Various Artists - Nashville Star 2005 Finalists

"Nashville Star 2005 Finalists" is a nice compilation of old and new tracks alike. All songs are pretty good with the exception of Chirsty McDonald's cover of Josh Turner's "Long Black Train." It is too identifiable with the artist that wrote and sang it. Perhaps a different song would've shown off her personality a little more, like the rest of these songs did for her competition.

When American Idol became a hit TV show, it was only a matter of time before "talent contests" in other genres sprang up. While AI covers virtually every genre, shows like Nashville Star were bound to happen. The first season saw the Top 3 finalists (Buddy Jewell, john Arthur martinez, and Miranda Lambert) acquire record deals while season two gave another 3 artists record deals (winner Brad Cotter, runner-up George Canyon and Ritchie Jones, who was only on the first show). Canyon appears here as a guest artist with "Who Would You Be" which is from his debut Universal South album.

While season two wasn't as successful as season one at producing a hit making artist (Cotter can't buy a hit while Canyon's working on his first with "My Name"), the 2005 season is looking like there's a great amount of talent. Jenny Farrell comes off very nicely on record with her cover of "Seven Year Ache." While Justin David and Casey Simpson sound good with their tracks ("Ring of Fire" and "Somebody Like You" respectively) they're just not as good as a couple other artists on "Nashville Star – 2005 Finalists."

Erika Jo sounds really good with her take of Julie Roberts' "Break Down Here" while Jason Meadows does a rockin' Strait-like rendition of "Workin' Man Blues." But by far the two best artists on this CD are Tamika Tyler with her awesome cover of Patty Loveless' "You Don't Even Know Who I Am" and Jayron Weaver's powerful cover of Lonestar's "I'm Already There."