Ryan Star (and a few other people)

Well, my plan to blog more often hasn't really happened so far this year. Too much of my time was spent watching and reading about American Idol in the spring and now this summer I've been reading a ton of Twitter posts on several subjects. Maybe if I actually got some comments from people who read my blog, I might be inspired to write more. But then again, maybe I'm just too boring? Whatever the case may be, I'm here today to write about my favorite subject: music.

Over these last 4 months or so, it seems that Ryan Star's music has been on my mind the most. I haven't even been reading books as much as I normally would because I've been on Twitter every day reading what other fans are saying and sometimes having conversations with them. My Twitter obsession began in June, after I drove to Pittsburgh to see Ryan perform at a mall. (I'm so glad I finally got a chance to see him perform again and to talk to him afterwards without being nervous. Unlike when I met Chris Daughtry 3 weeks before that and I totally froze up and only said Hello.) I had already been on Twitter for almost a year but somehow I began following more and more people after that day. I guess I just needed to talk to people who understood my passion for Ryan's music. I have also been voting for his song Breathe on a Pittsburgh radio station's weekday Top 8, plus voting for Breathe on VH1's weekly Top 20 music videos on TV. Last week, Breathe was removed from both of those lists but a few days later I found out that the song Start A Fire is listed as being his next single, and will be released to radio in mid-September.

I have started working on getting some of my friends and family interested in listening to Ryan's new album, 11:59. I started by playing the Breathe and We Might Fall videos plus a snippet of Start A Fire when my nieces were here visiting one weekend in July. The 4 year-old had fun making her Barbie dolls dance to Start A Fire and the 9 year-old kept wanting to hear Breathe and We Might Fall over and over again. When the album was released on August 3rd, I bought some extra copies to give away as gifts. So far I have given out one to my cousin who is going through some tough times right now. I have plans to give copies to at least 5 more people eventually. There's just something about Ryan Star that makes me want everyone to have the opportunity to hear and love his songs. And if they would be so fortunate as to see him perform live and meet him, that would be the icing on the cake.

It has been so much fun watching the progress of Breathe, and now 11:59, on various charts. Breathe's highest ranking as a current song was #15 in the Hot Adult Contemporary genre before Mediabase moved it to the recurrent category. The 11:59 album had a good debut on the Billboard charts last week by coming in at #31 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and at #10 on Billboard's Top Rock Albums chart. One of the reviews I read about the 11:59 album said that 11,599 units were sold in the first week. I wonder if that number is accurate or if the reviewer just added another 9 to the title of the album to see if anyone would notice? Either way, it's interesting to think that 11,599 could have been sold already. I don't know what the average is for a relatively unknown artist but that sounds like a good amount of albums to sell in the first week of a debut album.

Now to talk about some other musicians. In April, Jason Castro's debut album was finally released and I was pleasantly surprised at how good it is. When he was an Idol contestant in 2008, I thought he should have gotten more experience performing before auditioning. His album, though, shows that he has been hard at work since then and deserves the exposure he got by being on the show. The deluxe version of the Jason Castro album is well worth the money. Some very good bonus songs are on there. A few weeks after Jason's album was released, Anoop Desai independently released his own debut. I had high expectations for Anoop's album because he had been one of my favorites in the 2009 season of Idol. Unfortunately, it's not nearly as good as what I was hoping for. I had wanted to see him record "classic R&B" style songs with some Indian influences in them. Instead, it turned out to be crappy "modern R&B" with very little orignality in the songs. It didn't help much that Chris Richardson (from the 2007 season of Idol) was one of Anoop's collaborators. I didn't care for Chris Richardson at all when he was a contestant and I still don't like him or his music. Matt Giraud (from 2009 Idol) is still working on getting a record deal. So far, he has dueted on 2 songs with well established artists and is hoping to release an EP of his own soon. The first duet was earlier this year with singer Anna Wilson on a jazz version of the classic country song You Don't Know Me and it did very well on the jazz charts. Currently, Matt has a new duet with Jim Brickman called Thank You. I'm not sure if it's considered to be jazz, christian, or adult contemporary. Personally, I hope that Matt continues with the jazz route and stays far away from R&B.

Wow, this blog post has become very long and I haven't even gotten to everyone yet that I wanted to write about. The rest will have to wait for another post, I guess.

2009 and 2010

Musically speaking...

In 2009:
I enjoyed my roadtrip with my friend Donna to West Virginia in March to see David Cook and Ryan Star in concert. In July, I became obsessed with listening to Daughtry's sophomore album, Leave This Town. That disc never left my car's CD player for 4 months straight! It took 3 highly anticipated new albums for me to finally hit that eject botton. In November it was Paul McCartney's new live album and Kris Allen's debut album, plus Allison Iraheta's debut album in December.

In 2010:
Ringo Starr has a new album coming out in January that I am looking forward to. I'm hoping for the possibility of seeing Daughtry in concert again sometime this year. Another roadtrip to see David Cook would also be a fun thing to do, after his 2nd album is released. To quote Ryan Star, "this could be the year" -- for several long awaited debut albums. I hope those high-paid record company executives get up off their butts and release Ryan Star's 11:59, as well as albums from Jason Castro, Matt Giraud, and Anoop Desai.

