Not much to recap from last night's American Idol, as the surprise switch from disco to country rock resulted in a mish-mash of performances, some straight country (Joshua took on Garth Brooks) to more rock-like (Ruben, somewhat fittingly, sang parts of "Sweet Home Alabama," but mostly the refrain) to two performances - Rickey and Clay - that wouldn't have been country or rock even if performed in a South Carolina quarry.

The guest judge for the night was Olivia Newton-John, who could have worked from either a disco or country perspective. Her flexibility came in handy, as Simon apparently has no idea at all about country music. He was non-plussed all evening, which made last night different from other nights not so much.

The show was only an hour last night, so I was switching laundry during Joshua's performance, when I thought we'd be safely in the middle of a longish, not that informative bio on Ms. Newton-John. In any case, no one was unbelievable and no one was really horrific, though I have to admit that Corey, Carmen, and Julia all got much better comments than I'd have given them. Corey's "upper register," which Randy and Paula seem to love, sounds pained to me. Carmen apparently has a lot of power, but I can't hear it through her bleating vibrato. And Julia, well, she still looks like she's being forced to participate by a vengeful teacher.

As for the bottom three... Julia will be in it again for continuity's sake. I have to think Corey will wind up back there again, although he wasn't as God-awful as last week. It would also be just punishment for the mesh shirt he wore. I would like to think Carmen would round this group out, but she won't. She has some sort of odd popularity. And it was her birthday yesterday! I like the idea of a sourly ironic 18th birthday present, but most won't.

Given that, I'll put Kimberly Locke in the bottom three. Not that she deserves it; her performance of "I Can't Make You Love Me" was one of the better ones last night. But outside of Carmen, I can't think of anyone who really should be in the bottom three, so I'll make the pseudo-random pick based on past bottom groups.