AIKEN NEWS NETWORK OCTOBER 13

[clayMaine-iac]

10/12/06 : Clay Aiken Video Footage

We told you earlier this week that we would have some amazing Clay footage for you soon, and for those of you who already got a sneak peak of the video at the Clay Aiken Virgin Megastore in-store event, the suspense is finally over! That's right. We now have the entire footage ready for your viewing pleasure on our VIDEO page! So sit back, relax, and watch as Clay dishes out his thoughts on the making of his new album, "A Thousand Different Ways."

CLAYONLINE

[clayMaine-iac]

'Idol' Aiken coming to Genesee Theatre

October 12, 2006
WAUKEGAN -- "American Idol" contestant and subsequent pop star Clay Aiken has been booked to appear at the Genesee Theatre on Dec. 1, with tickets scheduled to go on sale Oct. 13.
Tickets range in price from $78 to $53 and will be available at the Genesee box office and through Ticketmaster.

Aiken was the first runner-up to winner Ruben Studdard during the 2003 season of "Idol," and went on to enjoy a Billboard No. 1 ranking for his debut album, "Measure of a Man." The 27-year-old North Carolina native's album sales are reported to rank second among all "American Idol" alumni, trailing only 2002 winner Kelly Clarkson.

He is currently touring in support of his third album, "A Thousand Different Ways," which features 10 covers of pop staples, including Elton John's "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" and Dolly Parton's "Here You Come Again."

The Genesee performance is the first of 18 U.S. dates on the "Clay Aiken Holiday Symphony" tour. According to his RCA music Web site, www.clayaiken.com, the tour will find Aiken joining "select local orchestra and symphonies for one-night-only performances of all Christmas music. After the local orchestra kicks off the evening, Clay will join them for a full set of holiday favorites, many featured on his platinum CD, 'Merry Christmas With Love.'"

SUBURBANCHICAGONEWS

[clayMaine-iac]

Aiken Album Marks New Chapter
October 9, 2006
 
"Idol" alum says disc of covers helped him show his more adult side
Associated Press Sandy Cohen

After a year and a half away from the spotlight, Clay Aiken returns with an edgy new look, a far-from-edgy new album and a newly secure sense of self.

"I know it's a new chapter but it's kind of like a whole new book — the sequel to my life before," says a casually dressed and scruffy-faced Aiken, sitting in an office at RCA Records, his label. "It's like we're starting out on something brand new where I'm really getting to be myself."

Read the rest:
GRAMMY.COM

*I like seeing Clay's name on the Grammy Awards site*

[clayMaine-iac]

From the Broads:

HEY GOOD LOOKIN'

[clayMaine-iac]

From the Clayboard:

HALLOWEEN CLAY PUMPKIN CARVING PATTERNS

[Her]

You're up bright eyed and bushy tailed Miss D!  Happy Friday and as always, thanks for keeping we Maniacs informed.  You're the best!!!

[clayMaine-iac]

HHS' Hill breaks own record, wins United Way race
Red Tornadoes' star outdistances South Caldwell runner for title
By TIM SOUTHERS Record Sports Correspondent
Thursday, October 12, 2006 
 
NEWTON -- Entering the 13th annual United Way Unifour Cross Country Invitational on Wednesday afternoon one thing was a given ? Hickory High junior Ryan Hill was going to win the boys' championship, as long as he didn't get injured.

Hill lived up to expectations as he set a new record time of 15 minutes 17 seconds to outdistance Christian Webb of South Caldwell at Southside Park in Newton. (snip)

While the event was another overwhelming success for the runners and cross country in general, event organizer John Hall noted more than just the sport of cross country benefited as well.

"This is the most kids we have ever had competing in the special event," said Hall. "The great thing about this event besides the racing is that we are able to send a powerful message about inclusion and the efforts of the Bubel/Clay Aiken Foundation to help bridge the gap between people with disabilities and the world around them."

HICKORYRECORD

[clayMaine-iac]

Enter RealityReel.com's brand new Clay Aiken Sweepstakes for a variety of Clay goodies. Just click here to enter!

REALITYREEL

[clayMaine-iac]

David Foster To Enter Canadian Music Industry Hall Of Fame
Wednesday October 11, 2006 @ 06:30 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

You may think that much of the music that David Foster has been associated with is pretty wimpy, but you can't argue with his success. The songwriter, producer, musician and record company executive will be inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall Of Fame next year as part of Canadian Music Week.

Foster certainly has the required credentials to be honoured at the Canadian Music Industry Awards ceremony, which will be held on March 8 at Toronto's Fairmont Royal York Hotel. He's won 14 Grammy Awards (and been nominated 29 other times), seven Juno Awards and an Emmy. He's also been nominated for three Academy Awards. (snip)

Foster now heads the Warner-affiliated 143 Records label, the home to top-selling pop crooners Michael Buble and Josh Groban, while continuing to write and produce for Clay Aiken, Katherine McPhee and others.

The David Foster Foundation, established in 1986, has raised several million dollars to assist families of children in need of organ transplants.

