This report comes from Casey Henry, a banjo player and writer living in Nashville, TN. She performed the past few years with her brother, Chris, in The Two Stringers, now disbanded.

We’re getting down to the final stretch on Next Great American Band. I’m happy to report that the Clark Brothers made it into the top four. Their competition now is Sixwire a country band from Nashville, TN; Denver and the Mile High Orchestra, a big band also from Nashville; and Light of Doom, a group of 12 and 13-year-olds from California who play hard rock.

This week the Clarks added two musicians—a drummer and a bass player (not other Clark brothers, though). This allowed them some more freedom to be the front people and stretch out but didn’t really change their overall sound. They played Queen’s These are The Days of our Lives and the original Homestead.

The judges all loved the cover and Dicko deemed Ashley “The best front person we’ve got in this competition.” He was harder on the original, calling it a “crap song” with lyrics that are “country 101,” and encouraging them to push themselves lyrically. He said one of their strong points is connecting with and conveying the emotions in a song and with lyrics like “Back to the farm/back to the farm/eatin’ fried chicken with the girls in the yard” there is not any emotional content there to build on.

I predict that it will be down to Sixwire and the Clarks in a couple weeks. Of course it all depends on the voting public, so tune in next Friday to Fox and get your thumbs ready to dial!