Thursday, March 23, 2006

Daughtry covers Live in his version of Walk the Line

As a songwriter, this has happened to me. Sort of. You write some lyrics, you work out a melody and it's perfect. You think you've really nailed it. Then one day, you hear it on the radio. Of course, it's not the song you've written. It's the melody, it may even be the chords, but its a great song you've always liked. Oops. Tear up that sheet.

Well Chris Daughtry, from American Idol, is in similar shoes. Daughtry covered Johnny Cash's Walk the Line during the 50's tribute on American Idol on Tuesday. It was rocking, it was aggressive and it seemed original. But it wasn't. In fact, it wasn't even close. It was apparently the same version that the band Live recorded for a Sun Records tribute album.

Ok, you don't have to be original to win AI. That was proven when country pop princess Carrie Underwood mimicked every country pop princess in the country and rode that to the AI "title" if you will. But I guess I was excited that an actual musician with talent might be the AI favorite. Oh well, you can't have it all.

Daughtry is still a great rock vocalist and I sincerely hope his popularity on the show revitalizes a weak genre of music. Time will tell.

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