Idol Thoughts

It's been a long time since I've posted anything here but now I'm back to write about American Idol, which is a subject I tend to post about often.

Driving home from work today, I was thinking about my favorite American Idol contestants from seasons past. My #1 all-time favorite Idol is definitely Chris Daughtry, without a doubt. You haven't lived until you've attended a live performance of Daughtry! SO AMAZING! I can also very confidently say that my #2 favorite Idol contestant is David Cook, who is also AWESOME in concert! When it comes to #3 and beyond, my favorite seems to change a lot. So I'll just list the others that I like from each of the seasons that I've watched. Season 8: Anoop Desai, Kris Allen, Matt Giraud, Allison Iraheta. Season 7: Michael Johns and Jason Castro. Season 6: Melinda Doolittle and Jordin Sparks. Season 5: Ace Young.

I went to one of the American Idols Live concerts this year for the first time. Several of the top 10 from this season were MUCH better sounding live than they were on TV. I was the most impressed with Anoop and Matt. Can't wait to see what kind of debut album they eventually release. Somebody hurry up and give them each a recording contract soon!

Speaking of albums... I am so obsesssed with Daughtry's second album "Leave This Town" which came out in July. That CD has been in my car stereo for more than 3 months now. If I'm not listening to the radio, I'm listening to Daughtry's CD. Not sure yet how long I'm going to keep it in my car. Probably until one of my other favorite singers release a mind-blowing new album. Will it be Kris Allen's or Jason Castro's debut? Or David Cook's sophomore album? Or whenever my favorite Beatle, Paul McCartney, has a new album?

Cook vs Lambert

I really really really wish the people on some websites would stop trying to pit David Cook against Adam Lambert!!!!!! Even when they write an article that is only about Cook, people insist on glorifying Lambert in the comments!!! The comments that some people wrote today were calling Adam a "god" and that David is "boring"! I just wanna shake those people as hard as I can and ask "Are you insane?!" Yes, Adam is very talented but he is in no way a "god", not even in a musical sense. And they keep saying that David sounds exactly like the band Nickelback and is not unique. I don't agree with that at all. His voice and his songs sound nothing like Nickelback and he's not "hard rock" like them. He's more "pop rock" with "alternative rock" aspirations. (If he didn't have to do whatever Idol told him to do, his album would have been much more alternative and only a little bit pop.)

Getting back to the idiot comments... People were gushing about how there's no other singer that sounds like Adam and that he's not afraid to "wear his sexuality on his sleeve". PULL-EEZ!!!! Apparently those people have never been to a quality theater performance (like a Broadway-type show but not necessarily actually on Broadway). There are many theatrical singers out there who are just as talented as Adam, if not more. And who flippin' cares whether he's gay or not?! I sure don't. That's his business, not mine. Just like I don't care if a contestant is married, widowed or single. Or if they're a single parent or don't have kids. Or if they're 16 years old or 28 years old. All I care about is the music and whether or not the singer's performance makes me feel emotionally connected to the song. Personally, I don't feel any connection when a song is taken a few notes higher than necessary and is "screeched".

At the beginning of the season, I had high hopes for Adam. I expected him to "wow" us each week with clever spins on well known songs. Unfortunately, I've been disappointed by week after week of screeching. (The only exception would be Motown week when he sounded amazing and was screech-free.) At this point in time, the only Top 10 Idol that I care to vote for this season is Anoop Desai. I know he's not the strongest singer on Idol this year. But his performances leave me wanting to hear more (which is important to me) and I'm looking forward to any album he records. If Anoop is voted off, I'll probably go with either Allison Iraheta or Kris Allen --- and I'll be voting for whoever is up against Adam in the finale. But that's just MY opinion.

American Idol - Season 8

Wow, it's been a long time since I last wrote a blog entry. We now have a new president (woo hoo!) and I have been to my first David Cook concert (woo hoo, again!). Well, now that we're in the middle of Season 8 of American Idol, maybe I'll have something to write about. But only maybe. So far, A.I. hasn't been as much fun for me as last year was. Too many mediocre singers in the Top 10. At least we have a guest appearance from David Cook to look forward to. Today I was reading MANY comments on a news website where they were trying to compare Cook with Season 8's front runner Adam Lambert. Personally, I think it's impossible to compare apples to oranges. Here's the comment I posted on that news site:

"I think Adam Lambert is very talented but I don't feel any kind of emotional connection when he sings. Who is he as an artist/musician? What kind of music would he record? I hope that we get to see the real Adam soon. Up to this point, Anoop Desai is the only one I've voted for [among the top 10] so far this season. I see Anoop as an R&B artist with a little rock thrown in once in a while. Who is Adam? Certainly not a rocker from what I have seen so far. When I vote, I think about who I'd like to see in concert and whose album I'd buy. From previous seasons, for me it has been David Cook, Michael Johns, Jordin Sparks, Melinda Dolittle, Ace Young, and Chris Daughtry who are worth spending my money on. I didn't watch the first four seasons. Chris Daughtry is the one who got me hooked [on A.I. in Season 5]."