Oh no ! Not again.

The year that Taylor Hicks won American Idol was the first year that I seriously decided to give the show a chance.  I am usually not the kind that likes these cheesy kind of shows, but it was something that I could enjoy with my two sons.  I had briefly followed the previous year when Carrie Underwood won over Bo Bice, but I got totally pissed when Bo lost to Carrie.  When Bo finally came out with this CD, I was appalled.  What had these AI morons done to this really great Southern Rocker?  OH WELL!  No biggie since I had not really invested much of my time into the whole season.

The following season after my friends had all battered me into submission, I agreed to give AI a second chance.  Then I was hit with the Taylor Hicks bug.  I went full force into the season, biting my nails every week until the finale.  After Taylor won I started to remember what the AI machine had done to Bo the previous season and I became concerned that they were going to dilute Taylor down to the least common denominator of Pop drivel possible.  The resulting “Taylor Hicks” CD wasn’t as bad as it could have been, eventhough it could have been much better.  The jury is still out on how Taylor’s Sophomore CD will do.

After Taylor’s run on AI, I swore off all reality shows.  Then a few months back I happened to be sitting in the family room with my 25 year old son, when America’s Got Talent happened to be on.  Much to my chagrin I decided to be entertained for the next hour by all the bizarre creatures that graced the auditions.  Then all of a sudden after a commercial, the segment starts and they began to show this:

ELI MATTSON : WALKING IN MEMPHIS

Eli Mattson AGT’s second performance-”You Know”

Eli Mattson AGT’s Top 20 & Top 10 performance

I was gobsmacked. I felt like I did the first time I saw Taylor.  His story was so similar to Taylor’s story.  You could see the same thing in him that so many of us had seen in Taylor.  A combination of a love for his music along with a desperate need to be heard.  He sauntered out to his mark on the stage with an amazed look ready to face the huge audience that was waiting to judge his performance.  When asked what song he was going to sing, he said “Walking in Memphis” then “I hope you like it”.  WOW !  When he started to sing you could see that he had slipped away to his own place and he was allowing all of us in there with him.  Afterwards when the audience had already broken into tremendous applause, Eli stood there on the stage almost embarrassed by all the adulation that he was receiving. He had finally had his moment and he just could not believe it.  This is the kind of stuff that no one could be taught.  You have to be born with this and in my opinion he was.  The looks on the judges faces were priceless.  He had won them over immediately.  I just loved  Sharon Osbourne’s reaction towards the end when she puts her hand over her mouth in awe of what she had just heard.  Afterwards when the judges left for a break, the remark by the British judge Piers was right on the money,  ” He had a self confidence, but not born out of achievement because he is not a big star”.

So now, a few months later the final 40 contestants have been picked to go to the finals in Los Angeles, which will start to air after the Olympics are over.  Eli of course was picked to be one of them.  But here is where my old American Idol fears start to emerge again.  This kid has amazing possibilities.  Not only is he a singer and a piano player, he also writes his own music which you can hear on his MySpace.

www.MySpace.com – Eli Mattson

I find myself going back to this video over and over trying to see if he is as good as I think he is.  He is young and is still at the point where if given the proper management, he would only grow into his music.  My only hope is that the people from America’s Got Talent do not take him and make him into a Las Vegas Lounge Act.  He could have a great future in the music business, if he is smart. I hope that he chooses to take the right route to fame and continues to stay grounded.  There is much nobility and grace to building your audience slowly but surely. After experiencing the trials and tribulations of what Taylor has gone through , I have a much broader sense of the potholes and prattfalls that await him.  Eli Mattson is good and I only hope that “the powers that be” will allow him to grow organically instead of putting him on the pedestal only to fall off later.

Good Luck Eli.  You definitely got my vote.