The 21-year old Midtown mom killed it on American Idol tonight with her version of Aretha Franklin’s “Never Loved A Man.”

Even Simon Cowell was impressed, comparing Grace to Kelly Clarkson and calling her
a potential “dark horse in this competition.”

CA arts critic Christopher Blank caught up with the singer for an interview that appeared in today’s newspaper.

Said Grace, “My dad is a Memphis musician. I’ve been around soul and blues all my life. There’s always been musicians coming and going in my house. Ann Peebles is a big influence of mine. You know, and Stax records from back in the ’60s. I love that era. As far as my style, I’d say it is soul and a little bit of country in there too. A little twang.”

Go here for the rest of the interview.

Meanwhile, the Memphis Music Foundation is mounting a “Vote for Memphis Music” campaign to support Grace and Lil Rounds, another local American Idol finalist who is slated to appear on live TV later this week.

The Fox TV program is shining a light on Memphis in other ways: 28-year old Jackie Tohn opened tonight’s broadcast with her version of Elvis’ “A Little Less Conversation”, while 22-year old Nashville resident Ann Marie Boskovich weighed in with a take on Aretha’s “Natural Woman.”

Yesterday afternoon, someone left a bicycle chained outside Terminal C of the Memphis International Airport. No biggie, except whoever found the bike was unfamiliar with a Pensacola, Florida hardcore band called “This Bike is a Pipe Bomb” — and, seeing a sticker for the group on the 2-wheeler, they panicked, and the airport was closed.

As CA staffer Jody Callahan reported, “bomb-sniffing dogs ruled out any explosives, and the airport was reopened. The owner of the bike was taken into custody, but later released.”

Less than 3 years ago, a similar misunderstanding occurred, when another bike with the same sticker was discovered on the campus of St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.

Fox News contacted This Bike is a Pipe Bomb’s lead singer Ryan Modee.

Modee said he heard about the confusion over the sticker affixed to a bike at Memphis International Airport just before speaking to FOX13 News Tuesday.

“I was at work and just kind of freaked out,” he said. “I was like ‘Oh God, not again. How could this be happening?’”

The incident happened when officials say an airport police officer found a bike chained outside Terminal C with the sticker on it. Police detained and searched the bike’s owner before releasing him.

“It’s just really sad,” said Modee. “It seems like it’s costing a lot of money and making them more scared.”

But Modee said this wasn’t the first time the name of his band has caused an alarm. In 2001 and 2006, similar incidents occurred in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.

“They ripped this guy’s bike to shreds with the jaws of life,” he said. “The fire department, SWAT team came from 40 miles away, shut the school down for a while. It was a big mess.”

The folk-punk band came together 13 years ago and the band name came about because of their passion for riding bikes together.

But Modee said while he thinks the commotion is a big waste of money for tax payers, he advises people to think about where the sticker is before they go show their support in some public places.

“This is a weird society we live in,” he said. “It’s not like it was 12 years ago. If you’re going to…go to the court room or if you’re going to go to the airport, just cover it up. Take it off and we’ll send you a new one.”

While no charges have been filed against the man involved in Monday night’s incident at the airport, Modee said since the problems with the stickers have started they have not been contacted by either local state or federal authorities. But he did say the band played a show in Ohio after the incident at Ohio University.

According to yesterday’s CA crime report, police are trying to sort out the details of a disagreement early Monday that led to gunfire and car wrecks at Lamar and Winchester, the site of SE Memphis club Cactus Jack’s.Reports CA staffer Hank Dudding, “Nobody was seriously injured.”

Three men, two of them brothers, got into a dispute at Cactus Jack’s nightclub, which carried over to the parking lot sometime before 5 a.m., police said.One man, age 29, fired at least one shot at the brothers, ages 24 and 20. Then all three men got into vehicles and wrecked into each other, police said.Charges are expected against the 29-year-old man.

According to GQ Magazine, that is! According to this post from RadarOnline.com, “the 28 year-old singer was quoted in the mag as being inspired to take chances by Kate Moss, who ‘could put a barrel on and it would be some sort of statement.’”

Other entertainers who made the list include Kanye West, T.I. and Jason Schwartzman.

RadarOnline.com also reports that Monday night, Timberlake made an appearance at the Fashion Week tents at NYC’s Bryant Park:

RadarOnline.com has learned that Justin was quickly escorted through the tents, past the Tenjune tent bar without even stopping for a cocktail, and into the backstage of
the show for his clothing line, William Rast. We are told he did, however, wave to the fellow fashionistas by the bar before security “whipped” him away. He is a smooth operator- be it by choice, or security!

