being great singer, she’s very entertaining. We could watch an entire show of just her doing her thing.
C.J. Harris – This was a really wonderful audition. There wasn’t necessarily anything that stood out about his story or even his demeanor, but you could feel it in this guy’s voice that he really does have the talent to be a successful musician in this industry. He just needs a chance.
Emily Rottier – Harry liked the mustard pants she had on more than she did, which was somewhat odd. A very good singer; but, we’re still not sold on if she will make it far.
Dexter Roberts – Wow, someone auditioned with a Casey James song. That’s something that’s cool to see, but something that you don’t see very often on the show. A great country / blues singer.
Briston Maroney – Briston and Johnny after him are two great examples of young singers who are doing something different for the under-18 crowd this year. They have us actually invested that these are kids who are doing something different, and will be worth rooting for later.
Johnny Newcomb – Yes, that sound you just heard was a 16-year old singing Pearl Jam (well a Pearl Jam cover of a J. Frank Wilson song). We’re starting to wrap our head around this. It wasn’t perfect, but there was a super-interesting voice here. Plus, his dad looks like Crowley from “Supernatural.”
Carmen Delgina – Wonder Mike’s daughter is another artist that we previewed going into tonight, and she advanced … but barely. There’s a serious Jane Carrey vibe here with how long she will last.
Kenneth “Woodie” Gaddie – We barely saw him, but we don’t quite think that we would ever voluntary go by the name of Woodie.
Casey Thrasher – The hyped contestant tonight. He’s a 22-year old father of two who was great, and super-relatable when he sings. The other thing that bugs us is when contestants in his position say that he’s doing it for his kids. There’s nothing wrong with saying that he did for him … and he likes it … and he is good at it. (Okay, enough paraphrasing the “Breaking Bad” finale.) Still, he is a clear candidate to be singing on live TV this spring. Episode grade: A-
Who did you like the most from tonight’s “American Idol XIII” episode? Be sure to share your thoughts below, and also head over to the link here if you want to see some other highlights from this season. Also, sign up now to get some more updates worth singing about via our CarterMatt Newsletter.
Photo: Fox