Music Monday ~ Craig Wayne Boyd is The Voice

We watched this season's run of The Voice on NBC without much enthusiasm; it reached its finale last week. My longtime love of musical talent shows is waning (pun unintended) these days. More and more there's an undercurrent of producer manipulation - if that was always part of the genre, it must have been more skillfully hidden in the past, or perhaps we were more naive.

The one good thing about this season's Voice : the right guy won! Craig Wayne Boyd, age 35, country music artist, originally from Mesquite, Texas, based in Nashville for many years, but had not been able to make the breakthrough - until now.

From commentary online, before the finale and announcement of the winner, it seemed inevitable that one of the other, younger more pop or "indie", singers would beat Craig Wayne Boyd who, though being way ahead of them on stage presence and experience, wasn't to the taste of much of the young demographic at which the show is aimed. One should never discount the loyalty of country music fans though - they are the most dedicated, and mixed age group, of any music fans. I used to be one of them, back in the UK even. I still swing back and forth between disliking the overtly political leanings of some country music artists, but then thinking, what the heck it's about the music not the politics. If they'd only leave it at that, and not push away would-be fans who happen to be of different political persuasion. In that way country music could move out of the virtual strait-jacket of south USA and other conservative rural areas to a far wider and varied community.

I hope that Craig Wayne Boyd's stars align for him now - he seems to me to have more in common with some of the traditional country music artists I've loved for years, than with a more recent crop of pop-cum-country singers. I shall support where I can, buy his first album anyway, and hope to watch his rise to fame be similar to that of Carrie Underwood's. She won American Idol years ago, and is now one of country music's "royalty".

Here he is, from earlier this season, singing Johnny Cash's I Walk the Line -



And in the finale show last Tuesday singing Sweet Home Alabama, with Lynyrd Skynyrd -

VOICES

I haven't blogged yet this season on one of my guilty pleasures - the TV singing talent shows. There are three of them running concurrently at present: The Voice, The X-Factor and Sing-Off. We are nearing musical indigestion, and, thank goodness, finales of the first two. Below is a sample of my favourites this season from The Voice and The X-Factor. Both singers have made it through to the final rounds coming up this week.

From The Voice (Adam Levine's team (he of Maroon5):
Tesanne Chin, a young lady from Kingston, Jamaica. (born 20 September 1985. Virgo Sun, probably Sagittarius Moon) She sang Bridge over Troubled Water last week, it took her into this week's final where she'll compete against 16-year old Jaquie Lee and Will Champlin, son of rock band artist Bill Champlin of the band Chicago.






From The X Factor (Kelly Rowland's Over-25s team):
Jeff Gutt from Detroit (born 2 May 1976. Sun and Jupiter in Taurus, Moon(probably) and Mercury in Gemini) He'll compete with an indie-pop duo Alex & Sierra currently based in Orlando, Florida, and Carlito Olivero, Latino lad from Chicago. Jeff Gutt is, at heart, rock artist but can sing anything - great voice! The performance immediately below got him into the finals. In the second video he sings Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Both songs are, sadly, truncated to fit into the show's time allowance. I wish they'd allocate more time to the singing, making full versions of songs possible, and much less to judges' chat, manipulative "sob" stories, and general "padding". I realised long ago that it's not going to happen.








I feel more confident that Tesanne Chin will be this year's "Voice" winner than I do about Jeff Gutt winning X-Factor. Simon Cowell has been ramming Alex and Sierra down viewers' throats all season. They are good, if you like that kind of thing, but being of the generation able to recall Ike and Tina, Sonny and Cher.....do we really need a re-play of all that in 2013? Mr Cowell keeps saying, "there's a gap in the market for a duo". Yes - and there's a reason for that! We shall see.

Music Monday ~ Terry McDermott & The Voice, Vino Alan & The X-Factor.

TV'sThe Voice and The X-Factor are running side by side at the moment, offering between them guilty pleasures from Monday to Thursday evenings each week. As I've written before, I'm a fan of musical talent shows, but even I am finding this double dose a bit much. For one reason or another, though, we've struggled through most episodes. One stand-out from each show has emerged for me.

From The Voice: a fellow Brit: Terry McDermott, age 35. With wife and child, he's now a US resident, lives in New Orleans. He came here from Aberdeen, Scotland some nine years ago singing and playing with his then rock band Driveblind. More information on Terry can be found at at Wikipedia and Wetpaint

His still boyish looks, assured "never-a-bum-note" performances and his obvious comfort on stage will surely get him into the final, due in a few weeks' time.

