Blog Posts by Lyndsey Parker

Is Danielle Bradbery still the country girl to beat?"The Voice's" top six performance show this Monday was a mixed bag. A country bag. There was a country cover of a hair metal song. There were emo and R&B covers of country songs. There were a few old-school country songs, and some new-school country songs, too.

Really, aside from the Keane and Aretha covers, Monday's "Voice" episode pretty much resembled a rerun of the talent show Blake Shelton's wife Miranda Lambert once competed on, "Nashville Star."

photo: Kristen (Jower-Ho) ShafferLee DeWyze may face an image problem after winning one of "American Idol's" least popular seasons (Season 9) and parting ways with RCA Records after the disappointing sales of his post-"Idol" album, Live It Up. But with a new label deal with Vanguard Records; a forthcoming album, Frames; and a fantastic new folk-rock single, "Silver Lining," Lee is re-energized and about to surprise a lot of doubters.

Lee recently came to Yahoo! Music to play three of his new songs and talk about his rocky but ultimately triumphant post-"Idol" journey. Scroll down for the full interview, and check out a few choice quotes about his career ups and downs.

photo courtesy of The Ally Coalition

Last year, the Grammy-winning rock band fun. and fun. guitarist Jack Antonoff's sister, designer Rachel Antonoff, launched The Ally Coalition (TAC), a gay rights organization "with the purpose of inspiring people, in particular their peers in the music, fashion, and entertainment industry, to take action for LGBTQ equality."

Backstage at their big Yahoo! On the Road gig at San Francisco's Nob Hill Masonic Center on May 31, Jack and fun. frontman Nate Ruess spoke with Yahoo! Music about what TAC is doing and why LGBTQ causes matter so much to them. There was a lot of serious, important talk, but the interview ended on a light note…just to keep things, well, you know, fun.

If imitation is the finest form of flattery, then fun. ought to be feeling pretty darn good about themselves by now. After all, their ubiquitous hits have been covered by everyone from the "Glee" cast to Ellie Goulding to Spanish-language Super Bowl jingle singers. So when Yahoo! Music sat down with the band's Jack Antonoff and Nate Ruess backstage before their big Yahoo! On the Road gig at San Francisco's Nob Hill Masonic Center, we had to ask them to list their favorite viral fun. covers.

Their top three picks were — pun intended or not — a lot of fun!

photo: FlickrMuch ado has been made in the media lately about late-night television's ever-revolving hosts. But before Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers get too comfortable over at NBC, they should be warned that two new rising stars may be coming for their seats someday: Nate Ruess and Andrew Dost, from the Grammy-winning rock band fun.

When playing at San Francisco's Nob Hill Masonic Center on the final night of the Yahoo! On the Road U.S. tour, fun.'s onstage banter was as entertaining as their musical highlights (which, incidentally, included "Some Nights," "We Are Young," "Carry On," and a crowd-rousing cover of the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want"). And when keyboardist Andrew took on the dual roles of Paul Shaffer and Ed McMahon between songs, it made for some pretty good late-night comedy.

Coming to a city near you? Maybe not...The 2013 American Idol Live! Tour hasn't even begun, but it may already in serious trouble.

The tour was scheduled to launch June 29 in St. Louis (10th-place finalist Curtis Finch Jr.'s hometown), but now all dates scheduled before July 19 have been canceled. "Idol" fans in such tour stops as Tulsa, Kansas City, Detroit, Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, and even the seemingly "Idol"-friendly tourist hub of Las Vegas better recheck their calendars...and revisit their point of purchase.

photo: FoxFollowing veteran "American Idol" judge Randy Jackson's only slightly surprising resignation announcement earlier this month, and Fox reality chief Mike Darnell's resignation last week, Randy's Season 12 co-star and former client, Mariah Carey, and Nicki Minaj have both confirmed that they too won't be returning to "Idol" next year.

"W/ global success of “#Beautiful” (#1 in 30+ countries so far) @MariahCarey confirms world tour & says goodbye 2 Idol," Mariah's PR firm, PMK-BNC, announced via Twitter on Thursday. Mariah has yet to tweet anything herself, as of this writing, although she retweeted PMK-BNC's post.

Midas Whale on the "Howling" setI've said it before and I'll say it again: The day that folk-rockers Midas Whale were knocked out of this season's "Voice" Knockout Rounds was The Day The Music Died.

But thankfully, that actually wasn't the death of Midas Whale. Jon Peter Lewis (an "American Idol" top 10 finalist from Season 3) and his musical partner Ryan Hayes have since launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund their post-"Voice" debut album, and now they've released their lovely first official music video, for the original song "Howling at the Moon."