American Idol Top 12

We watched AI on Tivo last night. Searching for Goodness... Before I even start though, as much as I admire Stevie Wonder (who everybody had to sing one of his songs), they are 1) tough to sing and 2) hard to make original. It seemed to only set up most of the contestants to get criticized and not show how good they are, even if they are really good.

1. Ace Young - Not as impressive as last week, but he showed some dance moves, which I doubted he had.

2. Bucky Covington - I remember he sang Superstitious. It was my favorite Bucky performance. I think it was the closest to "on key" he had been and even more, it was on a Stevie Wonder song! Go Bucky!

3. Chris Daughtry - Got lucky and found a Chili Pepper's Stevie song. He did it pretty well. Was it Higher Ground? Just seems if I can remember the song, it was a more memorable performance.

4. Elliott Yamin - Ouch, this was his week. He's the Stevie Wonder guy, but he didn't let it out. He can really sing, but he has to start wowing people. I think he can do it though.

5. Katherine McPhee - Every time I hear her, I'm so blown away by how well she can sing. But she has to stop performing and start preaching, start bringing them into her emotion. She's getting close. I think she will start really shining soon.

6. Kellie Pickler - This was tough, because I don't think there was any way she was going to sing Stevie Wonder. So she took a Stevie song and made it into a Carrie Underwood country ballad. I thought for what it was, she did the right thing.

7. Kevin Covais - Setting aside what I think is obvious (that he is not the American Idol), this kid uses everything he has and goes for it every week. I am really proud of him. But he better be careful dissing Simon. That seems to always backfire.

8. Lisa Tucker - YEAH!! Go for it. Sing something hip. Sing something off broadway. YEAH!! She has a better chance now than she had before.

9. Mandissa -- Solid, solid, solid. Her personality came through. She is doing her thing. I love it.

10. Melissa McGhee - She forgot the lyric. She's blaming it on nerves but everybody has the same nerves. She'd be my guess to go home.

11. Paris Bennett - Just like Lisa Tucker letting go, but only better. She dragged us into her emotion. It was really good.

12. Taylor Hicks - My man, his best performance yet. It is starting to wow, and that is what all will have to do soon.

I've been preaching revival at a church in Casey for about 100 people. Rarely do I get nervous preaching, but I've been nervous almost every night. Sunday night, when our band started playing for the first time, I was terrible. I couldn't hardly play. A big part of it is because I know so many people down there, and they know me. I don't want to disappoint them. So if I'm nervous in front of 100 people in Casey, can you imagine the pressure of these young kids (most of them) to perform in front of millions on television. Searching for Goodness... who am I to criticize any of them. They are all extraordinary and just the fact they can go this far on television ought to clue them in that they can probably be very successful at something in life, whether it is performing or not.