Top Two! Kree and Candice! It all comes down to this - as Ryan said, country versus soul - will the country folk come out to vote like they did for Scotty back in the day? Or will Candice tear the roof off the mutha?

Three Songs, so let's get started. All my comments, as always, are composed prior to hearing any of the judges' thoughts... We begin with AI creator Simon Fuller's picks:

Kree: "Angel" - well, they countrified it for sure, but so far it lacks punch. And then it ended. It was beautiful, no doubt, and she could pull it off on a new single, but in general, this lacked something for me.

Candice: "Chasing Pavements" - Another good pick for her voice, and the arrangement has more groove, or at least a different one, than the original. This is one of those songs that is much harder to accomplish than it sounds like. And after the second chorus, she hits a nice run that gives her a boost. Why didn't Kree go for one on Angel?

First round goes to CANDICE.

Next is the Contestant's Single.

Kree: "All Cried Out" - This might be the best written song for a contestant since "A Moment Like This" - a song that fits her, fits country, makes us think about her life story - and she did okay with it - the high notes weren't the best she's ever done with them, but I thought it was strong.

Candice: "I Am Beautiful" - Well, I am less impressed with this song. She does really well, and the "pronoun pop" lets those of us who are inclined to think so think that it may be about God. Sure sounds like the song that will be playing when all the confetti falls though.

Second round goes to KREE.

Now we hear their favorite song from previous weeks:

Kree: "Up To The Mountain" - great pick for her to take this rendition and blow it out. I really love her voice. She shied away from this kind of "run" song for so many weeks, it's great to hear her go for it - she really can - her best performance of the night by far. This is getting good.

Candice: "I Who Have Nothing" - Killer. The best song from that crazy Bacharach week - she is killing it. Gonna be hard to top that performance. Wow. It's fascinating, because I don't think I've seen someone so aggressive while maintaining so much control over her body, while still not seeming in any way disconnected. Think of someone like fantasia singing that - if she tried to match those runs she would have to look like a crazy person doing it - meanwhile Candice just holds her ground and kicks it in the rear.

Round three and likely the champion: CANDICE.

Agree? Disagree? Who did you vote for?

It's the top three, and all the girls have gone to their hometowns, which apparently is a pretty big deal after all these years. Each of them get 3 songs each, and they are picked by different people on the panel, Jimmy Iovine, etc... Should be great!

Jimmy Iovine's Picks:
Kree: "Perfect" - This was a good idea, because Kree does have killer pipes, and she can handle a Pink song for sure. By the time it got to the double chorus though, it was lacking in emotion - it seemed difficult for her to interpret the song in a convincing way. What is the visceral connection for her? Hard to tell?

Candice: "One" - This is a much smarter pick, because of course, Mary J. Blige has already covered this song, so it's already got a map. (now that I think about it, why didn't they adjust the arrangement of Kree's Pink song to fit her style? But I digress) She did fairly well, but in some of the blasting places, her voice seemed nervous, and actually a bit off key. Great overall from a presence and prowess standpoint, but if they play it back they'll hear some flaws.

Angie: "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word" - If I were Kree I'd be really frustrated by how this first round went- had to go first, and didn't get as good a pick as the other two ladies - at least, not in the execution. This was wonderful, I love this song, and I thought the arrangement was beautiful and totally fit Angie's voice and attack. My only problem with it was that because of the lyric content and how dolled up she was, it kind of had a "pretty girl getting soooo mistreated" vibe - you know, when beautiful people complain about how hard life is for them because their scone fell on the floor. "I'm so sad, it's a sad situation, but also I'm clearly in heaven and probably an angel." That kind of thing.

Judges' Picks:

Candice: "Next To Me" - This was not my favorite pick necessarily, and again she started to go sharp a bit towards the end. It wasn't horrible, and she's certainly still amazing, but... just seemed like a lot a nuthin.

Angie: "Try" -  This is good, I actually do like her performance with more aggressive music - and she fits well with a band. I liked it a lot. Much better than Candice this round for sure.

Kree: "Here Comes Goodbye" - She has a voice that was born to tell stories. It's so much more than just being about country music, certainly not the style, but maybe the writing. That verse, setting up the story, just completely was captivating in ways that the pop music writing just doesn't explore, and as a result, she has more trouble owning. Now that being said, they placed it too high in her register, and when she tried to belt those notes in the first chorus, I don't think it worked. But her video piece + this song = memorable.

Idol Production Picks:

Angie: "Maybe" - I give her credit for playing the piano on her final song, and not trying to play piano for an Elton John song. This was pretty good. Not really a huge fan of the song itself, because it kinda turns her into a whiner. But she still sold it.

Kree: "Better Dig Two" - This performance is great, though I think the song suffers from the lack of meaningful content compared to her second song with the video. She did great, but needed just a little more fire in the eyes to pull this off completely.

Candice: "Somewhere" - now that's a curve ball if I've ever seen one. But of all the judges picks, this was the one that worked. This was like Beyonce singing "At Last" - a timeless song performed timelessly, while also kicking tail on every single note, not missing a single opportunity to nail it. Boom.

