Idol 60 - Casey James

60. Casey James

Season 9, 3rd Place

Yes, it's the perpetual manic smiler. Haha.

To me, Casey was a contestant who hadn't really stretched himself vocally and hadn't done much in his performances besides standing behind the microphone strumming his guitar. I mean, if I had to explain why Casey was eliminated in third place in one sentence it would be “Casey James is just simply not a fighter.”  Seriously. He's an incredible talent with lackluster ambition. He just didn't take enough risks.

Frankly, when I first saw his audition I NEVER thought he would make the Top 24 let alone finish in third place. Really. He seemed to be more of a joke than a potential star, but then again, I was somewhat proven wrong.

Casey had an uneven record with a few brilliant moments, some average fun performances, and a couple of awful nights, but managed to really prove his talent - that I'll give him. His first live performance was shockingly good. His rendition of Bryan Adam's hit Heaven was probably the best pure vocal performance of that entire week. Sadly, he was unable to garner a musical identity and somehow became stale in the next couple of weeks.

His performances from Top 20 down to the Top 10 became boring. Don't get me wrong, he didn't sound bad but it was a genuine snooze fest for me. I only realized this when he performed Hold On I'm Coming, which was generally an uptempo song but got me utterly bored to death. By then, he has been 6 out of 6 for standing pretty much in one spot every week, mostly playing his guitar, grin like an idiot and sung in like a four note range.

Good thing, he managed to give an outstanding performances after that with Jealous Guy but went back to his monochromatic performance the next week with Lawdy Miss Clawsy. That made me confused - I mean, if I'll root for him already or not. He was just nothing but a "one note" performer. Heck, he would be NOTHING without his guitar.

I gave up on him after Don't. It was obviously his last superb performance because after that he was just the usual Casey James scared of taking risks. Haha. Whatever. It was more like a rollercoaster ride.

Oh, and one more thing, some of his other performances would've been phenomenal if it weren't for his distracting vibrato. Really. His goaty and nasal sound kind of kept me from loving most of his performances all the way through.

Favorite Performance (s): Jealous Guy and Don't is his best performances. To me, he had the opportunity to move up after his rousing performance of Jealous Guy but he was unable to deliver. Quality-wise, Don't is on the same calibre as his Lennon-McCartney performance. His rendition of Shania Twain's ditty sounded like it could go straight to radio. Seriously.

Jealous Guy

Don't

#59 - Arrested and charged with felony identity theft