{"id":1030,"date":"2010-01-12T23:03:06","date_gmt":"2010-01-12T23:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gospelsoundcheck\/2010\/01\/american-idol-season-9-boston-1.html"},"modified":"2010-01-12T23:03:06","modified_gmt":"2010-01-12T23:03:06","slug":"american-idol-season-9-boston-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2010\/01\/american-idol-season-9-boston-1.html","title":{"rendered":"American Idol Season 9 Boston audition standouts – Leah Laurenti, Tyler Grady, Ashley Rodrieguez, Katie Stevens, Justin Williams & more"},"content":{"rendered":"

I blogged live during tonight’s premiere of Season 9 of American Idol, but if you don’t want to read the play-by-play, here’s a quick recap of some of the Boston auditions standouts and some extra info I dug up on a few of the contestants who made it through the Boston auditions (I’ll add more as I get information):<\/p>\n


\nMaddy Curtis<\/strong> – a 16 year old with a great voice; 9th of 12 kids; has on brother with Downs Syndrome and her family adopted three more.
\nAshley Makailah Rodrieguez <\/strong>– 21 year old student from Boston, MA; full scholarship to Berklee College of Music; toured with the gospel group Overjoyed; Ashley Rodriguez’s MySpace page <\/a>
\nTyler Grady <\/strong>– 19 year old college student and drummer for the Nazareth, PA based pop\/synth rock band Wailing Waters; Grady shattered both wrists when he fell from a tree. .<\/a> Become a fan at Facebook<\/a> or listen to some of their music on the band’s MySpace page.<\/a>
\nJess Wolfe <\/strong> Brooklyn, NY singer who auditioned with “People Get Ready”; in the band Lucius; link to Jess Wolfe’s MySpace page<\/a> or the site for her band, Lucius.<\/a>
\nKatie Stevens<\/strong> – 16 year old from Middlebury CT singing for her grandmother, who has Alzheimers. Katie, who is 16, says, “I want her to see me succeed before she forgets who I am.”; Katie was named the Westbury CT’s 2009 Outstanding Teen<\/a>
\nJustin Williams<\/strong> – 27 year old singer from Sandy, UT; diagnosed with cancer seven years ago while on mission in Spain; won the John Lennon Songwriting Competition; performed at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas as the winner of the national talent competition; Justin Williams at ReverbNation.com. <\/a>
\nBosa Mora –<\/strong> 22 year old from Columbus, OH; his parents are natives of Nigeria who met while attending school in the US; on Bosa Mora’s MySpace page <\/a>is this quote: “I was once told that emotion is the currency of music, and if I cannot make music that can inspire you to smile, sympathize with you when your hurting, or calm you when you worried; my work is of no value.”
\nLeah Laurenti <\/strong>– 24 year old from Medford, NY; says she grew up in church and didn’t listen to mainstream music; you can follow Leah Laurenti on Twitter <\/a>or join her “Leah Laurenti for American Idol” fan page on Facebook.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I blogged live during tonight’s premiere of Season 9 of American Idol, but if you don’t want to read the play-by-play, here’s a quick recap of some of the Boston auditions standouts and some extra info I dug up on a few of the contestants who made it through the Boston auditions (I’ll add more…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-idol"],"yoast_head":"\nAmerican Idol Season 9 Boston audition standouts - Leah Laurenti, Tyler Grady, Ashley Rodrieguez, Katie Stevens, Justin Williams & more - Gospel Soundcheck<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2010\/01\/american-idol-season-9-boston-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"American Idol Season 9 Boston audition standouts - Leah Laurenti, Tyler Grady, Ashley Rodrieguez, Katie Stevens, Justin Williams & more - Gospel Soundcheck\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I blogged live during tonight’s premiere of Season 9 of American Idol, but if you don’t want to read the play-by-play, here’s a quick recap of some of the Boston auditions standouts and some extra info I dug up on a few of the contestants who made it through the Boston auditions (I’ll add more…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2010\/01\/american-idol-season-9-boston-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gospel Soundcheck\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-01-12T23:03:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joanne Brokaw\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"American Idol Season 9 Boston audition standouts - Leah Laurenti, Tyler Grady, Ashley Rodrieguez, Katie Stevens, Justin Williams & more - 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