Random Notes:
Candice - dropping some knowledge and slamming last week's Amber moment by talking about how she looks at the lyrics first to figure out what the song is saying - FIRST. Boom.
Please tell me that's a Microphone on Mariah, and also tell me to stop looking at it...
Mariah proved my point that Candice's 2nd performance was lackluster by comparison, because she spent her whole time reacting to the video. As did Nicki, but Nicki reacted to it with a whole lot of genuine emotion and it was a very nice moment. Which got ruined the second Randy opened his mouth...
Randy just said "Koodoos to us." Huh? That's not a thing, Randy.

Until that last song, I though Kree might have had a chance, but at this point, I think that Angie and Candice are in the finals. The only reason that Kree would pass up Candice would be because Texas is a really big state and probably has a lot of voters who call Kree their own. At the end of the day, Boston and Texas are bigger than both Carolinas.

What do you think?

Hey friends! Remember how last week there were four finalists left? Well, Ryan must have known that Kristi and I were in Orlando last week, because he didn't send anyone home. So now it's this week, and I forgot to tell Ryan that last night I had tickets to the Cubs game. Apparently I also forgot to tell some friends on Facebook, because they wanted to know where the heck my blog posts had gone!

So to my friends who were looking for my responses, well, what can I say. I'm humbled and flattered. And even though this and last week has truly proven that for me and my house, American Idol is not the "must see TV" that it once was, it still holds a special place in my heart - like the weird guy who used to work at the Blockbuster, and you wonder to yourself, "what is that guy doing nowadays since there's no way he fits inside a redbox?" ...What was I saying?

Oh yes, the final four - the ladies got quite the reprieve last week - Candice was clearly rocked by being in the bottom two. Will she come to play or will she fade away? Here's my take on last night's proceedings, and as always, I say what I say before I've heard anyone else say anything else. And away we go!

Themes for tonight: Songs from 2013, and "standards." Harry Connick Jr. is the mentor.

Angie: "Diamonds" - Loved the interplay between her and Harry. I liked everything about this arrangement except for the unnecessary background vocals. She knew just when she had to ratchet it up and belt some awesome notes to transform this from a dance hit with a predictable melody to something with emotion that told a story. Well played, Angie. See you next week.

Amber: "Just Give Me a Reason" - I really wonder what the disconnect is between her and the voters - because this girl can saaang. I wasn't a huge fan of this song, when it picked up tempo and energy it just kinda got off running and couldn't catch up. She wails, but will it be enough?

Candice: "When I Was Your Man" - She's doing okay, but until the bridge, she hadn't really committed to the moment. It worked, mainly because the word "man" only shows up once at the end of each chorus, and by that point, she's wailing to the point that you almost can't hear what word she's using. This had the kind of emotion needed to get back in the race.

Kree: "See You Again" - Apparently Kree is after the one ring to rule them all... I think that she did a really good job, but I also think that the difference between this arrangement and the power that she held in that room with Harry when it was just her and a piano was significant. She did do very well, but I think she got lost in the arrangement a bit.

Angie: "Someone to Watch Over Me" - Well it isn't fair, this is one of our favorites (wedding song and all that) - loved it, probably her most successful apart from the piano. That being said, i didn't like how rushed the bridge was, and that orchestral run that was so aggressive made no sense to me. Keep it simple! The last chord progression on the final note, too, was totally unnecessary.

Amber: "My Funny Valentine" - Well isn't that interesting, one of her more memorable previous performances, and it turns out that she didn't really know what she was singing about - kudos to Harry for a firm but graceful probing of her interpretation to get her to be better and not run on auto-pilot. Oh and also she was born to sing this song for all times please I only want her to ever sing this song lordy lordy.

Candice: "You've Changed" - I don't have much to say about this one - it was really good, she's really good. Not sure if she was able to sustain the storytelling for the whole time, but it was simultaneously sad, sultry and fantastic.

Kree: "Stormy Weather" - Well, she certainly didn't take Harry's advice, which made her face seem like she felt guilty, instead of seeming like she was deep in the lyrics. If she wasn't in the top two last week I would say that she was in trouble.

We're just all going to pretend that the group number at the end didn't happen. Like at all.

Random Thoughts: Okay, ultimately, Harry was right with regards to standards - you have to know the melody first, you have to know the song, what it means. The fact that Harry's mentoring shocked the girls into stagnation and challenged every fabric of their interpretation points more to the fact that prior to this point, they have not been given challenging training or preparation - what Harry was saying should not have been shocking or revolutionary - it should have been an addendum to things that should have already been a part of the experience of American Idol. If anything, the fact that Amber was able to kill it in previous weeks with a song she didn't even come close to understanding, is a huge indictment on the judges and the process that is so easily rocked by a Harry Connick Jr. saying the radical statement that someone should know what the heck they're singing. And I loved that they gave Harry a chance to defend himself and put that poser Randy Jackson in his place.

So who's going home? I think it's Amber - while she did very well, if she wasn't getting the votes last week, there wasn't anything about tonight that pushed her past anyone. They are all very good, and someone has to go home.