'Idol' finalist can't wait to reveal her own songs

[May 24, 2010]  ELLISTON, Ohio (AP) -- "American Idol" finalist Crystal Bowersox has had one constant by her side to make sense of the world. She calls her guitar her comfort blanket.

The 24-year-old singer first started playing after finding her mom's six-string while snooping for Christmas presents when she was just 10-years-old in Ohio.

It's been with her in smoky dive bars in her hometown near Toledo and when she was playing in Chicago's subway stations.

"Idol" watchers know about her raw vocals -- which evoke Janis Joplin and Melissa Etheridge -- but few have discovered her songwriting.

So far, producers of the singing competition have resisted her pleas to play one of her originals. She's still hoping to sing one of her own songs in the show's finale Tuesday night.

[Associated Press; By JOHN SEEWER]

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