American Idol: Casey James Sings John Mayer's "Daughters" (Video)

Casey James' Rendition of Judge's Choice Song "Daughters" was Excellent, but was it Enough?

Saul Relative
The American Idol Top 3 performed two songs Tuesday evening: one chosen by the American Idol judges and one of their own choosing. After a lukewarm response to his personal choice, Eric Hutchinson's "OK, It's Alright With Me" (this writer suggested Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man" for Casey -- and Lee Dewyze performed it), Casey James stepped onto the stage for "Daughters," John Mayer's Grammy-winning song. And he nailed it. Considering that he sounds a bit like John Mayer (perhaps with a little more smokey rasp to his voice), Casey James pulled off the song with ease and grace, accompanied only by a piano. But it wasn't difficult to see that American Idol judge Simon Cowell wasn't overly pleased with the performance, calling the guitar lead "quite limp" and blaming Kara DioGuardi and Randy Jackson, the judges who chose the song, for not working with James to give the song a vocal "wow" moment. However, Simon did say that Casey James sounded good for both of his songs, although the judges' song choice, he maintained, was far better than Casey's own. Judging from the comments on YouTube, many believe that the American Idol judges treated Casey James as a third wheel and have marginalized him throughout the competition (especially with regard to his looks and his appeal to "women and girls"). Marginalized or not, was his performance good enough to get him into the finale, or will the judges' obvious bias toward Lee Dewyze and Crystal Bowersox, mixed with a couple good performances by Lee and couple passable ones by Crystal, see the Texas blues man be sent home? Watch Casey James perform John Mayer's "Daughters" and judge for yourself.

Published by Saul Relative

WVU graduate, with degrees in History, English, Secondary Education, Computer Programming, and Psychology (and nearly a degree in Political Science). Originally from West Virginia, with stints in Virginia,...   View profile

6 Comments

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  • Lee G 6/28/2010

    James rehearsed pride and joy/steve ray V but was not allowed to perform it, that's why the lyrics of the new song fitted so well his emotions? anyway that's the rumour on the net. easy to tell something was wrong

  • Ali Canary 5/24/2010

    Casey did fine, but the judges screwed him over with a boring song, not to mention an uninspired arrangement. As a perfect accompaniment, he screwed HIMSELF with his own song choice!

  • Jan Corn 5/19/2010

    I think Simon has incredible influence. But we'll how the voting goes.

  • jackie o 5/19/2010

    What the hell is wrong with Simon when it comes to Casey. He is doing everything he can to criticize Casey. I will never watch this show again after tonight. Simon does need to leave. Way to go Casey when you asked Simon what he is laughing at. Simon Cowell is RUDE!

  • Valerie 5/19/2010

    Nice write up. I also liked Casey's version better than John Mayer.

  • Jay 5/19/2010

    Wonderful rendition. It was delivered with vulnerabilty and the twist of his guitar solo alone in the middle made the song more heartfelt. Better than the "lullaby-like" version of John Mayer.

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