On The Departure of Kristy Lee Cook
I’m a bit sad Kristy Lee is leaving ol’ A.I. I wanted her to win, and I’ll tell you why. Not because she was a particularly good singer; she had her moments, and she definitely tapped into the country market a bit, something that I like to monitor from afar, and champion when I feel its appropriate. She has the look of a great country singer, but there was something else about her that made her more real for me, more so than the other dopes (Archuleta, looking in your direction).
When they first showed us Kristy Lee, way back during the auditions, they painted her as the “girl next door” type- one that lived in no-where, rode horses, and had tomboy tendencies. Except those early auditions, she never came off like that; she was way too confident to be an “aw-shucks” type. Instead of the girl-next-door, she was more like the obnoxious hot girl who won’t talk to you next door.
At least that’s how it seemed. Then, it came out that she had a deal with Arista Nashville earlier in the decade, and was dropped, before they put any time and resources into her. A lot of folks thought this was suspect - and I agree, I do have a few raised eyebrows that she got plucked out of 100,000- along with David A., another dude from Star Search a few years back. We’re supposed to believe they are this gifted, that they can make it through all the others, after already having a big time shot? Maybe. Not sure.
Regardless, something seemed to happen once everyone got wind of her past ties with major label music. The thing is, a lot of musicians have signed with major labels, often when they have other offers floating around, only to be dropped by EMI/Astralwerks before their album ever sees the light of day. Los Angeles based indie-pop band The Little Ones, recently had this happen. I got an EP in the mail the other day of theirs, sadly explaining this. And although they are plugging along - and at least can try and find another home for their full length, I’m sure it still gave their career a major setback. Grant it, they are out on the road a lot, but probably still have to work day jobs of some sort to make ends meet, and I’m sure Kristy Lee has been doing vocal coaching or something somewhere in Oregon in between the time she’s left. Point is, its probably moot that she had a contract once.
So once this past label stuff came out, there seemed to be a major shift in the way the judges received her. They hated her, and tried to sway the vote away from her week after week. At first, it rattled her. Clearly she hadn’t been exposed to that sort of criticism, especially on a national stage, and it was probably bringing up stuff from her failed Nashville experiment. And then, the result was, she became awkward. She became real; on stage, she never knew how to stand or what to do with her arms, but she belted her heart out. Every elimination, she just seemed so defeated, but then each week would come back and give it her all- awkward tendencies a-plenty (remember her attempt at an elimination joke? Awkward…) Slowly, we could see how the whole A.I. grooming process was having an opposite effect on her. She wasn’t becoming confident. Instead, she could been seen as being much more vulnerable up there than any other contestant, and the way she handled it, I thought was endearing.
Because of this, she’ll probably have a career now; if lobotomy survivor Kellie Pickler can move massive amounts of albums and win awards, surely Kristy Lee can.
