Farmer's Daughter is the debut album of American Idol season nine runner-up Crystal Bowersox.

Background

After placing second on Idol, Crystal was signed to a deal with Jive Records and RCA's sister record company 19 Entertainment. Originally, Crystal wanted to delay the release of the album until early 2011, but ended up moving the release date to December 14.http She is also to cover the Buffalo Springfield song "For What It's Worth," stating "its lyrics are relevant no matter what era it is, whatever war we're in and issues in the world," she said. "The song is always relevant." It was revealed that Chad Szeliga, who is well known for his drumming for bands such as Breaking Benjamin and OurAfter, has contributed drum tracks to the songs "Arlene", "Finally Got It Right" and "Hold On" which was written by Nickelback's Chad Kroeger.

The song "Holy Toledo" was played during Idol when she returned home. This is the first time an Idol contestant's own song was played during the show before their departure.http

Singles

"Farmer's Daughter" was released as the first single on December 13, 2010. "Hold On" was supposed to be the first single, but was switched to "Farmer's Daughter." The music video for "Farmer's Daughter" premiered on her website on December 16, 2010.http

Reception

Critical reception

The album received mixed to positive reviews. Allmusic gave the album 2.5 stars out of 5. Joey Guerra of the Houston Chronicle said the album "failed to live up to Idol hype."http Allison Stewart of Washington Post called Crystal an "anti-Carrie Underwood."http Metacritic gave the album 63 out of 100 based on six critical reviews.http

Commercial success

In the United States, the album debuted at #28 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 58,000 copieshttp and as of March 16, 2011 has sold 170,000 copies.http

In Canada, the album debuted at #90 on the Canadian Albums Chart.http

Charts

Chart positions

Sales

References

Category:2010 albums

Category:Jive Records albums

Category:American Idol albums

Category:Debut albums

Category:Crystal Bowersox albums

Artist/Band Information

Crystal Lynn Bowersox (born August 4, 1985) is an American singer-songwriter from Elliston, Ohio, who was the runner-up on the ninth season of American Idol. Bowersox's debut album, Farmer's Daughter, was released on December 14, 2010 under Jive Records.

Early life

Bowersox was born in Elliston, Ohio. Chicago Tribune. April 29, 2010. Retrieved May 8, 2010. along with her twin brother, Carl.

Crystal attended Oak Harbor High School in Oak Harbor, Ohio, and later attended the Toledo School for the Arts in Toledo, Ohio. She recently announced that she has type 1 diabetes and after her Idol career, she wants to bring more awareness to the disease.

Crystal performed her first professional gig at the age of 10. From local bars in Toledo, Ohio, most popularly Papa's Tavern, and The Village Idiot in Maumee, OH. At the age of 17, she moved to Chicago looking for opportunity. She most commonly played as a busker at several train stations, including the Washington and Lake Redline stops. She frequented open mics, such as the Uncommon Ground Clark and Grace, and Devon locations. She also played extensively in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood. In 2006, Chicago's department of cultural affairs chose Crystal to represent Chicago folk musicians, for the Sister Cities program, "Experience Chicago", held in Birmingham, UK. In 2007, Crystal Traveled internationally on an independent small cafe tour, including Memphis, TN, Oxaca MX, Ankara, and Istanbul, Turkey.

American Idol

Bowersox auditioned for American Idol in Chicago, Illinois. She sang "Piece of My Heart." Guest judge Shania Twain commented that she had a "raw, natural talent."

On March 2, 2010 Bowersox was hospitalized because of complications from diabetes, forcing a last minute switch in scheduling to give her extra time to recuperate. Bowersox confirmed the illness on the May 19, 2010 results show during an interview with host Ryan Seacrest. The men competed that day instead of the women. She sang the next day and impressed all of the judges.

The following week, her strong performance prompted Simon Cowell to state, "Right now, you are the one everyone has to beat."

After Siobhan Magnus's elimination from the top 6 of American Idol, Bowersox became the last remaining female contestant in the competition.

Bowersox is the first female contestant to make it to the finale since Jordin Sparks won the title in 2007. Crystal is also the first contestant in American Idol history to have one of their original songs played on the show, or at least during their hometown package.. May 22, 2010. Retrieved May 24, 2010. Crystal's original song "Holy Toledo" was played on the May 19th Top 3 Results show as the background music for her homecoming package - when she returned to Toledo, Ohio and Elliston, Ohio the previous weekend - and segued into her live performance of the same song at "Bowerstock."

During her time on Idol, Bowersox dated Tony Kusian, but the couple broke up just hours before the Idol finale.

On the final performance day, in Simon Cowell's final critique on American Idol, he called her performance of "Up to the Mountain" "outstanding" and by far, "the best performance and song of the night".

On May 26, Bowersox was named the runner-up to winner Lee DeWyze.

Performances

* Due to the judges using their one save to save Michael Lynche, the Top 9 remained intact for another week.

* Though Crystal Bowersox was the last contestant announced to be 'safe' and moving on to the Top 3, Ryan Seacrest stressed on the Top 4 Results Night that the 'safe' contestants would be announced "in no particular order.". May 13, 2010. Retrieved May 13, 2010. Thus, the audience has no way of knowing which of the Top 3 was the second-lowest vote-getter that night after Michael Lynche, who was eliminated.

* Song selected by Ellen DeGeneres.

Post-Idol career

On May 27, 2010, one day after Bowersox was announced the runner-up, it was announced that she had signed with Simon Fuller's 19 Entertainment and with Jive Records. May 28, 2010 Her single "Up to the Mountain" has since been released to radio stations and iTunes.

Bowersox and musician Brian Walker were married on October 10, 2010, at Uncommon Ground Café in Chicago, the restaurant where the couple had met 6 years earlier while both performing at Open Mic Night.

Bowersox's debut album Farmer's Daughter was released to stores and iTunes on December 14, 2010. Bowersox performed her single "Farmer's Daughter" on The Ellen Degeneres Show on December 16, 2010.

Discography

*2010: Farmer's Daughter

Awards and nominations

References