Idol Watch

Nashville Star crowns Melissa Lawson

Not surprisingly, big-voiced Melissa Lawson took the title of Nashville Star as the reality show, in its sixth season but now on NBC, revealed that American voters preferred this mom of five with the sparkling personality over Gabe Garcia.

It was the right choice. Garcia has an OK voice, this Texan's country. But he has a wooden stage presence.

Lawson now wins a recording contract with Warner Bros., gets to release the single she sang at the closing Monday night (a treacly, feel-good anthem cut from the American Idol cloth called What If It All Goes Right) and will perform at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics -- where all the athletes will likely go, "Nashville Star??? What's that?"

The closing show was, like Idol, pageanty and not very country. Lawson and Garcia sang the drippy Dirty Dancing pop anthem, (I've Had) The Time of My Life, country legend George Jones was brought out for a millisecond and apparently no reason aside from making the poor guy look bewildered, and the finalists had to pretend to enjoy singing host Billy Ray Cyrus' 90s hit Achy Breaky Heart when they all probably would rather be sharing a stage with his daughter Miley Cyrus.

A Nashville Star winner has yet to fulfill that title (Miranda Lambert did not win NS or even make the final two). Chris Young, two seasons ago, is the most promising talent and hopefully his second album, due this fall, will catch on commercially. (I have an advance and it's the real deal). I hope Lawson fares better than last year's winner, Angela Hacker, who was sabotaged by Warner Bros., as she was hustled into the recording studio immediately after she won and had to record cover songs and weak originals and failed miserably. Lawson deserves better (and, please, no power pop ballads).

Meantime, Idol Watch readers, I'm on vacation but couldn't resist posting these last two items. I'll return in two weeks.

Nashville Star: Top 4

Nashville Star shed its least appealing contestant Monday night when Coffey received the fewest votes, leaving Melissa, Shawn and Gabe as the top 3. They will face off next Monday for the championship.

In this case, America picked the right three. Melissa clearly is the vocal powerhouse of the remaining contestants. Tho I quibbled over her song selection Monday -- in a world flush with great country classics to choose from, there's no reason for a Nashville Star to select Pat Benatar's 1980 rock hit, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, save that for American Idols -- Melissa sings with feeling, range and power. She also has the best demeanor and looks most natural on stage.

Shawn (left) has grown on me a bit, though her forte is the kind of power ballad mush Faith Hill cuts and Nashville could use a lot less of that. Conversely, Gabe is growing off me. He's not much of an entertainer and lacks the IT factor. He has a decent voice, and the most country cred, but it's not such a spectacular voice to override his ordinary persona.

Prediction: America likes big voices and sentimental stories. Melissa has the edge on both. She can outsing her fellow contestants and her story about being a mom to five who wants this dream come true to make for a better life for her kids will resonate with Nashville Star viewers. Nashville Star Season 6 winner will be, and should be, Melissa Lawson.

Nashville Star: Original Songs Week

The ugliest, most ear-grating sound I've ever heard on a TV singing show screeched out of my TV last night while watching Nashville Star. And we're talking years of enduring American Idols like Sanjaya butchering pop songs.

This time, it wasn't from a contestant but, rather, pop/country star and judge Jewel who sounded like a tractor grinding through rusty gears as she struggled to sing one of her tuneless banalities. She's a good judge, offering sound advice, but if there was any doubt that this woman should be barred from entering a recording studio to commit aural sins, her singing Monday confirms it.

As for the contestants, the remaining five sang original songs. Only Melissa Lawson's Ready to Stand caught my ears as something I'd care to hear again. Rousing and tuneful, she was the standout. Shawn Mayer's overwrought power ballad would be a smash for Faith Hill. The rest ranged from the forgettable (Gabe Garcia) to train wreck (Coffey's rap song). Happily, the irritating Ashlee Hewitt got the boot from American voters, now we desperately need to ditch cocky Coffey and get to a final with Gabe and Melissa soon.

Nashville Star: Love Songs Week

  Is it just me or is Nashville Star getting worse as we get closer to crowning a winner? Even the reliable Melissa Lawson oversang her number on Monday (yet another Martina McBride song -- she also needs to expand her repertoire beyond these mostly vapid tunes). Only Gabe Garcia, pictured, continued to show range and viability as a country artist as he did Billy Currington's We Must Be Doing Something Right better than the original star did it. Shawn Mayer improved upon previous weeks but she's not country star material.

The rest? Coffey's contrived crying mid-song fooled the judges but it was a fake move designed to call attention away from the fact he can't sing, not even a bit. Ashlee Hewitt may well win this thing but she has the most offputting and weak voice. Her blond kewpie doll look is Nashville generic. Thankfully, obnoxious brats Laura & Sophie, who apparently dissed judge Jewel last week with some eye-rolling attitude and who got called on their snooty behavior by judge John Rich in a blistering commentary, got the boot.

