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American Idol’s Alexis Grace: Find Your Soul

I have been watching American Idol on and off in the past few weeks for there were people of interest to me personally performing on the show. One was Alexis Grace for she and I both hail from the same hometown, Memphis, TN. No, it’s not that I’m to proud of that for I’ve noticed that Memphis in its same fashion seemed to show preference in reporting on the accomplishments of both Memphis natives for Alexis Grace who is white as opposed to Lil’ Rounds who is black. When Alexis Grace was chosen to go to Hollywood her picture was plastered all around town and they did stories on her practically every night and would only mention Lil Rounds in passing IF they mentioned her at all. Those same juvenile and backwards attitudes seem to still prevail in Memphis and it is sad, very sad indeed. Even now since Alexis Grace got voted off the show, there’s little mention of the progress that Lil Rounds is making in being the favored contestant amongst the judges. Despite this lapse in common courtesy and human decency, this has nothing to do with Alexis Grace who by all accounts is a sweetheart and a very talented young woman. She’s got a nice set of pipes on her and for the most part knew how to use them and intially I was impressed with her interpretation of most of the material that they gave her to sing. Inspite of it though something about her singing made me a little uneasy about her chances of placing well in the competition and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Being a musician myself and a singer I’ve spent years listening to many many songs paying attention to even the most minute detail for at one time I dreamed of stardom myself. Learning most instruments on my own I became sensitive to the vaguest nuances in sound because I was my biggest critic especially when I was learning a song or writing a song and so other musicians will understand when I say you become sensitive to these things. Now the previous night she performed a song called ‘Jolene’ written and performed by Dolly Parton years ago. I didn’t listen to it closely but I thought it was a good performance. Not a great one, but a good one and I was certain she would pass on to the next stage of the competition. Lo and behold though I was surprised that she didn’t make it to the next round and had to perform again that night to try an save herself. She did the song and this time I listened and knew that she wouldn’t make it. It wasn’t that she performed badly either but I finally figured out what troubled me about her singing that I couldn’t quite put my finger on before and something I would share with other aspiring singers who want to make it in the business. You see the problem with Alexis was that she was a good singer, a VERY good singer but that’s all. The one thing she lacked that would have made her a GREAT singer was, she had no soul.

It was disappointing to see her get voted off the show (I kind of think it was pre-planned) but I understood why finally. You see Alexis was a good singer in that she could hit the notes and sound good doing it. But to sing with soul you have to have passion in your heart and feel for the words to interpret them and make it personal! Soul isn’t singing like in singing R&B music, soul is digging down deep within yourself to bring out the joy the pain the happy the sad of whatever you’re singing about. The song she was singing ‘Jolene’ was a good song for her and gave her a lot of room to really go somewhere with it, but she settled for doing an almost carbon copy of Dolly Parton’s original version which wasn’t a good idea. Now Dolly Parton’s original version was great in the first place because Dolly is one of the most talented women in the music business and the song was a personal song about a personal experience she had with someone trying to steal her man and so when she sang it she remembered that incident and the pleading came out in the song. Alexis chose a good song, but she never did connect with the spirit of the song and interpret such to make it her own. That’s why she got sent home. Everyone thinks Simon was being cruel (even I could have choked him) but you see this is what would have happened had she a record contract; they would have exercised their option to discontinue it. To promote a new artist is way to expensive and to timely an endevour to waste on somebody who can’t give 110% or more and so you have to be ready. Alexis can still be a star for American Idol gave her a springboard and she does have the potential; but she needs to get her guitar, shut herself up in a room, and practice singing and singing and singing until that one morning she strums that guitar and hums and knows she’s finally connected that beautiful voice to her heart.

I’ll tell you a story about Elvis Presley. Now I never really liked Elvis Presley for he didn’t impress me at all, you know a die-hard soul music fan. Well the year that he died he did a performance, I think in Hawaii and he came out and you could tell he was feeling real low. Eitherway, he talked at first and strummed on his guitar and then started crying talking about how lonesome he was and stuff and you know it was old news about his mom being dead and his being upset about his divorce and all, but in this show there was something different. Well after he got through all that he opened his mouth and man the first verse of ‘Are you lonesome tonite’ just floored me. This was a song I had heard a thousand times before and had dismissed as light operatic fluff, but this time I heard it and was totally entranced by the performance. This time he wasn’t just singing a song as part of his concert set, he was communicating the pain that was buried deep in his heart. This was the first time I ever heard Elvis sing with soul, and the last time for he died that year. After then though, I became an Elvis fan. That’s how important singing with soul is for it’s not about singing louder or faster but singing deeper. I hope other aspiring singers will be helped by this article for if I could have advised Alexis, she probably would still be on the show.

Daniele Gottardo – Cardiology (Guitar Idol 2009 Finalist)

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