Let me start off by saying that this first night was pretty terrible. There were a few stand outs, but the rest? I don’t know if I would continue to watch this show as a newbie having seen last night’s  performances. First up was Jackie Tohn. That was exactly as Simon described it: “you played the clown”. From her weird pants (exercise glam!), not to mention the huge red belt, to her “way to many words in a song” performance she was terrible. I don’t like singers who sing high tempo songs that don’t allow you to really judge their voices. They don’t stay on one note long enough to actually hear anything notable. Grade F

Ricky Braddy was next up. He has a very good voice and actually delivered the song as a story. That part was great. But he is a little geeky looking to me and there were much better performances last night than his. I give him a B+

Alexis Grace was very good. I like her soul aspect and she delivered that song in spades. I give her an A.

Brent Keith bounced up and down too much for my taste. And he continued to make that same outsweeping hand move like it was the only singing gesture he knows. He was ok. I give him a C.

Stevie Wright was downright terrible. She looked very nervous and sang out of tune. Grade D.

Casey Carlson had a weird nervous style that included expressions that could be called downright grimaces. She got better as she went along, but her delivery was just plain weird. Grade C-

Michael Sarver: Made no notes on this guy. Grade BORING

Ann Marie Boskovich did pretty darned well in my opinion. The judges were harsh on her, but given the rest of the field I thought she was better than OK. Grade B

Stephen Fowler: I loved the way he looked. He looked relaxed and his outfit suited him. I thought it was better than the judges thought. Grade C+

Tatiana del Toro surprised me. I thought she was very very good. She was subdued. And while the judges said that made them nervous, I think this translated into tv land as power restrained and lent weight to her performance. Grade A

Danny Gokey: what can be said. The guy is a natural and powerful performer. He rocked the crowd. Simon was just being grouchy by refusing to recognize the power of this performance. Grade A+

And there you have it. Let’s see if my grading is reflected in the results. Top 3 as I see it are Alexis, Tatiana, and Danny.