CHARTATTACK

[clayMaine-iac]

American Idol Rewind, Episode 1: Something Like a Phenomenon
by Sting7 -- 10/13/2006
 
In the grand tradition of most successful television series, American Idol takes its place in the oft-maligned world of syndication. Problem: you’ve seen this before! Solution: American Idol Rewind, with all the stuff you’ve seen before, and even more stuff you haven’t! Why didn’t Kelly Clarkson (right) think she’d win? Read on! (snip)

But what a season followed! Consider the strange and curious journey of Clay Aiken. Nigel recalls of Clay’s first audition, “He had ears that stood out like satellite dishes!” Clay, as we see, rakishly boasted to Randy and Simon that he could have been “one or two” in season 1. Then he sang. He backed it up! Ken Warwick says the voice was great, but it wasn’t a pop star’s voice. Yet, week after week, he recalls, American began to embrace Clay. Not because he was flat-ironing his hair and the eyebrows were freshly plucked, “It was because the voice was superb!” Ken says. “He studied everything!” Clay was ultra-prepared. He knew what to sing and how to sing it, and the judges loved that.

Read the rest:
REALITYNEWSONLINE

[clayMaine-iac]

The Clamor for Clay 
Clay Aiken’s Third Album makes him the 4th artist ever to have his first 3 albums debut in the Top 5 on Billboard Charts.

His fan support is stronger than ever, hundreds of fans were there at Virgin Megastore in Hollywood on Sept. 26 for an in-store signing by Clay. The signing lasted an unheard of 3 hours at which point Clay had extreme writers cramp and laughingly admits to signing one CD as: “Clay Clay”

A check of one music web site that allow voting for your favorite artist find him out distancing the top artists by amazing numbers. Clay Aiken currently Scores 1505 Excellent votes for “Without You”. The closest competitor is JoJo with 138 Excellent Votes for "Too Little Too Late". The rest of the ratings for The Fray, Snow Patrol, Evanescence, Elton John, Nickelback, Beyonce and Fergie fall somewhere between 20 to 64. Normally these ratings would be decent and a good gauge of a successful single but Clay can thank his super strong following of internet savy fans who aren't satified with just "decent" for their powerhouse prince. You can bet this kind of reaction is going to continue as Clay's followers keep clamoring for more and more

CASHBOXMAGAZINE

[clayMaine-iac]

The top selling albums in Canada compiled from a national sample of retail store and mass merchants' reports collected, compiled, and provided by Nielsen SoundScan. 
 
8 OCTOBER, 2006 (FOR THE WEEK ENDING 12 OCTOBER, 2006)
Weeks on the Chart-- 2 Weeks Ago-- Last Week-- This Week-- Title-- Artist   ( Label )

3 6 12 27 THOUSAND DIFFERENT WAYS CLAY AIKEN   ( RCA )

JAM.CANOE

[clayMaine-iac]

Variety-pak of comments on comments

So we have some people contending that Clay's sales would be a lot higher if he had a single on the radio and others saying that Mario had a hit but didn't sell, so having a single on the radio doesn't matter. Can't have it both ways, but every artist's case is different, and I think in Clay's case it would help him out. That said, whatever you might believe about the buyability of radio airplay, it's not as if BMG can wave a magic wand and create a hit. I certainly don't think Without You has hit potential on top 40 radio, and I'm not sure anything on the album does, taking into consideration top 40 radio's general suspicion of Idols (Kelly's still the only artist who has been consistently embraced).

> The above-mentioned Mitli, by the way, raises another interesting point (and I quote at length): "Ken, I think you put too much importance on pop crossover. Ruben's Sorry didn't get pop airplay. See for yourself whether Sorry made it onto the pop airplay charts -- it didn't. Sorry only made the top 10 on the all-genre Hot 100 because it got so much play on urban and urban adult contemporary stations. Soulful sold almost 1.8 million albums anyway. I'd rather hear Ru sing raw R&B than crossover R&B pop garbage anyway. Pop just another niche that doesn't deserve to get more attention than country, R&B, rock, and other formats. Pop airplay can get more sales for people who do well there (unless they're Mario Vazquez!), but it isn't necessary. Just look at another Idol, Carrie Underwood.  3.5 million albums sold with no impact on pop stations."

Actually, Sorry 2004 did get a decent amount of airplay on the breed of top 40 stations known as "rhythmic," which are fewer in number than the pop-oriented "mainstream" top 40s but at least equal in number of listeners, because they tend to be concentrated in giant cities such as New York and Los Angeles. Sorry reached the top 10 on our all-format national radio airplay chart, which to me qualifies as a general-market hit, but I may be splitting hairs here.

More important, there's a really good point here, and I should clear up my stance on pop crossover. Certainly you can sell tons of albums without pop airplay, generally by doing well on R&B and country formats. It's much rarer to be able to sell records based primarily on airplay in the adult contemporary formats (where Clay and Taylor have been largely confined so far), although Clay had a broader-spectrum hit with Invisible), or adult R&B (home, for the most part, for Fantasia and Ruben) -- there just aren't enough adult R&B stations to make much of an impact, and the audience for AC stations is generally too old and too passive to actually buy records. Rock radio (which rarely plays Idols anyway, although Chris may be the best test case) is less influential than it used to be but can still help certain artists.

