Fox reporter Stacy McCloud with Mansfield, Kennedy and Freeman

For all you American Idol junkies, Nashville’s Fox 17 is hosting a panel of music biz experts each Tues. night after the show to weigh in on what happened that evening. On the panel each week until the end of the season are MusicRow Chart Director Jon Freeman, USA Today Nashville correspondent Brian Mansfield and Cherry Heart Sr. VP Shelby Kennedy, all returning for the second year in a row to offer thoughts and analysis. See the clip from week 1 here, and tune in tomorrow night (3/30) during the 9 PM news.

Mansfield, who also writes USA Today’s Idol Chatter blog, posted an interesting thought over the weekend: “The doomsday scenario: How Tim Urban wins ‘American Idol'”

By all rights, this ought to be the week that Tim Urban finally goes home. The dreamy-eyed, questionably talented 20-year-old from Duncanville, Texas, who owes his American Idol spot to Chris Golightly’s dodgy interpretation of contract questions, has made the bottom three the first two weeks of the finals. The other contestants in the initial trio — Lacey Brown and Paige Miles — already have sung their farewell songs. Logic says, then, that this should be the week Tim’s luck finally runs out.

But what if it’s not?

What if Tim’s repeated brushes with obscurity have served only to energize his fan base? And what if a week of Disney Channel stars on Idol actually expanded that base?

What if 12-year-old girls — you remember, the ones that supposedly mass-texted Kris Allen to victory last season — actually exist in the numbers Kris’ detractors imagined? And what if they’ve formed some unholy alliance with a more-powerful-than-expected Vote for the Worst faction?

What if Tim can ride that bottom-three wave all season long, managing to eke out a few more votes each week than just one other contestant until, finally, there are no other contestants left?

Finish reading.

Renee Grant-Williams

American TV audiences can’t seem to get enough of the phenomenally successful show known as American Idol, but noted vocal coach Renee Grant-Williams could do with a little less of the show’s over-the-top vocal performances, which she describes as “painfully loud and meaningless over-singing.” Grant-Williams, one of the nation’s leading voice experts and coach to some of the music industry’s biggest stars, points to this week’s duet by  a former guest judge and partner as a prime example.

“By shamelessly over-singing, Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas managed to destroy what might otherwise have been a perfectly decent song,” Grant-Williams says. “Their performance was over-loud, over-ornamented, mutually over-competitive and ultimately banal. The lyrics to “Make a Wave,” written by Scott Krippayne and Jeffrey D. Peabody, are very positive and send a very powerful message. However, these two singers obscured the words so badly by over-singing, that I had to look up the lyrics to see what they were actually saying. The very essence of a song is to touch the listener by conveying a message of some kind. That’s difficult to do when no one can get a grip on the melody or understand what’s being said.”

Grant-Williams feels these non-verbal squiggles should be there for one reason only – to emphasize the powerful emotion of the song. “When a singer ornaments, it should be because, at that moment, the singer’s emotions are running so high that words will not suffice; the singer is only capable of a visceral response too powerful to put into mere words.”

She also feels that singers she encounters are increasingly belting out songs to the point where words don’t matter. “We seem to be caught up in an epidemic of loud,” she says. “Singing should be more subtle than just slinging a lot of voice around. If you sing with a thundering voice, you sacrifice the honesty, intimacy, and integrity of music. Yet, this style is presented to millions of TV viewers as desirable.”

“You just don’t hear the level of ear-splitting over-singing in Australia and other places like you do here in America,” says Grant-Williams, who recently returned from a sold-out teaching-tour of Australia. Observations she made during tours in Europe and South America confirm that this phenomenon is especially prevalent in the United States. “I’m convinced it’s due in part to the tremendous influence in the US of talent shows where over-singing is rewarded. I still think America has the best singers on the planet. They just need to bring down the volume and focus on the words and the emotions. I’m determined to do what I can to curb these phenomenon before they get out of hand.”

Grant-Williams has as few simple suggestions to help singers get back to the basics of good singing:

1. A song is a one-way conversation, a singer must be very intimate with the words.
2. Singing should be like speaking with the audience, there’s no need to yell.
3. Use consonants and silence to indicate the most important words of the song.
4. Use inflection sparingly as you would use spices, too much will ruin the song.

Grant-Williams coaches aspiring performers as well as celebrities including Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, Miley Cyrus, Faith Hill, the Dixie Chicks, Tim McGraw, Christina Aguilera, Linda Ronstadt, Randy Travis, and Huey Lewis. She is a former instructor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as well as the former director of the Division of Vocal Music at the University of California, Berkeley. For more information visit www.myvoicecoach.com.

Brooks & Dunn, the best-selling duo in the history of country music, will perform one of their hit songs as voted on by their fans on the 45th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards on Sunday, April 18. The duo is embarking on their final tour together this summer, and this will mark their final ACM performance as a duo.

Beginning today (3/24), viewers can log onto www.cbs.com/brooksdunn to vote in two phases for one of six favorite Brooks & Dunn songs:

My Maria
Brand New Man
Red Dirt Road
Neon Moon
You’re Gonna Miss Me
Boot Scootin’ Boogie

There is no registration to vote, and fans may vote one time per day. Additionally, a 30-second clip of each song is available for listening. The second phase of voting begins on Wednesday, April 14 when the list narrows down to the top three songs. Fans may again vote to decide which hit song the duo will perform on the broadcast. Voting will continue up until Brooks & Dunn’s final ACM performance on Sunday, April 18.

At this year’s ACM Awards, Brooks & Dunn are nominated for Top Vocal Duo of the Year. As part of the previously announced May 23 tribute concert special, ACM Presents: Brooks & Dunn – The Last Rodeo, the duo will receive the Academy’s Milestone Award in recognition of their 20-year record-breaking career. They will be honored for holding the record for the most wins of any artist in the Academy’s history with 26 awards in total, including three Entertainer of the Year awards. They will also be honored for holding the record for most Top Vocal Duo wins, with 15 awards, eight of which are consecutive from 2000-2007.

Dierks Bentley, photo by Danny Clinch for "Esquire."

Dierks Bentley was part of a multi-faceted feature for the new music issue of stylish men’s lifestyle magazine Esquire. For the April issue, on newsstands today (3/23), Bentley traveled to Clarksdale, Mississippi’s Shack-Up Inn for a two-day fashion shoot with renowned photographer Danny Clinch. He joined an eclectic group of musicians for the feature, including fellow Nashvillian Griffin House, Charlie Mars, Bob Schneider, and Ben Kweller.

At the end of the trip, each songwriter was challenged to write, perform and record an original song that included the phrase “Somewhere in Mississippi.” The songs will be available for free download for one day only, and a full EP of all the songs will be available April 5 at esquire.com. Bentley’s song will be available for free on Mon., March 29. Until then, look below for behind-the-scenes clips or visit www.esquire.com/miss.

Another local highlighted in the new edition of Esquire is songstress Cortney Tidwell. Her track “17 Horses” is listed in the article “50 Songs Every Man Should Listen To.”