Nashville Star – Spoilers!

The New season of Nashville Star begins tonight. It’s moving from the USA network to NBC and will be broadcast on Monday nights at 9/8c. Tonight’s premiere is 2 hours. Next week, the show cuts back to 90 minute episodes.
The show begins with a look at the audition process, which has already taken place. The competition begins as the 12 finalists perform in front of judges Jewel, John Rich and Jeffrey Steele. The judges choose who is going home and at the end of the episode, they vote off one of the contestants.
Anyhoo, why a post about Nashville Star you ask? ‘Cause I’ve decided to cover it. Persuaded by Tyson, the awesome Idol spoiler from Idol Forums who attended the taping of the first episode. He’s promised more inside info, so how could I say no? I LOVE ME SOME SPOILERS! Heh.
I’ll start a new post before the show begins tonight. Don’t forget, I’m also covering Canadian Idol (more auditions tonight!) as well as So You Think You Can Dance, so it should be a pretty fun summer on the blog!
Tyson sent the nifty picture of the new stage above.
So. Here’s the scoop if you want to know. Spoilers After the JUMP….
The taping went pretty well.. they started at 8:30pm CST on Monday night, and it was finnished around midnight. I will attach a picture of the new stage to this e-mail.
Here is the cast list (in performance order), along with the songs that they sang and a little bit about them:
Pearl Heart – sang ‘Wide Open Spaces’ by Dixie Chicks
Info: Family Trio. Angela and Amy, 20, are Twins, and their 17 year old sister Courtney
Tommy Stanley – sang ‘Walking In Memphis’ by Lonestar
Info: Tommy is in the armed forces. They had a special Military Casting Call aboard the U.S.S. Iwo Jima. There were around 10 people from each branch of the military scattered throughout the theatre.
Shawn Mayer – sang ‘Take Another Piece of My Heart’ by Janis Joplin
Info: The judges told her that there is already one Gretchen Wilson, and that she doesnt need to follow someone elses path.
Third Town – sang ‘Elvira’ by Kenny Rogers
Info: Third town is made up of three guys. I’m not for sure if they are brothers or just friends. They are all three the lead singers, and it was terrible. They talked back to the judges, which in my opinion, is a big no no. Especially for the first show.
Coffey – sang ‘Drift Away’ by Dobie Gray
Info: African American, Single Father. His daughter was in the audience.
Sophie & Laura – sang ‘Stand By Your Man’ by Tammy Wynette
Info: Sophie & Laura are best friends. Sophie is 16 and Laura is 18. The judges praised them.
Gabe Garcia – sang ‘All My Exes Live In Texas’ by George Strait
Info: Very good. The audience loved him.
Alyson Gilbert -sang ‘Suds In The Bucket’ by Sara Evans
Info: Not memorable enough.
Ashlee Hewitt – sang ‘Bubbly’ by Colbie Caillat
Info: It was simple, yet very good.
Charley Jenkins – sang ‘I Like It, I Love It’ by Tim McGraw
Info: He went through the audience during his performance. The judges didn’t like it. He is sort of like a Garth Brooks Wannabe.
Justin Gaston – sang ‘Drops of Jupiter’ by Train
Info: Justin is a male model. The judges didn’t like his performance.
Melissa Lawson – sang ‘Something To Talk About’ by Bonnie Raitt
Info: Melissa is a 32 year old mother of 5. The judges gave her a standing ovation. Possibly the best of the night, and the audience LOVED it.
Guest Artist – Taylor Swift – She sang ‘Picture to Burn.’
The winner/winners of this years competition will receive a recording contract with Warner Bros. Records, and an opportunity of a lifetime to sing at the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.
The judges deliberated and had to decide which contestant they would send home. They selected two contestants that they felt did the poorest of the night. The two that they selected were Charley Jenkins and Alyson Gilbert. The judges each stated who they wanted to vote off.
Jeffrey Steele chose: Charley Jenkins
John Rich chose: Alyson Gilbert
Jewel chose: Charley Jenkins
Therefore Charley Jenkins was sent home at the end of the show.



Tyson….In reality it took several takes before Justin finally sounded somewhat descent. NBC will manipulate the contest to make the contestants sound good or bad- it’s not that hard to do. When it’s live we shall see…won’t we? Actually I won’t be watching NBC and their rigged show, but I’ll read the blogs.
Well I sat up and watched tonight and mostly was disappointed. There were only a few I liked. I think the last one, the mother of 5 boys was awesome and she sold her song. Seemed most of them were trying too hard to get the audience into it and in doing so, lost contact with their song. Sometimes it is best to just sing the heck out of the song the first time you are seen and let it do the work for you. But, this is entirely my opinion, lol.
Gatson was awful, but hes pretty.
I was a bit underwhelmed. (And I actually like some country music.) Very few real standouts, and normally Nashville Star is loaded with strong talent. Maybe they’ll improve over the next couple of weeks, but all in all, not an auspicious start.
I also like “Can You Duet,” and I think that Joey & Rory are going to win, with Catelin (sp) and Will coming in 2nd. Rory has actually written songs for some of the top notch country singers, so, they aren’t strangers to the country music world.