Tidbits 4/3

• Charleston Post Courier - Quiana and co. to kick off Charleston, SC's Wando Riverfront Music Series -

  On Friday, Quiana Parler and Friends, featuring Dudley Birch, will kick off the series at Children's Park along the Wando River. This nine-piece band features male and female vocals with a three-piece horn section. A previous contestant on "American Idol," Parler has toured with Kelly Clarkson and Clay Aiken and has opened for a variety of well-known jazz and R&B artists.
  

• Idol mentions:
• NewWest -

  Year after year, the show keeps cranking out these manufactured pop stars who somehow seem to have an album in the can the day after they’ve won the title. Some, like Carrie Underwood, Clay Aiken and Kelly Clarkson, go on to have bona fide Successful Careers. Others, like Ruben Studdard and Taylor Hicks, don’t even make it to the second album before they’re dropped from their record labels like a crack pipe when the cops walk in.

• Knox News - article about Josh Gracin -

  Undoubtedly, Gracin's first CD was boosted by the power of "Idol," where he came in fourth place during the show's second season (the same season in which Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard became stars).
  

• CurlTV.com - Grand Forks, ND venue to host curling event -

  Affectionately known as “The Ralph”, the facility opened on October 5, 2001, and has played host to such events as the 2005 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, a tennis match between Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick and many concerts from artists such as Tim McGraw, Toby Keith, and Clay Aiken.

• Lycos PR - Clay #6 on this week's Lycos50
  

• Carolina On My Mind - news of the new album is spreading fast
  
• Clay - The Man - Clay finding his "way here"
  
• Something That Really Happened - Clay isn't the only Idol alum releasing new albums this spring
• Chexxxy's Pearls - AI contestant Carly Smithson sings "Here You Come Again", a song Clay covered on ATDW.