It all depends on the artist. For Ruben and Fantasia, if they can score mainstream R&B and maybe even rhythmic top 40 hits, they'll do fine and won't need pop crossovers. If they release ballads that only get played on adult R&B stations, their sales will probably be hurt. Carrie (and maybe Kellie) can sell big numbers based solely on country airplay and the fanbase. Chris, as I said, is going to be a fascinating case study. Taylor and Katharine would need big pop crossover hits to reach beyond their fanbases. And Clay, I'm afraid, is in that same boat.

USATODAYBLOGS

[clayMaine-iac]

TGIF!!! TGIF!! TGIF!! TGIF!! 
Hi news gang!!

Here ya go:

[lorraine]

GOOD FRIDAY THE 13TH EVERYONE AND HAPPY 33RD BIRTHDAY TO MY SON DANNY AS WELL.

DEANNA - I CAN'T DOWNLOAD THAT VIDEO SO HOPEFULLY IT CAN BE DONE ANOTHER WAY.

HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND MY NEWS BUDDYS AND WILL CHECK BACK LATER FOR UPDATES.

HUGS
RAINEY

[NCSandhillsDeb]

Good Morning everyone!!!!!

Thanks for all the news.  Will go back to try and download THAT video again, had trouble yesterday!!!!!!!

Have a most wonderful Clay day!!!!!!!!!!!

Debbie

[ANGELA]

GOOD MORNING DEANNA & ANN READERS  ,
DEANNA AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR BRINGING US THE NEWS.

I HOPE EVERYONE HAS A HAPPY & VERY LUCKY FRIDAY THE 13TH

ANGELA

[HavinaClayAffair]

Forgive me if this was posted before- I was on vacation and I have missed some days..but I have not seen this site before. I plan to sign up and sign ON>

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/music-reviews/Thousand-Different-Ways.html

A Thousand Different Ways
 


Sentimental ballads made for hopeful romantics.
Artist: Clay Aiken
Genre: Pop Label: RCA Parental Advisory: No Edited Version Available: No Release Date: 09/19/2006
 
It's quick and easy to pass on
this great info!

Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that there's nothing offensive in this collection of sentimental love ballads.
Families can talk about what happens physically, emotionally, and mentally when people fall in love. Why does falling in love make people want to listen to sappy music? How does it make what you've heard thousands of times/ways sound new and fresh?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Kathi Kamen Goldmark

On A THOUSAND DIFFERENT WAYS, Clay Aiken delivers covers of 14 romantic, sentimental, and mostly well-known love ballads. A CD like this requires a certain mood, as well as an absolute suspension of coolness. But Aiken does a beautiful job reinventing the love-ballad wheel.

For tweens in the throes of first love, Aiken's interpretations of songs made popular by Elton John ("Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word"), Bad English ("When I See You Smile"), Bryan Adams ("Everything I Do [I Do It for You]"), and Celine Dion ("Because You Loved Me") not only do justice to the material but often transcend the originals. He's a guy who seems to know what works -- and what his audience expects -- and plays it very safe in terms of content, style, and musicianship.

Are you a dreamy pre-adolescent fantasizing about your first future boyfriend? Aiken will say all the right things, always be adoring and faithful, and will never let you down. Are you a teenager in the throes of budding romance? Aiken will provide the soundtrack for that first, exquisite kiss. Parents of lovestruck kids have nothing to worry about in terms of lyrical content, which includes only the gentlest and subtlest innuendo.

If you are NOT in the required altered state of being in, or longing for, love, A Thousand Different Ways probably won't work for you. But for those who aren't afraid of sentiment, these are smooth, lovely offerings, sung with passion and integrity and produced with loving care. Leave your hip-hop attitude at the door, and enjoy the sentimental stylings of a talented musical interpreter.

Fans of this CD will also enjoy the original versions of the songs Aiken covers, especially ones by Celine Dion and Elton John, as well as Aiken's previous album, Measure of a Man.

This is on the right side of the screen. Looks like you can do this for movies, books etc.
Interesting!

Content 
CS adults kids
Sexual Content
Only the subtlest of innuendo.
   
Violence
Clay's a lover, not a fighter.
   
Language
   
Message
   
  Social Behavior
Clay presents himself as a loyal, perfect boyfriend.
   
  Commercialism
   
  Drug/Alcohol/Tobacco
Love is the only drug.
   
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Lora

[lolita]

Good Friday morning Deanna and friends.

Thanks for all the news.

lolita

[clayMaine-iac]

Here's a poll for you:

American Idol Poll

Who was your favorite runner-up?

Current results:

Justin 1%

Clay 20%

Diana 5%

Katherine 38%

1171 total votes

AMERICANIDOL.COM