Bits and Pieces

Bits and Pieces

Check out Gray Charles for another Taylor Hicks update.  Taylor continues to work on his upcoming album–75% of the basic tracks are complete, and they are beginning to mix some of the songs.  Are you looking forward to seeing Taylor in concert?  He’ll start a 3 month tour in February and plans to “play lots of different size towns, even smaller ones.”   Hopefully, that’s going to be a town near you. 

And seriously, is dropping the F-bomb in a song that big of a deal?  I mean really…

Bucky Covington and his wife are moving to Nashville today.  I hear he plans to go straight into the studio to record some tunes.  Good luck Bucky!

According to this blurb posted on puretonemusic.com, Chris Daughtry has finished his self-titled album “Daughtry”.  The site lists the song titles.  A couple of tunes will be exclusive downloads only, so completists will have to shop around:

Here are all 12 confirmed song titles (in sequence): It’s Not Over, Used To, Home, Over You, Crashed, Feels Like Tonight, What I Want (featuring Slash), Breakdown, Gone, There And Back Again, All These Lives, and What About Now. The song, “Sorry” will be exclusive to iTunes and the newly recorded acoustic versions of “Home” and “Crashed” will be exclusive to WalMart.

This USAToday article reports that Katharine McPhee performed “I Have Nothing” at the Carousel of Hope Ball in Beverly Hills last night, to a standing ovation led by none other than Whitney Huston, who recorded the song originally.  You might remember that Katharine’s Top 6 performance of this song during the competition was roundly criticized by the judges.  The viewing audience, however, disagreed and voted her into the Top 2.  Simon Cowell apologized to her on that week’s results show.

Whitney is in the midst of a comeback, led by none other than her mentor, Clive Davis, who also oversees production of the Idols’ records.  The new kid in town happens to sing a Whitney tune.  Whitney happens to be in the audience. The new kid and the old kid happen to meet afterward. The cameras happen to capture the moment.  Clive lurks in the background, twiddles his fingers Montgomery Burns style and murmurs “Excellent”. Heh.

Clay Aiken is set to guest star as himself on the ABC soap Days of Our Lives in December. He’ll sing “Everything I Have” off his latest album, A Thousand Different Ways–part of a “private concert” for Days‘ Steve and Kayla (Stephen Nichols and Mary Beth Evans).  Clay’s version of “O, Holy Night” will also be featured in the episode, which airs Dec. 22.

Clay will embark on a 16-date holiday concert tour during December, accompanied by a live orchestra.  Last year’s holiday tour included an ambitious “story” written by Clay, about a little boy who “discovers the true meaning of Christmas”.  This year Clay?  Just sing.  Thanks a bunch.

A few Idols have records dropping tomorrow.  Of course, Kellie Pickler’s album, “Small Town Girl”, will be in stores Tuesday.  Also, Fantasia Barrino’s single “Hood Boy” is being released to radio.  Her album is set to drop December 12. You can listen to a stream at her MySpace.  And, Season 5 semi-finalist Patrick Hall releases his single “One For the Ages” tomorrow.  The album “One For the Ages” will be available February 2007.

thanks kirsten, lisab, cheese and sunnyday