I’ve made no secret of the fact that I watch American Idol. I started watching the second season sporadically and have become more consistent since. This is the first time I’ve watched all of the shows, and the reason is Taylor Hicks. Man, something about that guy is just really compelling! My first thought was, “Hmm… is this one of the crazy people?” But then he let loose with the soul thing and this Ray Charles/Joe Cocker move and Ryan said something like, “He’s an idiot savant!”

Today I looked him up on Google and see that he’s actually a professional musician, so he’s obviously got his thing together. I don’t know what that odd look in his eye is about, but I’m totally suckered in to watch every episode now, just to check out what this guy is up to. I found 3 free downloads of his music and enjoyed them quite a bit. The sound is very familiar and warm. “It’s a Soul Thing” was the real stand out.

I would hate to see him win the competition – or come in second – and be forced to do those crappy hack songs they finish out the show with, and then make a sell-out auto-tuned over-produced Top 40 record… But I’d love to see him stay in the competition long enough that we get to enjoy his performances most of the season and see how he does with the various genre challenges. Why a guy like this enters American Idol kind of perplexes me (I’d never dream of doing it!), but then again, if guys like this didn’t join, the show wouldn’t even be worth watching. Go Taylor Hicks – whiteboy soul man!

Oh, and on a side note, I’ve been trying to get the hang of playing harmonica recently and was pretty stoked to hear him playing it last night. I have a long way to go…