Dolly Parton Night.  Get excited everyone.  American Idol promised before this season began that they would use fewer “mentors” and rely less on themes each week, but I guess getting Dolly Parton changes all of that.  While I may not be familiar with too much of Dolly's music (I love “Jolene,” and I know “9 to 5”), she's been recording for over forty years – I'm sure these nine American Idol finalists can scrounge up something to their liking.  The only contestant that having Dolly on blatantly helps is Kristy Lee Cook, who has found her most (cough) “success” while singing country music.  Other than that, I don't know what to expect tonight. I'll be here giving live updates throughout the hour-long episode.

What were the odds?  Seacrest tries to pull the "we're getting pre-empted tonight" April Fool's joke.  I don't mean to be a curmudgeon, but I'm over the April Fool's thing. 

This episode is going to move fast tonight, folks.  Nine performances in one hour. 

Dolly Parton is the mentor and she sings "9 to 5" with the Top 9 around the piano.  Sufficiently corny.   That's enough of Dolly. 

Brooke White is up first and she'll be singing "Jolene," which is a great song.  I first heard it when The White Stripes covered it.  Brooke plays the guitar with a jug band surrounding her on stage.  This is a pretty seamless transition for Brooke into a country twang.   It was nice for Brooke to strip some of the innocence away from her persona - Jolene is a pretty angry song.  There were some small out of tune moments, and a bit of the rhythm with the band was off, but I enjoyed.  Not special.  Randy thought it was "a ight."  Paula loved it. Simon thought it lacked emotion - he calls the violin player "weird."  He wasn't crazy about it. 

David Cook, or "Cooksie" if you like awesome nicknames, is up next.  He's doing a new arrangement of "Little Sparrow" that he wrote himself.  Dolly is a compliment machine.  She's a lovable older lady, isn't she?  Cook begins and shows off some pretty good falsetto with only an organ behind him.  Then he kicks into playing the acoustic guitar.  Don't know the song (sorry, country and Dolly fans), but this is impressive if Cook really did write arrangement himself.  Cook, if he keeps this up, may actually be able to take down Archuleta down.  Randy like the use of the falsetto - agreed - and thought the performance was hot.  Paula likes Cooksie's hair cut.  Simon thinks that if he can make a song about sparrows good, then congrats.  Fair enough, you crotchety Englishman.

Ramiele Malubay is up next.  Dolly is a short lady, but she towers over Ramiele.  I didn't catch the name of the song, but it's a poppy little song.  I like the song, not all that difficult to sing, but it's the best Ramiele performance I can remember.  She's always had quality potential, but that's the first truly solid performance I remember from her.  Randy gives it a 6/5 out of 10.  That sounds about right.  SImon thought it was cute, sung well, but forgettable.  He uses the dreaded cruise ship analogy.

Jason Castro is up next and Dolly makes an awful dreadlocks pun upon meeting him.  He'll be singing "Traveling Through."  This is right up Castro's alley.  He's more serious this week - I think the bottom three appearance woke him up.  It's a more upbeat song than he's been singing recently.  His vocals are much tighter than the last couple of weeks as well.  Pretty good, not great but good.  Randy thought it was pretty good.  He dug it.  Paula loves it, of course.  Simon didn't like that at all.  Whatever, Simon. 

Carly Smithson hits the stage next.  Again, I didn't pick up the song title.  It's a song that Dolly didn't write.  It's just Carly and a guitarist on stage.  It's a slower ballad, and I'm kind of digging it.  Carly's also wearing some intense eye shadow, and I approve.  This is one of my favorite Carly performance, if not my favorite.  Pretty flawlessly sung. Randy thinks it'll be one of the better performances of the night.  Paula loved it, of course.  Simon thought it was good, not great.  He doesn't like her outfit.  Eh.

Seacrest calls Simon out on his bitterness tonight.

Oh my.  The dreaded duo of David Archuleta and Kristy Lee Cook are up next.  I'm going to do my best to be objective here, but I apologize for what you readers might consider my inexplicable contempt for both of these performers.  I'll try to like the performances, I will.

Archuleta is next and he's singing (I think) "Rocky Mountain High."  Dolly eats up the little kid.  This is the one type of song that David succeeds with - a slow, sappy ballad.  Sure, he's singing it quite well, but I'm bored.  I would never, ever pay to see this type of song, especially when I've heard it from him over and over again.  But, I understand if you love it.  Not my kind of music, I suppose.  Randy calls it the best performance of the night.  Paula loves David's aura.  Simon calls it on the money.  Technically very good.

Kristy Lee Cook hits the stage next and, damn, I don't catch the song title again.  The song is about Dolly's mom.  This is the perfect week for KLC.  It's a by the book country song and she sings it well, delicately so.  Perfect match of song and voice.  This is easily my favorite performance by KLC, mostly because she's in her element.  It's nothing special, but harmless.  It will definitely see her make it into next week.  Randy likes it.  Paula loved it, of course.  Simon thought it was pleasant, but forgettable.  Well said, Cowell.  KLC does look rather fetching tonight.

Vanna White is in da house!

Syesha Mercado is next and will be singing "I Will Always Love You" which was first performed and written by Dolly, but made more famous by Whitney.  She's chosen to meld the two versions.  This could be great or a huge bust.  Syesha wears a pretty yellow dress, though her hair is silly.  It's a slower version than my generation will be used to.  The famous chorus is sung delicately here, and then Syesha breaks it down, showing off her big voice.  The second time for the chorus, she goes all Whitney on us and she actually kills it.  Well played, Syesha.  Hopefully, that will be enough to save her next week.  Randy thought she did pretty good.  Paula loved it, of course.  Simon thought the big moments paled by comparison to Whitney.  Obviously, this is true, but it's not entirely fair.  I still say that was pretty darn good.

Michael Johns closes the show tonight.  The first concert he ever went to was a Dolly show in 1986.  Huh.  Don't know the song title, again.  This is a nice, slow song.  Piano and guitar in the background.  It's got a nice bluesy feel, and Johns shows off what I still think is the best pure voice in the competition, at least for my musical sensibilities.  He hits a great falsetto note at the end to top off a second great performance in a row.  Randy calls it blazing hot.  Paula loves it, of course.  Simon says that this was the best he's heard Michael sing all season.  Probably my favorite performance of the night.

I'll be back later with my performance rankings.


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of FOX)