Below, Terry's version of The Who's Baba O'Riley (his audition), and Journey's Don't Stop Believin'

Though I acknowledge Terry McDermott is excellent in his genre, he doesn't give me the same goosebumps as my chosen contestant from The X-Factor: Vino Alan.
He's the oldest contestant (40) remaining in X-Factor's top 10. He comes from Missouri, has a son of 15. He sings in concerts for the military - that's all I've gleaned so far. His "Over 25" team mentor is L.A. Reid who had no compunction in initially displaying his distaste for the category he'd been allocated to judge and mentor. I hope that the results of audience votes in the first 2 live shows has shown him that he should not be so dismissive of older artists and their potential audience. The two remaining over-25s in the final 12 or 10: Tate Stevens (37) and Vino Alan have ranked 1st and 3rd respectively, on consecutive weeks, in TV audience voting.

These two older guys appeal to a certain segment of the TV audience who feel somewhat abandoned by musical media these days. Listening to 13, 15, 16, 17 year old kids singing about tragic heartbreak or with overtly sexy innuendo isn't authentic, and at times can even be a wee bit off-putting. We prefer to have someone pour out their heart in song who knows what the heck they're singing about. Why was Sinatra so good? He'd lived it all, and others who had also lived it could recognise its authenticity and relate. Vino Alan isn't a Sinatra, his voice is gritty, edgy, but he has strong appeal to anyone who enjoys a sweet but soul-searing song.

I've enjoyed Vino Alan's singing from his audition onward, but suspected that a combination of his age and numerous tattoos (including all over his head) might prove to be too much for judges and TV audience. I was wrong.

Here he is, singing on the first live show: the old Percy Sledge song, "When a Man Loves a Woman"



Last week ("Diva" week): Tina Turner's "Let's Stay Together"



And from his audition - "Trouble"




I have no birth data for either Terry or Vino, so if any passing readers have information, I'd be very pleased to hear from them, so's I can take a look at natal charts and assess whether the stars are aligning for these guys just now.

Music Monday ~~ Talents On Show

As some posts in my archives attest, I'm a sucker for musical talent shows. Always have been, always will be. From Carroll Levis Discoveries way back in the 1950s in England, and Opportunity Knocks, New Faces, Search for a Star, Fame Academy - all the way up the genealogy of talent shows to Pop Idol, American Idol, The X Factor, Britain's/America's got Talent, The Voice, Nashville Star, Sing-Off......Over the years I've watched and enjoyed every one of them. Husband peeking over my shoulder called out "Major Bowes Amateur Hour, 1940s - Sinatra appeared on that show!"

Nowadays critics refer to such shows as "reality TV". I don't put them in the same category as Big Brother, Survivors, shows about hoarders, restaurant/garden/home/fashion make-overs, Honey Boo-boo (whatever that is) and the rest. Talent shows are different. Or to be absolutely accurate, they used to be different before manipulation of the audience crept in. It's sad, but it was inevitable. As long as they're watched bearing in mind that producers are pulling strings: heart-strings and purse strings, it's still possible to enjoy the shows....most of the time.

This year we're swamped with talent shows. Having noticed what a good, and profitable, audience draw they've become, more producers have jumped onto the talent-cum-money bandwagon. On that same bandwagon are established stars who fancy their chances as judges on the talent shows. Not a good development in my opinion. Attention is now skewed away from the contestants on to "celeb" judges who, in most cases are there only to further their own careers, not potential careers of contestants.

It'd be preferable for talent show judges to come from the "back-room": record producers, voice/stage performance coaches and suchlike. That's not likely to happen. Next best thing is to engage as judges well-known characters from outside the music industry who can at least speak well off-the-cuff, think on their feet, form opinions quickly. There are too few such judges on talent shows at present. In spite of my husband's early warnings about Howard Stern's appointment as judge on this year's America's Got Talent, he turned out to be excellent in the role. Every panel should have at least one such character.

Much as I loved Steven Tyler, his powers of assessment and ability to put them into words during his 2-year stint on Idol should have been better - in fact could hardly have been worse after the first few audition shows. Perhaps producers gagged his distinctly raunchy style and he clammed up? New to the judging panel of The X-Factor this season are Britney Spears and Demi Lovato. It'll be interesting to watch how they shape up comment-wise.

