Syesha Viewing Party at Gulfstream tonight

Fans are gathering at 7:30 tonight (Tuesday) at Frank's Energy Beach at Gulfstream Park Racing and Casino, 901 S. Federal Hwy., Hallandale Beach, FL 33009 (305-467-5091) to cheer on Syesha Mercado as the FIU student competes on Idol's Top 3 show tonight.

Tonight's game plan is for each contestant to sing judge's pick, producer's pick and their own choice. Randy Jackson has selected Alicia Keys' If I Ain't Got You as his pick for Syesha.

In other rumored spoilers, Simon picked Roberta Flack's ballad The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face for David Cook. (WHY???? I thought Simon didn't like when David stepped outside his rock range and haven't we heard this moldie oldie enough already?). David's pick is Collective Soul's The World I Know.

Paula picked Billy Joel's And So It Goes for Archuleta. How exciting, another ballad from the Bland Wonder.

Random Thoughts with Carly Simon

Carly Simon appears to have an instore appearance scheduled for May 17 at the Starbucks/Hear Music store on Lincoln Road Mall in Miami Beach. My editor saw a sign in the store window. Details to come.

Singer-songwriter Carly Simon came to the attention of American Idol viewers this season when finalist Brooke White performed her 1972 classic, You're So Vain. Simon, impressed with the rendition, publicly hoped that Brooke would win and called her on the morning of her dismissal to offer words of praise and support.

Simon has never performed in Miami but that will change Friday when she appears in concert at the Gusman Center in downtown Miami to benefit the children's support group, CHARLEE. (Her family opera, Romulus Hunt, will also be staged by FIU on Saturday.) Simon says she will be in attendance for that, too. Details and tickets, click here. Naturally, she will do You're So Vain as well as a handful of songs from her sublime new CD, This Kind of Love. There will be a full article in Sunday's Arts section in The Miami Herald but we couldn't fit in everything. Here's some of what you missed:

Simon on her parents' marriage and its effect on her writing: "I was digesting all the information that I was processing in my own life, and other people's lives, [trying] to put it into a context that was more entertaining and possibly more dramatic,'' Simon recalls about composing Romulus Hunt. In so doing, a painful memory surfaced. As a teen, she had caught her mother in an affair. Her father, Richard Simon, co-founder of the Simon & Schuster publishing house, died soon after.

"They didn't divorce,'' Simon says. "But it was a harrowing shock for me.'' That was something that was ongoing until the day my father died. We all felt it. In a way, one of the things that killed my father was the sale of Simon & Schuster [the publishing company he had co-founded] and being cuckholded that, together, was enough to topple him. The kids just live on with these things, wanting to love the mother who survives, yet being angry at the mother, but so wanting the love of the mother and for the role model to 'be good.'"

Simon on coming to Miami for her first concert: Simon teases that she almost didn't come. Notorious for anxiety attacks that have limited the number of concerts she's given -- plus a fear of flying --could have conspired to keep Simon grounded at her Martha's Vineyard home.

"Marilyn March [CHARLEE's Development Director] asked me and it was so much like the Troubadour in 1971. I said no at first,'' Simon says, recounting her first concert tour as Cat Stevens' opening act at the famed Los Angeles rock club and how she'd conspired to bow out. Elektra Records wanted its new artist to tour. Simon would capitulate on one condition: "Get me Russ Kunkel.'' She knew that the famed session drummer would be unavailable since he was on the road with James Taylor at the time. Kunkel came through. Simon had to play.

"I told Marilyn, 'Well you know, I'd need a lot of money because it costs a lot to pay my band.' I mentioned a figure and she didn't flinch. Then I said I'd need a private plane to take me back home.
'We can arrange that.'''

Clearly, that ploy once again backfired. "I'm going to give back the money to the CHARLEE fund because I felt so terrible,'' Simon says, laughing.

Simon on the recording of her new CD, This Kind of Love, available on Starbucks' Hear Music label. Its her first collection of originals since 2000's The Bedroom Tapes: "This one is so influenced by Caetano Veloso. I was thinking I would do a bossa nova/Brazilian samba album where every song was going to have that beat and half of it would be in Portuguese and the other half in Spanish and it would be very true to that genre because I'd been so influenced by that music.

