Welcome to Pure America’s Got Talent

I previously projected who I thought would win America’s Got Talent. However, I thought it might be more fun to give my favorite 5 performers from this season of America’s Got Talent season 4. A really hard job to narrow them down to 5, but here goes.

1. Jessica Price – This is really a no brainer if you’ve been reading my blog. I really enjoy listening to her sing and Jessica Price’s first AGT performance will rank as one of my favorite AGT performances ever.

2. Russian Bar Trio – Turns out this is relatively popular, but the fact that I had never seen it until AGT shoots them near the top of my list. Probably the most exciting and jaw dropping act ever done on AGT.

3. Eli Mattson – He had me at Walking in Memphis

4. Junior & Emily – Some absolutely smokingly fast salsa dancing. I know how hard it is to go that fast. Exciting to watch since you can never look away. I would have loved to see what other performances they could have brought to the show.

5. Holly Hardin – What can I say? Not the best singer by any stroke of the imagination. I think I was stolen away by her accent, naivety and pure genuine goodness (or is that the same as naivety?). She wasn’t bad on the eyes either. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed all of her performances.

I’ve been following the show quite religiously since I have this America’s Got Talent Blog and I am thoroughly entertained by the show. So, you can imagine I have strong opinions on who I think will be the winners of America’s Got Talent. Without further ado, here’s my America’s Got Talent winner projection along with my rankings of the America’s Got Talent Top 5.

Eli Mattson
Nuttin’ But Stringz
Donald Braswell II
Neal E. Boyd
Queen Emily

At the end of the day, none of these performers should feel bad since they are all great. However, this is a popularity contest and I personally think that Eli Mattson is the most popular.

Let’s see your rankings of the America’s Got Talent top 5.

In my previous post about Donald Braswell replacing the Russian Bar Trio on America’s Got Talent I got to wondering how the Russian Bar Trio is doing and what type of accident happened. You can just see Christine (beautiful name since it’s also my wife’s name) missing the bar on the way down. Can you imagine? Here’s the injury update from the Russian Bar Trio’s website:

Hello Every one.

We just want to say thank you for all your suport. Christine is doing well. She is recovering very quickly. For those who want to know what happened, she just twisted her ankle while jumping down the bar on the edge of this matress. Very stupid incident. So with a twisted ankle you will agree that it hard to jump on this bar. She will be ok probally just a little bit too late for the live final of AGT. So we have been forced to drop out. We are very sorry for all our fans. We promisse you that you will still hear from us. For now until Christine will be ready to be back, we have a backup Flyer. She is doing well. We are still playing in Spain with the backup till the mid of september.

Again thank you very much for your support.

The Trio, Christine, Marco and Yves

A simple sprained ankle from jumping off the bar onto the mat. I hope one day to get a chance to see the Russian Bar performed live.

My final review of the top 5 from America’s got Talent is the wonderful Nuttin’ But Stringz. These guys are great to watch and would do an awesome show. I’m sure they could easily fill 90 minutes with stuff.

My guess is that there are at least a few dozen popular artists out there that would love to perform with Nuttin’ By Stringz also. I say that, because being completely honest these guys skill is their violin playing and mixing that with hip hop. Other than a nice little random shout out, I’ve never liked it when they opened there mouth to say something during their songs. Maybe that’s just me.

I would like to hear them perform without a whole background track. I’d be interested to hear how much of the music they’re producing from their instruments versus the wonderful background track. My guess is that they did the background track too, so that’s talent either way but I’d love to just see them do a straight up number with just the 2 violins. Or possibly start out the performance violin a cappella and then add in the cool hip hop like background music. Would show a nice contrast between the various styles.

One question I have about being a headliner in vegas is whether Nuttin’ But Stringz is right for Las Vegas. Living in Las Vegas I can’t remember the last headline musical act that was hip hop. I’m not sure why that is, but I really haven’t seen one like that. I’m not sure how well Nuttin’ But Stringz would do in Las Vegas. For the one America’s Got Talent winner show they’d do great. However, a permanent Las Vegas show I don’t see happening.

While I hate to agree with David Hasselhoff, Nuttin’ But Stringz is indeed nothing but talent. They deserve to win. Just not sure they will win.

Here’s a list of Nuttin’ But Stringz music you can download:
Broken Sorrow
Thunder Remix
Thunder
Get Low
Suka 4 Her Interlude
Beauty from Afar Intro
Egyptian in the Night Intro
Beauty from Afar
Struggle
Egyptian in the Night
Dance with My Father
Suka 4 Her
A Nu Day

One thing is for certain about Donald Braswell, there are a TON of American’s that love him. This blog has seen the incredibly passionate fans that love Donald Braswell. He deserved to be back on the show and probably never should have been sent off. I chalk it up to the producers not wanting as many pure singing acts in the top 40. That left Donald Braswell the odd man out.

Of course, I won’t diminish my feelings for Donald Braswell even if he did kick out the most amazing act on this season of America’s Got Talent: the Russian Bar Trio. I’ll be really sad if I never get the chance to see the Russian Bar Trio perform again. The finale of America’s Got Talent or possibly in the next season of America’s Got Talent, but I digress.