It remains to be discovered, early in 2013 how American Idol's 3/4 new voting panel will work out: long-standing judge Randy Jackson will be joined by Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban (appealing, in theory, respectively to: the over 30s, the under 30s and the country music lovers).

Each panel needs "a clown" - someone who attempts to inject humour into the occasion. Idol tried out Ellen DeGeneres for a season but it wasn't a success. The Voice has Blake Shelton, a likeable country singer who tries hard to have fun with the show, Howie Mandel does likewise on America's Got Talent. X-Factor and Idol might benefit from an injection of humour, judge-wise.

Hosts/Presenters? A job that looks easy but I'd bet it isn't easy at all. Top marks go to Idol's Ryan Seacrest; close second: The Voice's Carson Daly; runner up Nick Cannon (AGT). Others shall remain nameless because, to put it bluntly, they suck.

I'm amazed that all the shows are still able to find sufficient amateur talent to go around. In fact, I'm noticing more and more that some - a good proportion - of the contestants are already semi-professional. I have a suspicion that some have actually been head-hunted by scouts working for the shows. I'd prefer it if this wasn't so, but understand that completely untapped talent is fairly rare these days, and in many cases fairly raw, not yet ready for prime-time. Still, I miss the excitement of the discovery of a brand new singer, never heard before by anyone, anywhere. If one such individual does emerge, very occasionally, their nerves frequently get the better of them, they fail to progress further against more seasoned stage-ready performers.

A few names, not necessarily winners, from talent shows of the recent and not-so-recent past have managed to lodge themselves in my memory:

From long ago, in the UK, Darius Danesh aka Darius Campbell

who seems to have carved out a solid career in the music business. I've mentioned him, and his natal chart, before on these pages - SEE HERE.

Adam Lambert from American Idol, 2009 - follow links in the Label Cloud, to my old posts, for more about him. Adam has toured the USA and abroad, sung in concert with Queen, and in my opinion he hasn't yet quite hit the right spot or genre to reach superstar status.....but he will!

I'm not a big fan of female singers, but have to mention Carrie Underwood, American Idol's gift to country music, and arguably their most successful find so far. Haley Reinhart and her updated jazzy style impressed on last year's Idol.

Josh Krajcik from last year's US X-Factor - I was, and remain a fan, eagerly awaiting release of his first album.



Prince Poppycock from America's Got Talent a couple of years ago; and from the same show this year Andrew DeLeon (true raw untapped talent, and though he didn't go very far - he will, I think, in the future).



There have been several stand-out contestants from the new season's crop of shows among those episodes we've managed to catch so far, but as yet actual names have not registered....that takes time, and seeing several performances. Here's one whose name I did remember, right away: Willie Jones:



The beat of their talent goes on.....and my foot will always be tapping along.

Weekend TV Gossip, Astro-sprinkled.

Several TV shows we've been watching through the winter and spring have been finale-ing this week. I guess we'll soon be relying on our store of used VCR tapes and old DVDs for entertainment.


The Voice has completed its second season. I struggle to remember the winner, even now. Google refreshed an overloaded memorybank: winner was Jermaine Paul, a former background vocalist with Alicia Keys, Mary J. Blige, Joss Stone.

What I remember most about the show is being seriously irritated by the female judge/coach, Christina Aguilera - always trying to claim the audience's attention, either by wearing ridiculously revealing or silly outfits, or by her sometimes antagonistic exchanges with one of the other judges. Christina A's astrology: born 18 December 1980 Sun and 3 planets in Sagittarius, Moon in Taurus, late-Aquarius rising.
Quadruple Sagittarius may be just too much of a good thing! Astrodatabank chart.

The show's confusing format doesn't help. Audience focus is too much on the judge/coaches, too little on the contestants. The band has been far, far too loud (aka bandzilla), drowning out voices - ironic considering the show's title.



Fringe~ The intriguing sci-fi drama series with a premise that an alternative universe exists. Its inhabitants are "doubles" of us all. Our doubles have slightly different life patterns and personalities. Fringe's current season finished on a good note after some really muddled episodes mid-stream.
John Noble deserves an award of some kind for his consistently excellent performances as Walter Bishop, the scientist responsible for much of the 2-universe mayhem, and playing two completely different versions of his character.