"When I was 18 I saw Black Orpheus for the first time and I wanted to write music like Jobim and Luis Bonfa. But I didn't have the guitar skills. Then I listened to the Best of Caetano Veloso and he didn't stick to bossa nova and samba. He was into world music and he went all over the place. He was influenced by Italian music and by Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe and Andy Warhol and that was not just South America.

"That's what I wanted for [This Kind of Love,] an album that has the seasonings of a samba bossa nova South American record."

Simon on People Say a Lot, her favorite among her new songs from This Kind of Love. It's an angry song from an artist who has written very few angry tunes. It features a hip-hop tempo and a rap-sung vocal from Simon. The track also uses an 10-second snippet of film dialog from the classic 1950 Bette Davis movie, All About Eve. How she secured that sample is as interesting as the actual song: "We finished mastering the album and we realized we didn't get the rights to use All About Eve. My lawyer quickly called up the movie company, MGM, and it cost a whole lot of money I paid out of my own pocket, about $15,000 to $20,000." But she also needed clearance from the estate of the late actor George Sanders, who had spoken the dialog in question. His rights were overseen by a woman named Elaine Tully in Sussex, England. "I called Sussex information myself ... with all the possible spellings of Tully. Someone from my lawyer's office had the bright idea of calling a courier in Sussex.'' That did the trick, the bicyclist courier knew who Tully was and Simon called her personally. "She was delighted," Simon said. The woman didn't charge her much, either.

Simon learns that her popularity with gay audiences soared thanks to her exposing All About Eve in her song, People Say a Lot: "I did an interview with a gay and lesbian magazine from the South and [the interviewer] said, "Do you realize how many friends you have made in the gay community for using that movie?'' That movie is so loved, it's always referenced. I thought that was really interesting. I'm so delighted."

In case you're wondering, here's the dialog Simon samples. It appears at the end of the movie and also at the end of her song which was inspired, in part, by the storyline of Eve and backstabbing people:

• "Tell me Phoebe, do you want some day to have an award like that of your own?''
• "More than anything else in the world.'
• "Then you must ask Miss Harrington how to get one. Ms. Harrington knows all about it.''
• Another track on the new album, So Many People to Love, has a distinct, contemporary R&B flavor. In the press material, Simon says she purposely tried to adopt a Michael Jackson-like sense of vocal phrasing to convey its feeling. I thought the ballad would make for a smash hit for Janet Jackson. It would be the kind of R&B ballad she could do and have a big hit with and it would certainly put some sorely needed class into her increasingly mechanized, soulless albums. I told Carly this in an email a couple months before her CD came out. Her reponse: "How will you get it to her? I think you should be the Paul Revere. I'm counting on you." Consider it done, Carly: If any of Janet J's people are reading this blog: we've got THE song for you! Let us know...

David's dad banned from Idol rehearsals

It's been a long time coming but TMZ and AP report that David Archuleta's meddling stage father Jeff Archuleta has been banned from rehearsals of American Idol.

From AP: Jeff Archuleta's intense backstage involvement had become a source of concern for the
series, the person connected with American Idol' said -- but it was a lyric change on Tuesday's show that pushed producers to act. Despite a warning, Jeff Archuleta insisted on altering Stand by Me, one of two
songs his son sang on the show Tuesday. By adding a verse from Sean Kingston's Beautiful
Girls, the father incurred additional costs for American Idol, the person said.

Jeff was also banned from the set when David competed on Star Search earlier this decade. It's a shame this seemingly nice young man has a stage dad from hell because it reflects badly upon him, it's not fair and it ruins the spirit of competition. Jeff hasn't been banned from the audience but if he had an ounce of class (of course, it doesn't appear he could spell the word, let alone have any of it), he'd stay home for a change and let the boy's mother take over for the remaining two weeks -- if David clings to his position among the top three.)

It's a shame that it was only after this man cost producers some money that they decided to act to protect David's best interests. Jeff should have been banned from the beginning.

RIP: Eddy Arnold, Paul Davis

Two artists associated with country music died recently. The bigger of the two, Eddy Arnold, is credited by Billboard magazine as the most successful country artist of all time. That's because he had such a long run of hit singles over a career dating back to the mid 1940s, up through his peak years in the 60s when he embodied the Nashville Sound. He'd ditched the fiddles and country accents and applied his smooth tenor to pop songs with strings and lush harmony vocals that had come to define country in the 60s.

