Scotty McCreery Co-Hosts 4/20-21 countdown | April 15, 2024 The co-host this wknd is Scotty McCreery, who is in our Top 10 with Cab In a Solo. Scotty previews his new album Rise & Fall. The project includes a song he wrote about his baby boy Avery. Scotty was in Baltimore on a day off when Lon spoke with him. This is Induction Weekend, and Scotty becomes the newest member of the Grand Ole Opry.  He was invited by Garth Brooks: ”My brain blacked out. It was a dream come true. So surreal.  Garth was so kind, met the family and my son. He may not remember it, but he got to meet Garth that night. Garth was in Vegas the day before, and flew to Nashville to do it.”   Scotty’s son Avery is 18 months old: ”He’s growing like a weed. He’s a big boy.  Just seeing him grow into his own personality. We baby-proofed the bus. One of the bunks is a crib.  He’s walking all over, climbing the stairs of the bus, but he’s great.” Scotty’s college, North Carolina State, made it to the Final Four: ”It was such a cool run, such a buzz around both men & women, it was one of the best weeks in my life. The game was in Phoenix. We had a show in San Diego.  I was on at 6.  But I switched with Lee Brice. So I got to fly to the game, rushed to the airport, got to the show with 30 minutes to spare.” Scotty and Chayce Beckham each won American Idol about ten years apart: ”I’m so proud of him, he wrote this song by himself, so that speaks to him as a writer and artist. This guy is a legit country music artist. He knows what it takes, and I’m sure we’ll see him on the road, and give him a big hug.”   Scotty spotted Jelly Roll recently: He’s all over the TV.  I was at The Masters recently, and looked at the TV and saw Jelly speaking with Jim Nantz & Scott Van Pelt in Butler Cabin.  I even saw video of him playing golf with Chase Rice. So Jelly is taking over the golf world.”’ Scotty also has great stories this week about Luke Combs, Lainey Wilson, Chris Young, Megan Moroney, and Parker McCollum.      

As expected, little to no hype for Tae's performance.     Dude is once again on point with his pitch, runs and high notes all while singing an uptempo, quick worded song. Easily gives the best uptempo performances this season, and a top 5(maybe 3)vocalist of the remaining contestants.   Imma need him to sing something a bit slower soon though, show a more emotive side. 

2   House 1: Tiffany Mitchell - Will Kirby - Alex, Sola Cirie Fields - Corey, Alex, Gigi - SAFE Da'Vonne Rogers - Gigi, Corey, Alex - SAFE Vanessa Rousso - Gigi, Steven, Sola - SAFE Danielle Reyes - Alex, Gigi, Diana - SAFE    House 2: Sarah Hanlon - Sola, Corey Olivia Riemer - Chris, Gigi, Sola - SAFE Betty Yirsaw - Alex, Sola, Corey - SAFE Cassandra Shahinfar - Diana, Alex, Sola - SAFE Sabrina Abbate - Alex, Diana    House 3: Claire Rehfuss - Corey Elissa Slater - Gigi Jordan Lloyd - Diana, Gigi, Corey - SAFE Dan Gheesling - Steven, Corey Allison Irwin - Alex, Zoey Janelle Pierzina - Gigi, Sola, Diana - SAFE  Britney Haynes - Diana, Gigi, Akshar - SAFE Felicia Cannon - Corey   House 4: Nicole Franzel-Arroyo - Gigi, Corey, Sola - SAFE Rachel Reilly - Sola, Diana, Gigi - SAFE Jen Johnson - Akshar, Corey, Diana- SAFE Taylor Hale - Diana, Corey, Gigi - SAFE Keesha Smith - Akshar, Alex, Diana- SAFE  Jun Song - Alex, Sola, Corey - SAFE   House 5: Ika Wong - Sola, Alex, Diana - SAFE Neda Kalantar - Akshar, Corey, Diana  - SAFE Karen Singbell - Corey Britnee Blair - Chris, Sola, Akshar - SAFE Tamar Braxton - Claudia Campbell - Chris, Sola, Diana - SAFE Gary Levy - Alex, Chris   Brittnee   ROUND RULES (Please copy with your vote): 5 votes per day, 1 hour apart. For each vote, you can vote for one houseguest to be saved from eviction by putting your name beside them.  Once a houseguest has received votes from three people, they can be SAFE. Please write which Houseguests you are saving. Please check for skipped votes and fix if necessary. The last two houseguests regardless of house without safety is evicted from the game.

Yeah, so the theme of this season to cater a ton more to radio tendencies. There's a lot of people trying to emulate the hot sounds of the past five years. And bringing Chance the Rapper and Saweetie on board confirms this is the case on the adviser-side.    Tae Lewis, of course, being one of them. Always suspected that Tae's sound was firmly ensconced in the 2011-2013 sounds of bro country. His pre-show stuff reflects it, that what he really wants to talk about is sunlight, moonlight, big trucks, hot girls, never-ending parties. "Runnin Outta Moonlight" is bro-country. It's funny, Blake Shelton was also a big during that period, but generally went out of his way (or the show went out of their way) to cast more traditional types on the show. Probably because he recognizes the older cohort won't like the stuff we're seeing now.    With Reba (and now Dan + Shay) on the show, TPTB are definitely greenlighting more of the bro-country acts without pushback (and maybe even encouragement). Dan + Shay entered country music during the  bro-country era, so they are directly informed by it. Tae and Josh Sanders are definitely fairly stereotypical bro-country.    Television is already irrelevant, but hard to imagine boomers or X'ers liking or caring about this stuff.   

This one really hurts.  Season 5 is my favorite season, and Mandisa was one of my favorites. She had some great performances like the ones Wally posted, plus she went on to have a great career in CCM which includes a couple of Grammy wins. However, the main thing I will remember is how she confronted Simon during the Top 24 selection show about that rude comment he made about her weight after her audition. The graceful way she handled it always stuck out to me.   May she rest in power and her music and legacy live on.