dsmith2904
ONE love, blood, life
Note to Clay: Leave the U2 Tunes Alone
By Walter Tunis
CONTRIBUTING MUSIC CRITIC
"You all shout like I can hear what you say," said a bemused Clay Aiken last night at Rupp Arena.
Granted, the screams, cheers and overall jubilation of the largely female crowd was certainly an audience force for this American Idol celebrity to reckon with. But with a turnout of only 3,000 -- a figure that seemed smaller given that Rupp's full-house seating configuration was employed -- Aiken easily held court over the crowd with a two-set, two-hour performance devoted to mostly cheery and calculated pop fare.
On the plus side, Aiken performed as a capable if not terribly daring singer. His voice easily sailed up to the higher registers on This is the Night and cooled to ballad timbre for the comparatively hushed I Survived You. It was also refreshing to see an artist so obviously designed to meet the expectations of a teen pop audience play to all ages. At one point, an older patron was escorted onstage to dance with the singer during the radio-friendly pop of When You Say You Love Me.
In essence, what you got from Aiken was what you have been seeing on TV in the past year: a likeable, politely unrefined pop personality with a wholesome voice, who doesn't fall back on cheesy choreography, video-friendly theatrics or, worse, lip-synching during a stage performance.
But when Aiken ventured into deeper waters, there were problems. For example, who thought it was a good idea for him to open the concert with U2's Where the Streets Have No Name? The song boasts a social resonance way, way beyond the singer's grasp. A mid-show medley of James Taylor tunes, which included an overly stoic and stilted reading of Sweet Baby James, sounded equally out of place.
The more appropriate cover tunes -- and there are loads of them -- steered to the safer pop-fabric framework Aiken updated on his 2003 album, Measure of a Man. Such jukebox fare included: Mr. Mister's Kyrie, Orleans' Still the One, Toto's Rosanna and an encore of Neil Sedaka's Solitaire. All come from a middle-of-the-road base that has become a clear comfort zone for the singer.
In her second Lexington concert in as many months, opening act Cherie, a 19-year-old French singer with a booming vocal command, used her self-titled debut album as the basis for a surprisingly comprehensive pop presentation.
--Lexington Herald-Leader
By Walter Tunis
CONTRIBUTING MUSIC CRITIC
"You all shout like I can hear what you say," said a bemused Clay Aiken last night at Rupp Arena.
Granted, the screams, cheers and overall jubilation of the largely female crowd was certainly an audience force for this American Idol celebrity to reckon with. But with a turnout of only 3,000 -- a figure that seemed smaller given that Rupp's full-house seating configuration was employed -- Aiken easily held court over the crowd with a two-set, two-hour performance devoted to mostly cheery and calculated pop fare.
On the plus side, Aiken performed as a capable if not terribly daring singer. His voice easily sailed up to the higher registers on This is the Night and cooled to ballad timbre for the comparatively hushed I Survived You. It was also refreshing to see an artist so obviously designed to meet the expectations of a teen pop audience play to all ages. At one point, an older patron was escorted onstage to dance with the singer during the radio-friendly pop of When You Say You Love Me.
In essence, what you got from Aiken was what you have been seeing on TV in the past year: a likeable, politely unrefined pop personality with a wholesome voice, who doesn't fall back on cheesy choreography, video-friendly theatrics or, worse, lip-synching during a stage performance.
But when Aiken ventured into deeper waters, there were problems. For example, who thought it was a good idea for him to open the concert with U2's Where the Streets Have No Name? The song boasts a social resonance way, way beyond the singer's grasp. A mid-show medley of James Taylor tunes, which included an overly stoic and stilted reading of Sweet Baby James, sounded equally out of place.
The more appropriate cover tunes -- and there are loads of them -- steered to the safer pop-fabric framework Aiken updated on his 2003 album, Measure of a Man. Such jukebox fare included: Mr. Mister's Kyrie, Orleans' Still the One, Toto's Rosanna and an encore of Neil Sedaka's Solitaire. All come from a middle-of-the-road base that has become a clear comfort zone for the singer.
In her second Lexington concert in as many months, opening act Cherie, a 19-year-old French singer with a booming vocal command, used her self-titled debut album as the basis for a surprisingly comprehensive pop presentation.
--Lexington Herald-Leader
Does not compute. 
He should have sang a song he could actually sing!! 
ICK! Someone get me a selzer
. Exactly. Really, I'm not a big fan of Clay's music, either, but I don't really mind the guy-he seems like a nice person, he can sing...him doing this song doesn't really bother me. Maybe I'm weird, but I just don't care. 