John Noble's astrology: born 20 August 1948 in South Australia: Sun conjunct Saturn in Leo with Pluto also in Leo. Mercury in perfectionist Virgo. If born before 10:00 AM his natal Moon would have been in Aquarius (which I suspect), otherwise in Pisces, also appropriate given his talent for roles not only in sci-fi but also fantasy (Pisces stock-in-trade). In the Lord of the Rings trilogy he was Denethor.
Astrotheme chart.



Smash finished its first season on a high note (pun intended). The underdog won, and took the lead in the fictional musical show around which the series is written, Bombshell, about Marilyn Monroe. Bombshell is supposedly heading for Broadway in its planned second season.
Soapy storylines, some good singing and dancing, with plenty of hate between opposing fan brigades for the two potential Marilyns played by Megan Hilty (right) and American Idol alumna Katharine McPhee. I thought the young women were equally good.

Interesting performance from Angelica Houston as the show's producer - shame about her hairstyle though - Cleopatra she ain't! The only vaguely fanciable male was her beau, a bar-owner with mob (ish) connections.

Note of astro interest: Megan Hilty born 29 March 1981 Katharine McPhee born 25 March 1984, two Sun in Aries in a head-to-head to play the part of a Sun Gemini.


The Mentalist reached its season finale Thursday evening. Simon Baker, the show's leading man is easiest on the eye of all current TV leading men, and seems to me to be a really nice guy too. Must be his Aquarius Moon doing it for me! Scriptwriters had him down and a wee bit dirty for the finale - nice to see another side of his abilities. I lurve his always rumpled look in those 3-piece suits. A post about Simon Baker and his natal chart from the archives at this link.




Mad Men plods on through season 5, which is proving to be nowhere near as engaging as seasons 1 to 4 which we watched on DVD. The scriptwriters seem to have misplaced their mojo. Scene is now 1966, perhaps it was a boring year in the USA. 1968, when they get there, should liven things up, but not in a good way!
Previous post on Mad Men with a bit of astrology HERE.


America's Got Talent began its new season, as other shows reached the end of their runs. AGT now takes over The Voice's slot. New judge Howard Stern made it worthwhile tuning in. My husband, who knows more about him than I do, feared Stern would be a dreadful mistake and bad addition to the show, but I suspect he'll change his mind on that score.

Stern is already proving to be preferable to Piers Morgan who sat in the same "bad-cop" seat during previous seasons. I've never heard Stern's radio shows, said to be filled with vulgarity and nastiness, but he's been reined in tight for AGT. He displayed quick wit, humour and an admirable ability to sum things up on the fly, coming up with useful insights, and even showing a rather sappy side - which I'm not sure is entirely genuine, but it's good business!

Stern astrology: Sun + 3 planets in Capricorn, Moon in Taurus, Gemini rising.
Earthy base with his talent for communication coming from a Gemini ascendant and Jupiter in Gemini. Mars and Saturn in Scorpio - source of his darker side?
Astrodatabank chart.

ET CETERA......other thoughts I've thunk this week (a bit of astrology, Obama, Mad Men, L' Aguilera)

Caveat emptor

Could there be a better illustration of what I've thought and written, in this blog and elsewhere in comment form, during the last few years: that President Obama is drenched in Neptune's illusion? On the book's jacket: "Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion".

This book has not yet hit the stores, but at Amazon, a book description:

“Jeffrey St. Clair and Joshua Frank have skillfully smoked out the real Barack Obama . . . the technofascist military strategist disguised as a Nobel Peace Laureate, but owned, operated, and controlled by Wall Street, Corporate America, and the Pentagon.”—Thomas H. Naylor, co-author of Affluenza, Downsizing the USA

Classic Neptune, and it's there - in his natal chart! See any of several articles by professional astrologers, a good one, from 2008, is at Astrobarry:
Who is He? Obama's Sun-Neptune Square





a posteriori

Many words have been written this week about Mad Men's return to the TV screen; I even wrote a few myself, last weekend.

I've read half a dozen or so articles, written from several different slants - each writer trying to find a slant not yet tried. My conclusion: Mad Men is being seriously over-thought! Heck! It's a glorified soap opera not a documentary history of the 1960s! If there's a communal ability to over think matters, let more of the same people start overthinking the current political situation in the USA for goodness sake!

