Um, no, please.  I love Kelly, but I don’t love this.  True, I don’t like Country in general, but this is bad country even for me.  Kelly, try some Patsy Cline kind of Country style.  Now that I could get behind!

Re country cross-overs in general; I think we’ll see more and more of this from artists who can’t make it in their own genres (this is not Kelly of course) or who simply want to expand to a safer haven. Kelly could probably be embraced by the country listening demographic quite easily, given her Texas background, Idol beginnings, and down-home look. She’s already successful so it would be a great way to obtain a large, loyal following that has a machine all laid out for its favorites.

This is not going to be so easy to do for Idols who just think they can default to country if their first choices don’t work out. Gokey’s a good example of that, though who knows, maybe eventually he’ll pay enough dues to do well there. Idol contestants would be smart to START in this genre if they have any leanings toward it – it will give them credibility. And since the voting demographic of AI is now so heavily southern/country/religious, those contestants will have a real advantage out of the gate. It doesn’t matter how diverse the top 24 are, as long as power voting is allowed, most of the ‘undesirables’ will get washed out sooner rather than later.

This version I think would be well received in some Middle Eastern countries, I’m actually serious, perfect, sound, rhythm for some good rotations(on “you don’t know a thing about me”), fitted words for  modern belly dance dancers in private clubs, good money would come for her from there. I know Beyonce sang there for a good amount, why not Kelly too, with this instrumentation would “kill” it there, lol.

“This is not going to be so easy to do for Idols who just think they can default to country if their first choices don’t work out. Gokey’s a good example of that, though who knows, maybe eventually he’ll pay enough dues to do well there. Idol contestants would be smart to START in this genre if they have any leanings toward it – it will give them credibility”
Um, no.  Gokey is NOT a good example of that- his first choice was country.  He signed with Country, Mark Bright (same producer as Carrie and Scotty) produced his country album, and his 3 singles on radio have all been on country radio. He’s been a regular fixture at the Opry every 8 weeks.  He has and does want to do his own “version” of a country blend-so that is the question-whether they will accept him on radio.  They already have enough for a #22, #32 and #48 single-not everyone is a smash superstar out of the gate.  How far will he stray from a country sound and will they accept it- the question for album #2.  It will be interesting to see who he signs with.

I don’t think Kelly is trying to default to country either- she has a lot of ties in the country world and her duet was a smash hit.  And many do dabble there- Uncle Cracker, Kid Rock- they are definitely HAC/pop/rock, yet get played on Country.
This song is awful though.

This doesn’t sound country at all.  Oh, Kelly, sometimes you just should say no!

Do. not. like.  Kelly’s vocal style just kinda clashes with the instrumentation style.  But she does have a few different runs and ad libs on this version (that she does when she sings the song live, but weren’t on the original single version), so it seems that it’s actually a different vocal take.  Weird.