Amber Lynn and James VIII were weird. She was wailing, and his guitar wasn't that great either. He looked a lot like the Grinch. But they let both of them through anyway. WHAT THE HECK?!
Emily Weirs was an auctioneer(which of course meant John Michael Montgomery's song "Sold! (The Grundy County Auction Incident)" played in the background). She picked Jo Dee Messina's "Bring On the Rain" and did a great job, but she was awarded three "no"s. Again....WHAT THE HECK?!
CJ Johnson was a professional musician from Memphis, his performance wasn't terrible, and almost cool, but not quite right. Sort of like Phillip Phillips meets Five for Fighting. They let him through, which I disagreed with.
Switching back to Little Rock, it was Ethan Kuntz's turn. He was from Nashville, Arkansas, and he tried to stump everyone he met with locating it. (Wikipedia says it's in the southwest part of the state, and the high school teams are known as the "Scrappers".) "Sure, I know where Nashville, Arkansas is. Somewhere in Arkansas," Kris Allen laughed it off. His family raises hunting dogs, and his voice was pretty good, but it sure didn't match the rest of him.
Mary Williams the horse trainer continued the string of "Being from some famous town....that was actually somewhere completely different", as she came from Belfast, Tennessee. She sang Tammy Wynette, which was fine, but very boring. And it was the first recorded use of TMM in my notebook this season(Too Much Makeup). "That was performed more than it was confessed. It wasn't a story," Keith complained.
Going back to Denver, the judges got to shoot baskets with the Nuggets PA guy. That was funny. (JayLo won.) His name was Xavier Soller, and he tried singing "Friends in Low Places". It was awful. "I loved playing basketball with you, and I love that I won, but no." "Will you be OK?" Keith pounced on that pun immediately.
Terrian Bass's hair was really unusual. It wasn't my style of music, and her voice was wrong for the song choice.
Returning to Little Rock, a girl calling herself "Blue" was an Andy Dwyer-type of songwriter. And she had a ukelele. And a nose ring between her nostrils like a bull. She sang an awful improvised original song, and everyone was very relieved when she disappeared. "It kinda sounded like a Jewish prayer song..." Harry said, thinking.
Thomas Stringfellow was from Bentonville, he had a terrible voice, but could play guitar well. He was about the eighth person this season to do Ed Sheeran's song "Give Me Love".
And finally returning to Denver, we had TyWan Jackson the 300-pound dance instructor, who called himself "Tank". He also had a tiny stereo. "That is the smallest boom box I've ever seen," one of the guys said(I forget who). He did a Luther Vandross song called "Superstar", which actually sounded okay, until the shouting part that seems to be a requirement of Luther Vandross songs.
A familiar face returned, it being the last season: John Wayne Schulz, aka the equally cool cowboy/Army flight instructor who lost the last spot in the finals of season 10 to Scotty McCreery(who won, of course). Turned out his mom had just gotten cancer back then, and if he would have gotten through then he would have missed her final months. So that probably turned out best. He sang Garth Brooks's "The Dance", and I just scrawled "YES." in capitals in my notebook. "You had such a natural way of doing it, it was so refreshing not to hear another Garth impression." Keith complimented him. "That was a perfect, succinct performance. I wanted to be at a campfire or something right there." - Harry. I also saw this clip shared on Facebook twice the next day outside of the AI page.
Leah Herbert apparently learned to sing by playing a Britney Spears cassette on constant repeat. She did something by Aretha Franklin, and it was TERRIBLE. "Can we stop it, please?" JayLo begged. "Your voice leaves a lot of unanswered questions," Harry said. "You did really well at hiding Britney's influence," was all Keith said.
Jordyn Simone was SO not 15. It sounded like something that would be part of a movie soundtrack; which isn't necessarily bad, just different. "Is there something higher than yes?" Keith wondered.
Going back to Little Rock, they let Kassy Levels through without giving the audience any time to listen to her.
Rhea Raj was a piano girl who they let through without really showing any of her performance.
Jake Dillon was a plumber's apprentice from Sand Springs(Immediate bonus points!), and after they give him a hard time about that, Keith shakes his head. "You are so literal..." He then proceeds to sing "The Lucky One" by Kenny Loggins, which was awesome, reminding me a little of Eric Church. I wrote "YES!" in my notebook. Harry said no(WHAT THE HECK?!), Jennifer said yes, and so did Keith. "When we get to Hollywood, I'm gonna let Harry have it...one note at a time."
Back to Denver, with a really weird girl named Ashley Adams-Soderbergh. (Proof: "I've been around the sun twenty times," was how she answered the question "How old are you?") She was okay, but it was weird. After a pause, Keith breaks the ice: "I liked the way you play guitar." "You don't fit in anywhere," Harry then tells her point-blank. (He was right, though.)
Keith and Jennifer then have fun with accents.
Russian Andrew was either extremely tall or extremely thin. He sang Garth Brooks's "To Make You Feel My Love", which came from the 1998 movie Hope Floats, which starred Harry. That was funny, in a strange way. He sounded pretty good, except for thinking it was a song from Adele.
The final contestant of the night was Elvie Shane, who was a former druggie wearing an Amish hat. I don't much like "House of the Rising Sun", but he did a nice version of it.
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