You’d be an idiot to argue that Donald Braswell doesn’t have a good voice. He wouldn’t have gone to Juilliard with a bad voice. In fact, he has a very good voice. Personally I just don’t have any solid connection with him. He’s a gentleman, but he never connected to me. I’m also solidly annoyed by the way he tilts his head back as if he’s staring into the sky at something that we’re missing. If I close my eyes, I enjoy Donald’s performances quite well. I guess it’s just his stage presence which doesn’t say winner or Las Vegas to me.

I think I really should like Donald Braswell the way he turned around that audience in the first performance. That was something else to watch and I was impressed by that. However, somewhere along the way I didn’t enjoy him nearly as much. Sometimes being a great guy with a great voice doesn’t always translate to a great entertainer. Personally, I use entertainer for my America’s Got Talent judging criteria and that’s why I don’t think Donald Braswell will win it all.

Now I’m going to go and prepare for all the hate mail I’ll get from the Donald Braswell fan club.

My dear Queen Emily! The first couple performances by Queen Emily she really seemed to knock it out of the park. She absolutely has the instrument to be a great singer, but these past couple performances it was a little too “screamy” to me. It felt at many times in the song that she was trying to sing.

Honestly, I hope that someone like Gladys Knight or Aretha Franklin is watching the show and is willing to take someone like Queen Emily under their arm and help her to become a star. Gladys lives down the street from me and is very busy, so here’s hoping that Aretha will help her out. If that doesn’t work out, then we can always hope that they finally do an America’s Got Talent tour.

Either way, Queen Emily has made a great run and entertained me thoroughly. I can just see her name on the Flamingo in Las Vegas performing every night. She just needs a bit more refinement to be able to do a whole show.

America’s Got Talent producers was smart to play up the story of Neal Boyd. I must admit that at this point the crying on stage has gone a bit too far. It’s fine to be emotional and I’m a cry baby too, put on your big girl underwear and start acting like an adult now. You’re no longer an underdog come from behind winner. You are someone that has a great voice and can do great things whether you win America’s Got Talent or not. Ok, that’s enough ranting about the crying.

Overall, Neal Boyd does have something kind of special in his voice. It’s odd, but I do enjoy hearing him perform. I’m a little sad that he never has really gotten into his songs. His performance style reminds me of Andrea Bocelli where he just stands there and sing. The only bad part is that Neal Boyd isn’t Andrea Bocelli. However, even Andrea Bocelli standing there provides immense expression on his face. Have you ever seen Andrea sing with Sarah Brightman (sp?)? The guy absolutely exudes happiness and emotion in his face. Plus, Andrea is just Andrea. Neal Boyd isn’t to that level yet, so I would have loved to see him move around the stage and connect with various parts of the audience. Provide a little smile here and there. Don’t just stand there and sing.

At the end of the day, I don’t think that Neal Boyd could really sustain a whole show in Las Vegas. Yes, he has a unique quality in his singing that I can’t quite identify, but Vegas won’t respect that small asset very long. I know I live here and it’s just a fickle town. All of this said, I really hope that Neal is able to give up his insurance sales and find a job singing. Would be a shame to see someone so talented and in love with singing doing something else.

The previous America’s Got Talent poll was so successful I thought it might be worthwhile to post a fresh poll after the AGT top 5 did their final performance. I’ve also made a few minor changes that should help to get a more representative vote. Let’s hear who will be the America’s Got Talent winner.

I’ve been really fond of Eli Mattson since his first AGT performance. From the looks of my America’s Got Talent vote, Eli Mattson is a very popular man.

Sure, there have been a lot of piano men in the past, but Eli has the ability to make a song his own. I’m not sure yet if he can do enough different things. It’s possible that over a 90 minute show that all of his stuff would be so much alike. However, I think there are a ton of people that would probably love to hear him for 90 minutes. Unfortunately, America’s Got Talent doesn’t provide enough performances to be able to fairly judge this. I would say that compared with the other talent, Nuttin But Stringz may be the only other performer that could possibly create as good a show as Eli Mattson in Las Vegas.

You can hear more of Eli Mattson’s music on his myspace page. Of course, I’d like to see how well Eli will do with a real production team and professional people helping him to produce an album. Could be pretty exciting.

At the end of the day, I believe that Eli Mattson is going to win America’s Got Talent. His performance of Walking in Memphis caught the heart of America and it hasn’t left since then.

Will we be seeing Eli Mattson perform in Las Vegas as the winner of America’s Got Talent?

I’m still working to find all of the videos from tonight’s America’s Got Talent finals performance show. I think we can all agree that every person on the show tonight has talent. The question is which one has more talent and deserves $1 million. Take a look and let me know who you like the best. I’ll be posting a new poll soon along with each of the videos as I’m able to find them.

Queen Emily Sang “One Moment in Time” by Whitney Houston

Eli Mattson Sang “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)” by Phil Collins

Donald Braswell Sang “You Raise Me Up” by Josh Groban

Neal Boyd Sang “Nessun dorma” from the opera Turandot

Nuttin’ But Stringz Top 5: Performed an original piece (check out Nuttin’ But Stringz’s album)