Next Monday's show is original song week where the remaining five showcase a tune they have written.

Nashville Star: Missed Opportunity

My DVR decided it didn't feel like recording Monday night's Nashville Star. The machine appears to have more taste than I. Please share your comments about the show here to fill me in. I did hear, however, that the promising Pearl Heart trio inexplicably got the boot (as did Tommy Stanley, thank God). The former is an injustice. Ashlee or the Laura & Sophie duo should have been sent packing instead of Pearl Heart.

Nashville Star: Family Week

Nashville Star may be the cheese but, in its fourth week, some things are becoming apparent: the show has the best judges on reality TV. Unlike American Idol, with its has-been, moronic judges Paula and Randy and bored Brit who knows very little about music (Simon), Nashville Star's contemporary John Rich, Jewel and Jeffrey Steele offer serious, constructive criticism without showboating or grunting "dawg" or weeping and sucking up to the contestants. No has-beens or rude Brits like America's Got Talent, either. NS has real, 100 percent, pure beef judging. Refreshing!

Another plus: three contestants are revealing talents that, in some cases, were hidden as the season began. Best of the bunch is Melissa Lawson. On Family Week Monday, she sang This One's for the Girls and Landslide and her voice was big and clear, her personality ebullient and she could be a heroine to plus-size women with her beautiful face and charisma. She's the best female voice. Best male voice goes to fellow Texan Gabe Garcia who, also, is coming into his own and revealing some stage presence. He sang Bon Jovi's Wanted Dead or Alive and George Strait's The Fireman and made both listenable (a real feat given how tired and boring that Bon Jovi song is). A distant third would be the family trio, Pearl Heart.

The rest are pretty awful, with these three at the absolute bottom of the cracker barrell: Tommy Stanley, Ashlee Hewitt and the obnoxious, self indulgent Coffey, with his sense of entitlement, all must go home as fast as possible. (Alyson Gilbert was eliminated Monday).

Nashville Star Week 3: Bye Justin

Nashville Star went "pop goes country" in week three and the results were predicatably embarrassing ... with a few glimmers of hope. Plus-size mom of five Melissa Lawson (pictured) sang Cyndi Lauper's True Colors and made it work country style. In so doing, she showcased the show's only true voice out of the nine remaining contestants. Justin Gaston was voted off despite doing a shockingly passable Girls Just Want to Have Fun. But the 19-year-old model lacked personality. He knew how to pose but relied too much on his looks. He hadn't learned how to engage an audience or talk or sing well enough to compensate for his mediocre voice. He was still leagues better than fellow bottom-two contestant, Navy guy Tommy Stanley, Ashlee Hewitt or Alyson Gilbert.

Host Billy Ray Cyrus still can't say his name without looking at the cue cards first, the show still disrespects country music by having non-country acts like Danity Kane as guest performers and the best thing still remains the judges -- Jewel, John Rich and Jeffrey Steele -- who, unlike their American Idol counterparts, actually JUDGE!! They offer constructive criticism, unlike Randy and Paula, they aren't morons with zero vocabulary and they aren't there, like Simon, to fire off a nasty crack for the sake of a good line. If only they had more talented performers to judge and a better host.

Nashville Star's fallen season

Nashville Star moved from cable's USA Network to NBC this season but if you think the move to the majors has boosted this show's already weak grip on talent or ability to make stars, think again. If Nashville Star was a lame American Idol-with-a-twang knockoff before, the episode I caught Monday night was so embarrassingly inept it almost makes me want to rewrite all my criticisms of Idol's Jason Castro this season. Jason would outshine the 10 remaining NS contests -- that's how low the bar for this show is.

How bad is NS? When your judges include Jewel and John Rich and some blond guy from a forgotten 90s country act (Boy Howdy) and the judging is a highlight, you know you have problems. (Bad as Jewel is as a singer-songwriter, she can do something Idol judges not named Simon have trouble doing: she can judge. She offered constructive criticism. So did John Rich.) Singer-actor-Miley's dad Billy Ray Cyrus adds to his growing resume something else he can't do well: host.

The camerawork was so bad at one point a contestant's chest and head were cut off the screen before the junior high school intern running the camera realized his or her mistake. Twice, all commentary aimed at the contestants stopped abruptly so that Rich and then Cyrus could gush over Jewel's awful country album. Even Jewel looked uncomfortable.

As for the contestants? Not even a decent singer among the bunch. None with any stage presence. None with even a hint of country star potential. Granted, NS has had a pretty weak record of finding talent thus far. It's only successes have been Miranda Lambert, who did not win the title, and Chris Young who won two seasons ago and who will release his second CD this fall. (I have an advance and he's the real deal, a traditional country talent.)

Next week NS promises a pop-goes-country theme as if that is any change from any other episode. Monday, someone sang the Police's Every Breath You Take. Country's gone pop on NS from the start but it's never gone as flat as it has on its move to a major network.