American Idol will premiere its eleventh season this spring, proving to be the cultural mainstay and aesthetic arbiter many likely doubted it would become. Despite having nothing to do with songwriting and everything to do with singing bland pop songs in tandem with stiff choreography, AI yielded a heavy influence on the first annual Alchemy Songwriting Competition that took place in early December in Conway, Arkansas.

Blackbird Academy, the arts-education nonprofit that sponsored the contest, reviewed over three hundred demo tapes, narrowing the applicants to a group of ten finalists. The showcase took place on the Hendrix College campus and was hosted by Becky Rogers, a disc jockey from local station B98.5. Rogers opened the competition by encouraging the small crowd to take out their phones, but not to turn them off: "If you're on Facebook, if you're on Twitter, let everyone know you're here. Take a picture of the crowd. We want it twice as big next year."

The competition followed the now-familiar AI format: The finalists performed and stayed onstage to receive constructive criticism from the judges. The panel of judges consisted of three men and two mustaches. Judge and season eight AI winner (and hometown favorite) Kris Allen was growing his mustache to support the Music Empowers Foundation started by judge Andy Davis, who hails from a pharmaceutical background. Rogers read a list of products credited to Davis: "Advil, Centrum, Chapstick, y'all use any of those?" The third judge was David Hodges, a producer and composer who has worked with AI graduates Carrie Underwood and Chris Daughtry and won a Grammy for his work with Kelly Clarkson.

Rogers presented Allen last, asking, "How many people were there when he was performing on center stage at the Verizon Arena?" by way of introduction. Approximately four people responded with applause. Allen looked humbled yet amused, or maybe it was just the mustache.

David Hodges, Kris Allen, and Andy Davis. Photo by Julie Ivey.

The first contestant was Andrew Landry, singing his original composition "Country Girl." Davis, wearing what appeared to be an Ed Hardy T-shirt, said that the song "makes me want to have a cigarette and a beer," but that he missed the Latin beat that was on the demo tape. Allen called the song "super chill," and then compared it to Iron & Wine; Landry, a country singer, appeared surprised and walked off stage.

The group Days of Old, from New York, plugged in their guitars next and told the crowd to stand up. The crowd, mostly seated on the floor, reluctantly complied, but refused to dance, preferring to awkwardly cross arms and tap feet arrhythmically. At one point, the barefooted guitarist rocked too violently and the stage separated, prompting him to ask no one in particular, "Should we fix that?" Allen said that the "song doesn't do a ton for me." Hodges compared the all-male band to The Vines and to the late-'90s, mostly female group Veruca Salt. Davis liked the song and thought it was radio-friendly because the lyrics weren't "overly ambitious."

The subsequent contestants elicited both praise and mild scorn from the judges. Allen likened contestant Adam Hambrick's vibe to that of a "sissy pants," while conceding, "But girls buy records, so that's cool." Hambrick, innocuous and slightly pudgy in jeans and a plaid button-down, sang about his unwavering loyalty to his wife, a sentiment that elicited coos from the female audience members, one who mouthed, "He is so cute," to her neighbor. Not looking a day over twenty-four, he promised that he would never trade in his wife, likely also to be in her early twenties, for a hotter, younger version—presumably meaning a tween to whom this song will most likely appeal.

"I Would Never" by Adam Hambrick.

If Hambrick's religiosity was obvious, then Conway-native David Wingfield's was explicit. It also packed the house: The crowd who reluctantly obeyed Days of Old's prompt to stand needed no prodding as Wingfield and his band took the stage. His song, "Downpour," turned the hall into a contemporary church service for its duration, which also included a gentle instrumental interlude into which one might imagine Wingfield praying aloud on behalf of all. He refrained, but Allen, as if to reward him for his restraint said, "I really felt something in that, man."

Of Canadian finalist Edward O'Neil, wearing shutter shades and a trucker hat, Allen praised his "I'm from Canada" vibe, which he called "really cool." (Hodges wanted more of a Cobra Starship-feel—the band behind "Good Girls Go Bad" and "Hot Mess"—from O'Neil.) Before Jonathon Lindsey (of Little Rock) took the stage, Allen pantomimed throwing water on the crowd seated below the judges' table, perhaps hinting at his frustration with the overall tepid response of the audience over the course of the evening. He called Lindsey's composition "drone-y" and twice used the phrase "it is what it is" to describe the song.

The only all-girl group of the evening, sisters Bettina and Phillipa Cassar, flew in from the small European archipelago of Malta. The girls, pretty and well dressed, sang a peculiarly syncopated song about boys, employing the American names "Tom, Dick, and Harry" in their confusing but creative lyrics. The originality of composition and tempos, and perhaps the accented speech, derailed the judges. Davis called the song "disjointed. I had to work to listen to this song." Allen agreed that the song needed to be more accessible and catchy, but offered "I love the idea of you as a band." The sisters smiled and giggled through the critiques, evidence of either an unshakeable good-naturedness or an impenetrable language barrier.

Bettina and Phillipa Cassar performing "Tom, Dick, and Harry." Photo by Julie Ivey.

Besides the Canadian, the adorable Maltese sisters, and the New York jam band, the rest of the finalists were from Arkansas. David Pierce, of Hot Springs, performed a power ballad about an Arkansas couple who get married and grow old together, realizing that life isn't as exciting or happy as they hoped it would be along the way. "God, I'm glad I live in New York and not in the Midwest," said Hodges.

At the end of the night, after all the finalists had performed and endured the panel's remarks, the winners were announced. Despite the discouraging words from the judges, the Cassar sisters won in the under-seventeen category; they seemed genuinely shocked and exceedingly grateful to have something to bring home from Arkansas. Adam Hambrick, the unassuming heartthrob, was the overall winner. And Days of Old, the diminutive rock band from New York, was declared the winner of the adult category, for a song about which Allen earlier had said, in a rare moment of clarity, "I don't know if I want to listen to it, like, again."

Kris Allen, Adam Hambrick, David Hodges, Andy Davis, and Blackbird founder Jennie Strange. Photo by Julie Ivey.