‘American Idol XIV’ review: Maddy Hudson, Rayvon Owen, Katherine Skinner sing in San Francisco

Wednesday night’s “American Idol” episode had almost everything from San Francisco, but perhaps most importantly, it had an array of genuinely good talent! We’d be lying if we said that we were completely impressed with most of what we saw last week, because we weren’t. That Minnesota audition episode was straight from the bowels of the underworld.

Almost all of this episode was focused on the good singers, and they were a mixture of everything from good performers, creative thinkers, someone with a billion family members, and a few emotional stories. Here’s our take on some of the notables.

Katherine Skinner – She feels like a real-life “Glee” character. Very eccentric, and has way more confidence than any 15-years we have ever met. We’ll give you a dose of honesty here: We thought she was going to be horrible.

Erika David – Whenever we hear “No One,” we now think of Mumfarid being cradled by Harry Connick, Jr. from last season.

Chandler Leighton – Beautiful voice. We didn’t see a ton of her, but we’re big Billy Joel fans. Anytime that you get “New York State of Mind,” we’re happy.

Ryan Pinkston – Decent, but not a lot of range. We weren’t crazy with his limited performance.

Andrew Bloom – We get it, Andrew: You’re buddies with an Olympian. Good for you. Pretty good singer. That’s what matters here.

Kellyeann Rodgers – Weird spelling for a first name. Very good voice.

Reno Anoa’i – A ukulele sighting! Apparently, he also had sixty people living in the same house at one point. He needs to work on his higher register, but there is a natural sweetness to him that suits his instrument.

Rayvon Owen – A personal favorite from this city. We LOVE how he chose to audition to “Wide Awake.” Genuinely, a different choice than we typically hear, especially from a male singer.

Maddy Hudson – The final singer. Another “goosies” comments from Jennifer Lopez (ugh), but a great personality and voice to go along with it. She could be a serious contender to win the whole thing, or at least go far in the live shows.

Who is your favorite from Wednesday night’s episode? Share with a comment now, and head over here to get some further news worth singing about right now via our official CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: Fox.)