Thank you for your recap, JohnM!

justjude: Tee Hee, I must admit I was almost slightly weirded out when you Opened a paragraph with Megan’ ¦Oh Megan’ ¦That was too funny and true’ ¦

Ahh, good — mission accomplished! :biggrin_wp:

ITA! and this was decidedly witty. Thanks!

ross: I thought the lighting was great. (In Boston, anyway.) If the performers weren’t lit well, I didn’t notice it.

Yeah, as I said, you wouldn’t have noticed it unless you were in one of the unlucky sections that were caught in the backlighting. If you happened to look around the arena at certain times and saw some sections here and there that were pretty brightly illuminated while the rest of the crowd was dark, that’s what I’m talking about. It made it extremely difficult to see the performers.

But I agree that the other lighting effects were very cool.

olivian: If your daughter is an Allison fan like you, and an Adam fan, I hope she enjoyed the concert too.

Yes, she had a big smile on her face. We were probably 150 feet away, so I was looking through the binoculars occasionally, but she refused the binos whenever I offered them to her, because she wanted to see her heroes directly, without anything in between her eyes and their true essence! Good thing she doesn’t wear glasses like me….

ravengirl: John, LOVE the snark and the brutal honesty. No sugar coater, you, and I like that.

Funny you say that, because in general I’m terrified of upsetting anyone and will talk all around a topic in order to avoid offending people. But I’m so passionate about music that my “filter” seems to switch off!

ravengirl: I agree with the Megan stuff, much to the disappointment of those on this thread who apparently now believe you to have issues with pretty women. I, like you, have issues with pretty women with mediocre talent.

Exactly. It’s funny — I was thinking that I would have been raked over the coals for being a shallow man if I had blabbed on about how Megan is so gorgeous or something, and instead I got raked over the coals for making fun of that attitude — didn’t expect that!

I don’t care what a musician looks like (after all, I spent two hours Tuesday night looking at the Allman Brothers Band from about 40 feet, and they ain’t pretty!). I happen to think Allison is a beautiful girl, but all I care about is the voice. She could look like Jabba The Hutt for all I care.

washpd: [Kris] has a wider vocal range’“he’s used way more of his lower register on tour than he did on the sow

Yeah — I was glad to hear that, since I’m a fan of lower registers (a big part of my Allison love). I knew Kris had that low end — just listen to his speaking voice — good to hear him use it.

Also, that reminds me — I forgot to mention in my recap that another impressive thing about Matt was his range. There was one low note he hit (don’t remember where) that seemed way lower than I recall him hitting during the season. Another tidbit that elevated him in my eyes.

sidewalkstory:
“THIS SPACE RESERVED FOR JESSE LANGSETH”

haha, love the snark. And loved Jesse Langseth too.

Actually, I didn’t intend that particular bit to be snarky (well, okay, a little) — I was feeling very wistful as I wrote it.

Reflections On Life: JohnM, I love that Allison has made such a huge impression on you! But I wonder why you find her so unique? When I heard Allison, I thought she was the 2nd Coming of Bonnie Raitt, and almost certainly what Bonnie Raitt sounded like when she was 17. In fact, listen to her sing ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’  – doesn’t she sound like a slightly-less-raspy Bonnie? Just wondering what your thoughts were on this’ ¦

Yeah, you know, that’s an interesting subject. To begin with, I’m not sure if you were comparing Allison’s ICMYLM to Bonnie’s original specifically, or just to Bonnie in general, but I went back and listened to Bonnie’s original after Allison did it on the show, and I just thought there was no comparison. (And I have a lot of respect for Bonnie.) I thought Allison poured tons more emotion into it, and in a good way. I also loved the little flourishes / grace notes she added instead of singing single notes.

But the foundation of Allison’s appeal, to me anyway, is her rich, full-bodied tone and relatively low range. I’m definitely not a Bonnie Raitt expert, so frankly I don’t know what she would have sounded like at 17, and maybe Allison sounds more like her than I realize, but she’s one of many (most) singers who just sound thin to me when compared to Allison.

Sorry for getting all Allison-wonky here, but you asked! I imagine that the individual characteristics of all singers, including Allison, can be compared pretty closely to singers who came before them — “Her tone is very similar to X”, “Her runs are very similar to Y”. But the thing about Allison is that she’s (forgive the over-used phrase) my perfect storm of vocal characteristics. I love low range — check. I love rich, full-bodied tone — check. Improvised flourishes, without being showy. Super-soulful inflection. Subtle volume control. Power. I can think of other singers who have those individual characteristics (Christine McVie for rich tone, Grace Potter for soulful inflection), but somehow she has exactly the right mix of exactly the right characteristics that I’ve never heard before in my life. I realize it’s just a personal-preference thing, but it’s as though lightning struck about half a dozen times in exactly the same place — so improbable that it took 50 years for it to happen to me.

THIS SPACE RESERVED FOR JESSE LANGSETH

This season was odd in that there were only 3 women in the top 10.
Plus, only 1 of them (Allison!) deserved to be in the top 10 at all. The other two were just taking up space on the tour. I can think of so many women from the top 36 who should have been in the top 10 instead of meghan & lil – jesse for sure, also alexis, mishovanna, kristen. they would have made for an awesome tour!
:jittery_tb:

Lead vocals are usually the least interesting part of music to me

Same here. Unless the singer has power, conviction, and soul, I’d rather here the band jam.

And then it was time for my girl ‘” the greatest singer I’ve ever heard

JohnM, I love that Allison has made such a huge impression on you! But I wonder why you find her so unique? When I heard Allison, I thought she was the 2nd Coming of Bonnie Raitt, and almost certainly what Bonnie Raitt sounded like when she was 17. In fact, listen to her sing “I Can’t Make You Love Me” – doesn’t she sound like a slightly-less-raspy Bonnie? Just wondering what your thoughts were on this…
:ponder_tb:

FTR Allison was my favorite this season too, followed by Kris, then Adam, then Matt, then Anoop. :clap_tb:
I couldn’t figure out why the rest were even in the top 10… :doh_tb:

It also reminds me of Spinal Tap’s Listen To The Flower People.

Best reference EVER!

Or maybe this one is:

THIS SPACE RESERVED FOR JESSE LANGSETH

No, I’m going with the Spinal Tap one.

Thanks for the recap/review. It was a delight to read!