Something to keep in mind, too about Mad Men: it is written for viewers with 21st century sensibilities by someone who was not around the advertising world in the period he's writing about. A few who were, say the portrayal is reasonably accurate, while others beg to differ. I've been mentally comparing Mad Men with fiction such as The Forsyte Saga. Now that was by an author (John Galsworthy) who was alive, and in the know about the exact state of things, in the period about which he wrote so engagingly.

In spite of the over-thinking and over-analysing that sometimes happens regarding a popular show, TV series remain one of the few areas (sport may be another) where people in the USA can hold reasonably friendly conversations on a topic - "around the water-cooler" is the way they put it, I think. The USA is so vast, TV channels are so many, such widely popular topics do not come along very often in this country. In the UK, a country only the size of an American state, such as Wisconsin, with less choice of viewing material for most people, topics of common interest were easier to come by. Almost anyone could and would share views on Coronation Street, Eastenders and any number of mini-series and weekly shows. I used to find this phenomenon endearing, this easily shared interest and chat, even when the relevant topic wasn't always my favourite cup of tea.

Mad Men is one of few US TV shows with that rather sweet "communal" ingredient. Intellectuals can intellectualise and analyse it, while the average viewer, slumped on the sofa, drink in hand, will take it at face value as soap-opera-like fiction, a piece set in an era long gone with love, sex, betrayal, success and failure coming in equal measure. Everyone's happy!


Ad absurdum

If you've got 'em, flaunt 'em ? I don't have enough of 'em to flaunt, so can't possibly know what I'd do if I did. It does seem, though, that gals who have 'em are flaunting more of 'em more often these days. On the red carpet, at awards shows, I guess it's to be expected. Showing-off is part of that game; one "celeb" aims to out-boob another.

But context is everything, in some contexts less really is more. In TV's The Voice, for instance. The one female judge/mentor, Christina Aguilera, tends to let 'em have more air than is entirely necessary in the circumstances. The camera regularly moves in close and we get an uncomfortably full view, when she leans forward, of something we really don't need. The show is not about Ms Aguilera, it's about the hopeful singers competing for a chance to get where she is, professionally. It'd be courteous for the judge to cover up a wee bit, and allow all attention to go where the show purports to focus.
A look at her natal chart (Astrodatabank)revealed something I should have suspected: Sun, Mercury, Venus and Neptune all in Sagittarius - the sign known for exaggeration - "over-doing things".

Music Monday ~ Untapped Talent: Landau Eugene Murphy

As well as being an American Idol junkie I'm a sucker for any kind of talent show, more especially any musical input. Ever since old radio days of my childhood, when I loved to listen to The Carroll Levis Discovery Show, back in England I've been hooked. When TV came along it spawned a whole range of goodies for me: Opportunity Knocks; New Faces; Search for a Star; Stars in Their Eyes; Popstars/Pop Idol/The X Factor; Fame Academy to name a few.

Maybe a skilled astrologer could pinpoint the source of this enthusiasm in my natal chart - I suspect it's linked to Jupiter in Pisces semi-sextile my Sun in Aquarius. But that's getting away from the reason I started on this tack.

Over the years I've waxed cynical about the way audiences are increasingly manipulated by shows' producers, but even knowing this, when an unexpected, totally untapped singing talent suddenly hits the screen I'm gobsmacked and hooked all over again.

On Wednesday evening last week, on America's Got Talent we had one of those gobsmacking moments similar to the one British audiences experienced a couple of years ago when Susan Boyle sang.




A 36-year old from West Virginia, gum-chewing guy with dreadlocks and an engaging smile, who has been washing cars for the past 10 years, never auditioned before, or sung before an audience came on stage and sang. I guarantee that he'll never wash another car, unless its his own !

As a longtime Sinatra fan I was a pushover, of course. But it was more than his Sinatra-like voice that attracted me - it was his whole demeanour. I'll bet he's a great guy, that was the feeling I got. I wish I knew his date of birth. Maybe it'll surface. If a passing reader knows it, do, please comment.

The Voice, another musical talent show on American TV at present is proving to be entertaining - though the contestants' talents are not exactly "untapped". The four who have battled through to next week's final are on a different level, they have past experience under their belts, already in the semi-pro category, looking for a big break. It's all good, but we don't feel gobsmacked, just appreciative of hearing some seriously talented singers who are new to us.