His reign was before my interest in country music began but I have a couple of his CDs. A wire obit had late singer/TV personality's Dinah Shore's description of his voice and it intrigued me: "Like warm butter and syrup being poured over wonderful buttermilk pancakes,'' she had said.

I can't describe that voice any better. His rich, thick and sweet voice was impressive. He recorded his final album, his 100th, in 2005 at the age of 87. Even at that age, his vocals on the ballad-oriented All These Years Ago had warmth and control. He certainly hadn't suffered the type of vocal decline that plagued the late Frank Sinatra in his latter years or the frayed voice fellow octogenarian Tony Bennett has now.

The other singer who died was Paul Davis, at 60 of a heart attack. He didn't have Arnold's cache but I was more familiar with some of his music since it was popular in the 70s and 80s. By the 80s I had moved on from his music as I didn't care for the sugary Cool Night, Sweet Life or '65 Love Affair and wasn't interested in venturing into his hit country duets with Marie Osmond. But his 1978 classic, I Go Crazy, was a staple of my teen years. That song spent 40 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, that was a chart record for longevity then. Every morning, that beautiful pop tune, with its tinkling piano fills, popped onto WQAM on our AM car radio at 5 a.m. while we were on the MacArthur Causeway heading toward the University of Miami for swim practice. To this day, if I hear that track I'm catapulted back to that early morn' drive to the pool for lap after lap with fellow Hurricane Swim Club teammates. Gonna have to give that tune a play on the iPod.

Jason's final words on Idol

Jason Castro's post-show comments from a teleconference Thursday:

On forgetting lyrics: I definitely did not do that on purpose. I couldn’t believe I forgot such a popular line, something that’s like written on your soul. Somehow, it slipped my mind. But I definitely didn’t do that on purpose.

Wanting to go home?:Yesterday, I wanted to win, and the day before. And it’s just – I think what came – what it came down to is just my inexperience. And I just - once we doubled up on songs, I wasn’t really being able to focus. And both my songs were just – my mind was just split, and I just couldn’t deliver either/or, and so I think that’s what it came down to.

This Texan says he loves country. Who knew?: I’ve listened to a lot of Texas country and just being around there, and I don’t know, the likes of Pat Green and stuff. I’m just a big country fan, kind of, and I just love the heart behind it.

Why Idol's so hard (to which I'd say, "Why did you go on it, then?"):  It goes back to – I started playing guitar at my freshman year of college and singing shortly thereafter. And while I was learning, I was teaching myself, and so I would learn songs, but I would never learn them all the way through. So I’d never even learned a song all the way through, and now trying to learn two in a week has just been tough.

His temperment: I’m not always so calm. I am kind of goofy. I think that a lot of people don’t see my hyperness sometimes. I still have fun, but I am pretty relaxed about everything.

Singing two songs is, like, really hard, dude!: I was just feeling me losing that power just because I couldn’t connect with the songs with like the given time, and I really had a hard time when we picked it up to two songs. I just – like I wasn’t committing to either one, and I couldn’t – I just couldn’t connect with them. I couldn’t fall in love with it. You need time for that.

Conspiracy theorists say that Jason mouthed the words "Don't vote" on camera because he wanted to go home. After all, he told EW he was ready to go home: I was saying, “Vote.” And then I said it again because I was kind of trying to emphasize that but nobody heard me, and I remember going and sitting down and thinking about it, and that they kind of have the same syllables, and it’s going to look like, “Don’t vote.” That went through my mind, and I was like, “Dang it.” And I consciously, the second time, I only said vote once, and they were doing the numbers because I thought of that.

On Simon's harshness those last two weeks: That night, I was having fun with my songs. He could say whatever he wanted, and I was confident what I was doing. I had nothing to be ashamed of, and so if you didn’t like it, fine. If it wasn’t what we needed for the competition, OK. And – but, usually – like sometimes, it affects, like if I wasn’t prepared for a song, and I feel like that, like going on stage, and I’m feeling like it’s not the best it could be, and then they say that too, it’s kind of reaffirming my thought. But still, it’s just another day, and it’s just a song. People see past that, and I see past it.

