The Good: Ashley Rodriguez is fluid, good looking but not oppressively good looking, and she seems to have a nice bounce to her step. She is the most likely to make the final 12 … I like Katie Stevens, but I am not sure that her voice can overcome her lack of experience. She’s only 16 and really raw. She can sing, though … Justin, the cancer survivor, sings well but he doesn’t know how to use his nicely varied bag of tricks. He’ll improve every week, as long as he can stay on the show. He’ll get coached up … Leah, the last audition, was my favorite. She lacks confidence, but her voice is spectacular and she can sing the blue notes. She could be an interesting sleeper.
The OK: The girl with three brothers who have down-syndrome sings well and she’s cute, but her voice isn’t all that strong. I don’t see her going deep, but if she does she could get a lot of “I like you” votes … The Italian guy with the long name (Ammedeo) is the same basic model, minus all the brothers – limited vocally but very likeable. His voice is strong enough that he might have some upside … Claire, the girl in the blue tank top, really can’t sing well enough to make it far. She reminds me of bikini girl … I dunno about the girl that sang “The Witch is Dead” (Jennifer Hirsch). She might be really good, but it’s hard to say based on such a short snippet … The bleached dirty blonde with the glasses (Jess) sounds really good to me and I like her look. We’ll have to see if she can really sing; she wasn’t perfect, but she has a lot of power in her voice … Luke, the blond guy playing guitar in the waiting room with Benjamin, might be something, but more likely he’s just early round eye candy … Benjamin is way too soft … Tyler (two broken arms) was pretty good, but I don’t think that he’s really a singer, at least one with a ton of experience in front of the band. I am curious to see him with a band, he’s a player so he might have something … Mike, the guy that drives the 50 foot cod boat, has no chance at all. Zero. He can’t sing … Joshua, the 28 year old with the green t-shirt, will probably never be seen again other than some of the Hollywood week stage drama. He can sing, and he looks a lot like that guy from last year who just missed the final 13 because he kept wearing pants 2 sizes too small for him and greasing his hair up like he was in “Revenge of the Nerds” … Bosa (African guy who sang George Strait) is probably a no chance guy, but you never know. His voice is pleasant.
The Bad: The girl with the streaky died red hair was SO SURE that she was going to make it that I had to fast forward through her audition once I knew she wasn’t any good. It’s painful to watch a dream die … someone should tell the first auditioner that winning Tiger Woods 2004 won’t get you into the Masters, either … Lisa, the girl with the butt, sang horribly. Bummer (no pun intended) … I have a hunch Michael Jackson Boy gets beat up a lot.
The ugly: Andrew – I hope he was a prop, a character invented to give the show someone to hate. Nobody is that horrible; he looked and sounded like a serial killer.
