On finale eve, Idols of years past gather and compare notes

Every May as the world convenes in front of TV sets to choose our new pop despot, a certain college of cardinals gathers around the main stage. For the 80-some singers who have stood on the "Idol" stage before, finale time is like a giant family reunion, a time to reconnect with their comrades in arms, with whom one, two or six years ago they fought through a bloody season and toured the nation before being scattered to the four winds to seek their fates in the swirling tides of contemporary music.

On finals eve, the gathering place of this fabled fraternity was in a off-the-map basement on the opposite edge of downtown from the Nokia. On Monday night, the Edison bar was the scene of the most intimate of "Idol" conclaves as about two dozen Idols past gathered for a party thrown by Fox Radio to celebrate the finals.

Into a quiet alley, down a long stairwell, one found a cozy little gathering where Kimberley Locke and Bo Bice, Diana DiGarmo and Hayly Scarnato, Melinda Doolittle and Jason Castro hobnobbed with those few who have walked the lonely path of the American Idol. And talking with them, one gets a sense of the many directions a post-"Idol" career can go.

Catching up with Bo Bice

Bo Bice, “American Idol” Season 4 runner-up to Carrie Underwood, is fresh off the heels of a three week tour and enjoying life in Nashville with his wife and two young musically inclined sons, Aidan and Caleb.  Aidan, 3, “loves to play on his guitars and drums and he sings. He loves Rock Band -- he does ‘Slow Ride’ very well, he knows almost all the words.” And anytime Caleb, 8 months, “sees an instrument or somebody singing, he’s all over it.”

After trying to make it as a songwriter in Nashville “about a decade ago," Alabama-born Bice, 33, returned to make it his home, and it’s much better this time ‘round. The Bice family have been Nashville-based for four years now.

“It’s nice being here now and being able to really have my dreams come true — being able to write and produce music here," he said. "And then on top of everything else, it’s just a beautiful town here in the South.”

The long-haired former “Idol” started his own record label there, Sugar Money, and has a recording studio that keeps him busy in Music City. Still, Bice enjoys touring near and far — particularly when he’s able to play for the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq as he did last year with Stars for Stripes.