Carly Simon called Brooke White. Dolly Parton called Michael Johns. Our Lady Peace called David Cook. As for Jason, no celebrity endorsements. How could this be?!: Actually, nothing about wanting to work with me, but Chris Sligh [Idol VI finalist] called me the other day. He was apparently hanging out with one of my friends that’s a guitarist who’s doing some studio work in Nashville, and they were hanging out. And I came up in conversation, and he gave him my number, and he was just extending friendship. And I haven’t called him back yet ...

The Cats debacle: I’ve heard of the show, but I didn’t really – by the time I sang [Memory] in front of Andrew Lloyd Webber, of course I knew he was a cat, but when I first heard the song, I didn’t even know it was from Cats. I just heard the song, and I don’t know; I was just trying to find a good song.

A sense of relief to be cut?: [Beyond MY relief, that is:]Yes.  I – yes, I’ve been telling people I was as happy last night as I was when I found out I made the top 24. This whole time, I’ve had a blast, and I was trying, but it’s just really been hard. And that night, I remember before we found out the results, I was just thinking, I was really starting to fear the week ahead, if I made it. How am I going to do three songs? I can’t even do two right, and with the hometown visit, it was just going to be a lot of work, even though it would have been so much fun. I was just freaking out about it, and so that was all building up, and so I was kind of – I was ready to go either way, whatever they gave me. When they gave me that, I just – my natural reaction, I just really felt relieved, like the pressure was off. I loved my time on there, and I would have liked to go farther, but I don’t think I could handle it, so I’m content.

Jason's thoughts on Paula reviewing his second song before he sang it:Well, that was kind of funny. I was just kind of confused, like what’s going on? The second song, mean David, or what does that mean? But I don’t know. It was an honest mistake, and I don’t think it really affected my next performance, but, yes.

Idol Top 3 agenda

Next Tuesday on American Idol, the top three finalists sing three songs apiece: judge's pick, producer's pick and their own choice.

Claymates slam critics who carp about Clay Aiken

Pavlov had nothing on the Claymates. Clay Aiken put out a new CD this week and, of course, critics slammed it. [I gave it 2 out of 4 stars, lamenting the Hallmark Card-variety lyrics and a sameness of tone, but had praise for his beautiful vocals which have never had a better showcase on CD until this one. Claymates might not believe this, but I actually liked Clay when he was on Idol and admit to having his first single, Invisible, as well as Solitaire, on my iPod. I'm still waiting for Clay to fulfill the promise he had on that show yet a good four, five plays of this new CD just hasn't convinced me he's anything but a lightweight with a lovely voice. Many other reviews, however, weren't that charitable and slammed the ballad-heavy disc with a plain F.) Read my review here.

Here's some reaction:

• I am really perplexed by your review of Clay Aiken's most excellent CD to date. Why is it that you don't really review the CD but rather diss his fans and insinuate he has baggage that you know nothing about? Are tabloids really what drives you and motivates your opinions? That's really tacky and says more about you than about the music on this CD. How is this a review of the music? I am a music major and I think this CD is full of layers and layers of excellent production and superb vocals. Though there are several ballads, there are also several interesting pop rock songs where Clay's voice soars. Sometimes I truly wonder if any of you insecure males even bother to listen to Clay Aiken. Yeah, you give his beautiful voice credit but really, did you hear the same CD I just listened to? Can you really be fair with your preconceived bias? How about opening your mind and actually listening? BTW folks, give this one a chance. It really is Aiken at his best so far. There is something for everyone because Aiken can do it all.
• As a guy who never owned a Barry Manilow album I am quite confused by your review. My wife is a fan and I've had the opportunity to see Clay in concert as well. There isn't anything on this new album that is 70s-like unless it's the fact that the pop songs are beautifully constructed and sung in an innovative way - in the way people like Stevie Winwood and Freddy Mercury used to sing. The ballads are few and the lyrics are pretty compelling for pop music. There's a funky bluesy song, some pure pop/rock songs and a healthy dose of uptempo stuff that's full of real music and innovative arrangements. You're naturally entitled to your opinion but I wonder if you wrote this review with a National Enquirer in your ear.
• I read your review of Clay Aiken's CD, and it appears that you're guilty of reviewing an album without listening to it. "a preponderance of lush ballads that blend into one other for 12 songs" you say? How could you have not noticed the uptempo songs if you had actually listened to it? One or two of them start off slow so if you had given it more of a listen than 5 seconds you would have realized that. I certainly respect your right to not like Clay's CD - different strokes for different folks. But other than stating that it's all ballads (not true), and reflecting on the  secret hidden subject matter behind the lyrics there is almost no mention of the music itself. IMHO the album is fantastic. This is the first album that he's put out where absolutely every track is a keeper. No, I wouldn't expect a music critic to be as enthusiastic as a fan like me would be. And I'm so glad that you recognize the quality of his voice. But I would expect a reviewer for a publication like the Miami Herald to have at least given it a thorough listen.

