lauren alaina

With five contestants left on American Idol, the stakes are raised!  And, last night, each contestant had to take on two songs . . . one from NOW and another from THEN!  For me, the performance of the night belong to James Durbin.  I thought his performance of "Without You" was powerful and moving.  Any rocker who cries while he sings earns my vote.  Okay, correction.  He earns my 52 vot

Last night on American Idol, our remaining 6 contestants took on the songbook of Carole King.  If you tuned into the WBKR Waking Crew this morning, you know that her music has divided Moon and Chad!  Moon's a fan of Carole's voice and her songwriting.  Chad doesn't think Carole is much of a singer and, consequently, wrote songs that didn't require much "singing!"  So, which Idol hopeful

"Songs from the 21st Century" last night on American Idol. It was definitely a mixed bag . . . with Scotty McCreery singing 'Swingin'" by Lee Ann Rimes (Uh, what?), my favorite little underachiever Lauren Alaina taking on Sara Evans' "Born To Fly" (Uh, why?) and James rocking out to "Uprising" by Muse (Uh, awesome!!).  What did our Idol expert Steve Thompson thin

Well, yesterday I wrote "An Open Letter To Lauren Alaina" and encouraged her to start singing like she can WIN this competition.  And, last night, Lauren and the other members of Idol's Top 8 went to the movies and performed songs from the cinema.  So, how did they fare?  Who rocked it out and who's in danger of following in Pia's steps and hitting the house?  Our Idol expert Steve Thomp

Dear Lauren, You don't know me, but my name is Chad Benefield and I do mornings at 92.5 WBKR, a country radio station in Owensboro, KY.  We are situated just about 120 miles from Nashville, TN, where you stood on the stage of the historic Ryman Auditorium and knocked the socks off of Jennifer Lopez, Randy Jackson, Steven Tyler and the rest of the America with your version of "I Don't Want To