Who knew? David Cook's kinda cute without the "Little sparrow" in his hair

I have to admit it... Ryan had me fooled for a few seconds when he said the show had been preempted. It wasn't until he said Simon Cowell would be on the celebrity version of "Moment of Truth" that I realized it was a joke. Very cute...

As for tonight's show, I'm going into it pretty much blind. I have no knowledge of Dolly Parton, with the exception of "9 to 5" and "I Will Always Love You." So, basically every other song will be completely foreign to me. I think that will actually help me form an opinion about the singing tonight because I won't be swayed by a favorite song or anything like that.

I do think Dolly Parton is very sweet and I love her accent. She says that she doesn't have any children of her own and so she always thinks of her songs as her children. She remembers exactly when she wrote them, what she was thinking about when she wrote them. Then she tells the group of 9 finalists that when she was working on the movie, "9 to 5," she didn't have her guitar on the set, so she would rub her acrylic nails together to mimic strumming a guitar and when she heard the sound, she thought it sounded kind of like a typewriter, and that's how the song was written.

So first up is Brooke White - she plans to sing "Jolene." Dolly says she's very good, that she had a real sweet, warm way about her. She says there's an honesty about her that she really liked. She says there is a warmth about the music in country, where they sing about real life, real people, and she thinks Brooke felt it from an honest place, so she thinks Brooke's song choice is good.

I think she sounds great - I look forward to her performances now, they're so simple, so basic, but always good. Tonight is no different - it's just Brooke, her guitar and a few musicians behind her - no big band, no major production. The song is actually pretty catchy, so I found myself kind of humming along toward the end. There were a couple of spots in the beginning where she was slightly out of tune, but nothing major.

Randy tells her she could make an album with this type of music. He says he doesn't know if it was a stellar performance, that there were some pitch problems and that she rushed the music a little bit, but it was all right. Paula says she's consistent, that she has an emotional connection to each song she picks. Simon actually disagrees with Paula and says that what was lacking in that song was any emotion - he said the musicians and Brooke looked very odd together as a group. he says it wasn't one of her best performance and says something but I couldn't quite hear it - they started playing the music on him.


David Cook is next and he has a chat with Ryan before his performance. Ryan asks him how he's chosen the arrangements for the songs he's sung so far. David says that he's tried to find arrangements that fit him and he's been very lucky because he's been able to find them online, like with "Eleanor Rigby," he found versions by Doxology and Neil Zaza and put them together, then with "Day Tripper" he did a Whitesnake version and the Chris Cornell version of "Billie Jean." But tonight, he says, he's doing his own arrangement of "Little Sparrow."

Dolly says "Little Sparrow" is one of her favorite songs and that David seems secure in himself, that he seems certain. She says he has the kind of voice and the kind of heart to know what to do with a song like that, that he doesn't mind reaching for it and usually when he reaches for it, he catches it.

Before we get to the song, though, can we take a moment please to mourn the loss of David's combover? It looks like the stylists finally got to him, because his hair looks freshly dyed and cut. I'm still not loving the hair style, but you can finally see his hairline and believe it or not, it's not receding. That awful cut he had before made him look like he was balding, but now it's off his face and pushed to the side a bit - it totally changes his face. I'm almost tempted to say he looks handsome. Nice haircut, nicely trimmed facial hair, it's all looking good.

And of course, he's sounding good too. The arrangement is nothing spectacular - nothing like past weeks, but he still manages to make a country song sound like a rock song. I think he's fantastic to listen to and now with his new haircut, he's getting better to watch, too.

Randy tells him that what he loves is that he's a rocker, but for the past couple of weeks, he's been showing that he has this unbelievable range. He likes how he went into the falsetto, that he made his own arrangement, which was very cool and once again, it was another hot, consistent performance? Can I just say again how the haircut has completely changed David's face? He's actually kind of dreamy...UGH!! Did I actually admit that? I can't help it - he looks really, really good. Not as good as my Jason, but my goodness - what an improvement. Anyway, Paula's first words are "I like your haircut." How funny - everyone's smitten with the new look. She tells him she never heard a guy sing that song, that it was fantastic. Simon says he's not going to say that it was as good as last week because it wasn't, but if he can make a song about a sparrow good, which actually he did, congratulations.