They're a little bit country...

The girls on American Idol don't yet have publicists, but someone must have told them to vie for the country vote tonight. As I am not a country music fan by any means, tonight was a bit of a yawner for me. My take on tonight's performances:

Katharine McPhee, daughter of voice coach: Song was a snoozer; she was all over the place vocally. Yuck. Plus she gets on my nerves. I think she's on speed.

Kinnik Sky: She went for the country vote, bless her heart. She was all costumed up... the only thing missing was the holster and lasso. I liked her last week, but I think she countrified her way home tonight. (Don't try to figure it out... I made that word up.)

Lisa Tucker: I've been a fan since the beginning, and I think she'll go a long way in this, but for the first time tonight, I noticed she didn't have much power to her voice. Like it needs a volume knob or something.

Melissa McGhee (who?): Yeah, exactly. She's more or less coming out of the woodwork, but she still has lots of work to do to get people to remember she's even part of this competition. Awesome voice, though; raspy and powerful. She should be singing rock, but she at least pulled off the country thing tonight. Made Kinnik's attempt look very lame and obvious. And she didn't even have a lasso.

Heather Cox: I just can't take her seriously. She looks too much like Fez's crazy girlfriend from a few seasons ago. Anyway, she made the cardinal sin of singing Mariah's song. Tsk. Tsk. Goodbye, Heather.

Brenna Gethers: Funny. I just noticed her name says "Get hers". Anyway... This girl really needs to come out of her shell. Holy crap she's annoying. I wish Simon would stop harping on her, though, because it might generate sympathy votes, and then we'll never get rid of her. Was it just me, or did the dress and the white shoes make her look like a man in drag?

Paris: The next American Idol, biding her time with the imposters.

Ayla Brown (basketball girl): I missed the first half of her song because Canadian TV sucks, but she sounded okay from what I did manage to catch. She's missing something, though... some color? Some expression? Maybe some lips? I didn't dig the Nellie Olsen hair at all. (If you're too young to remember Nellie Olsen, look up Little House on the Prairie.)

Kellie (with an "ie") Pickler: She sang a country song, which we all knew would be right up her alley. She sounded good, but I was distracted by her deer-in-headlights look... she's always got some sort of confused or frightened expression when she sings. It's weird. But she's cute, and she's dumb, so she'll be around for a while.

Mandisa: Completely lovable, this one. This woman can sing anything... plus she's smart, mature, and funny. She's soooo not A.I. material. But hey... she made the dog jaw joke famous. She'll make it big outside the realm of A.I., but she'll be on the show for a good long while still.

Paula's pet word for the day: "Unique". (Please contact me if you would like to make a contribution to the Expand Paula's Vocabulary Fund)