Syesha's whirlwind Friday

Syesha Mercado, the sole female standing among Idol's Top 3 (and now my choice to win) will hit her Sarasota hometown Friday morning for a day's worth of promotional activities. Look for a story in Saturday's Miami Herald with a report on her appearances. (Syesha also has Miami support given that she's a Florida International University student).

But if you just have to see her for yourself Friday, get in the car and head to these places:

• Early morning, 9ish, Syesha will hit several radio stations, 91.3 and 100.7, and the Tampa Fox affiliate TV station to film spots and chatter.
• At 10:30 a.m. she is expected to be at the downtown Bradenton AT&T Store, 4708 Cortez Rd.
• At 12:30 p.m. she is expected at the Booker High School where they'll do a rally in her honor.
• At 3:30 p.m., she's at the Ringling Museum, 5401 Bayshore Rd. for an appearance.
• Later afternoon, she'll perform with her band at Tropicana Field (? -- not sure of spelling).

The Results Show: Jason's Booted!

Tonight's results show features performances from Maroon 5 and, more interestingly, Season 4 runner-up Bo Bice who has a hot Southern Rock album, See the Light, he's released independently. Hot, as in quite good. Hopefully, tonight's performance will inspire some sales. Meantime, my Idol Poll has Jason far and away most likely getting the boot tonight, with more than 80 percent of the vote. Let's hope this comes to pass...(you can still vote on that poll until 10 p.m. tonight, scroll to the item on this blog and vote away!)

• 51 million votes came in, with the top 3 separated by less than a million apiece, Ryan reveals.
• The group performance of Steely Dan's Reeling in the Years was fair. Syesha and Cook navigated the lyric well enough, Archie's Robo-Tone doesn't work for a rock song (he's going to be the next Clay Aiken balladeer when he starts cutting albums) and Jar Jar was his usual dreadful self.
• Archuleta's safe. This means another week that we have to see his stage father from hell in the audience. Can't this guy take a week off and let the poor kid's mother get to see her son in the studio audience? Archie needs to stop saying he's having "fun" with the songs. Love Me Tender is not a "fun" song, kid.
• Cook's safe.
• It's between Jason and Syesha. Ryan teases that he'll tell us who is going home after the break. But it's only 9:25. Even Jason figured out it was too soon to reveal the result. "You're going to tell us now," he queried. Of course not! We have to sit thru 35 more minutes of this drivel!
• Maroon5 performs If I Never See Your Face Again. If I never see singer Adam Levine's face again or hear his girlie voice again I'd be more than happy! They opened for the Police last summer and Levine was so obnoxious on stage.
• Bo Bice: Looks like a rocker. Sounds like a rocker. IS a rocker. Love him. Did his new single Witness. I wish we had a Bo Bice among this season's cast, how much more exciting it would be. Bo's still the most convincing rocker Idol has had (even better than Daughtry). Long time viewers, remember when Bo did the a capella rendition of In a Dream? Striking. No one's had the guts or ability to do that since. Hope Cook was taking notes.
• Jason's booted. In Barbarino-fashion he explains away his ineptitude by noting that he's "inexperienced."

Syesha Watch Party tonight

Syesha Mercado fans will gather to cheer her on at 8 tonight at Senor Frogs, 3480 Main Hwy., Coconut Grove. Cameras from Deco Drive will be in the house.

Go Syesha!