Check this out. Taylor Hicks, the grey-haired singer who is my favorite contestant so far this season on American Idol, released a CD earlier this month. It's not in wide circulation. In fact, I don't think he even has a recording deal of any kind, it appears he just made the album on his own. It's called Under the Radar. Heh. Not any more, pal.

The NPR station in Homewood, Alabama has downloads of three of his original songs and also an interview with Taylor that includes some of his music. It's all pretty terrific, actually. Since it's a mixture of Blues and Soul music, now I'm a little concerned about how well Taylor is going to do on disco night.

*A lot of you have asked how to buy the album. Go here. (beware: the website is super slow because so many people want the album!) I am trying to verify the phone number listed in comments but so far I'm only getting a busy signal.

[Via Pop Candy]