The 2009 Folk Alliance Conference starts tomorrow at 11 a.m.  If you’ve never attended the conference, which will be held at the Downtown Marriott Hotel, it’s well worth the $250 per day (or $750 for all 5 days) admission — hundreds of musicians, including John Sebastian, Rodney Crowell, Kathy Mattea, Charlie Louvin, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Albert Lee, Lucy Wainwright Roche, and Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey, are scheduled to play. 

Go here to read CA writer Bob Mehr’s interview with performer/keynote speaker Roger McGuinn — pictured above with his 1960s-era group the Byrds. And go here to read my interview with 17-year old Pennsylvanian Brittany Ann Tranbaugh, who will be traveling more than 1,000 miles to appear at the event.  

While this is an international conference, with musicians from all over the world networking and performing, there’s plenty of Memphis in the mix, including: 

1. Screenings of the Memphis jug band documentary Chasin’ Gus’ Ghost, slated for tomorrow at 3 p.m. and Thursday at 2 p.m. 

2. An open mic set hosted by the Memphis Songwriters Association.

3. The Kids Show, on Thursday at 11:30 a.m., with Memphis host Darin Hillis and a performance from Valerie June and Jason Freeman.

4. An interview with legendary musician — and former Memphian — Charlie Louvin on Thursday afternoon.   

5. An interview with onetime Elvis sideman, guitarist James Burton, on Friday afternoon. 

Also: panel discussions with the likes of new Memphis Music Commission head Johnnie Walker; Memphis International record label owners David Less and Bob Merlis; producers Jim Dickinson,  Jeff Powell, and Scott Bomar; Oxford attorney Tom Freeland,  and performances from Valencia Robinson, Nancy Apple, Valerie June, Jimmy Davis, Blair Combest, Jed Zimmerman, Deering and Down, Holly Cole, Caleb Sweazy, William Lee Ellis, Cory Branan, Susan Marshall, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Dan Montgomery, Andy Cohen, and more. 

In conjunction with the conference, The Folk Alliance will also present a number of concerts and events that will be open to the public at various venues around town.

The Center for Southern Folklore will host a free performance by Stacey Earle & Mark Stuart with special guests Act of Congress and Deering & Down on Feb. 20. On Feb. 21, the Center will welcome The Ebony Hillbillies along with Valerie June and Andy Cohen. Both shows start at 8 p.m. 

The Hi-Tone Café offers a pair of shows starting with a Feb. 20 bill featuring the Duhks, Hoots and Hellmouth and 2 Mule Plow. The following evening, Small Faces legend Ian McLagan brings his Bump Band in for a concert. The bill will also include a performance by Jack Oblivian & the Tearjerkers. 

On Feb. 21 at 3 p.m., Ardent Studios will host a creativity workshop featuring banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck and drummer Amir “?uestlove” Thompson of hip-hop band The Roots. The event is free. For more information, call 725-0855.

My apologies to everyone who emailed me news last week — the CA blogs were down temporarily while they were relocated to a new server, and I didn’t get the memo! Everything is back to normal now — hope you had a good Valentine’s Day in the meantime. 

Last Aug. 10, Isaac Hayes died of a heart attack inside his house at 9280 Riveredge Drive, in Cordova. Now, the 7,205-square-foot home, built in 1996 and purchased by Hayes for $1.35 million in 2002, has been foreclosed upon and is due to be sold, according to this article in today’s CA. The Black Moses had bankruptcy issues since the early 1970s, when the crash at Stax nearly destroyed him. Too bad the money issues are still occurring after his death — and causing problems for his last wife, Adjowa, and their 2-year-old son, Nana Kwadjo.

Just before the Midtown-based metal trio, led by brothers Rob Evil and Michael Murder, was due to leave town for a coast-to-coast U.S. tour headlined by Down, a supergroup of southern hard rock icons including Phil Anselmo (Pantera, Superjoint Ritual, Arson Anthem, etc), Kirk Windstein (Crowbar, Kingdom of Sorrow), Rex Brown (Pantera), Pepper Keenan (Corrosion Of Conformity), and Jimmy Bower (eyehategod), the entire tour was canceled, according to this Brooklyn Vegan blog post.

And today, it was posted on the Goner Records message board that Evil Army bassist Matt “Bones” Brown (pictured above) has died of an overdose. The funeral will be held in Brown’s hometown of Oakland, TN on Saturday. R.I.P., Matt. You will be missed.

Filmmaker Craig Brewer’s got his own YouTube channelBrewerTube, where he talks about music, film, and other cool Memphis stuff. On the latest episode, Brewer waxes poetics about Robert Gordon’s It Came from Memphis and Jerry “the King” Lawler; in previous installations, he discusses bar-b-que, Jason Freeman, and more.

Guerilla-style, right behind Paris Hilton — gotta love it!