Dacula Resident Through to Hollywood on 'American Idol'

DACULA, GA -- An 18-year-old Dacula resident is on his way to Hollywood after wowing the judges with a low-and-lonesome performance on ”American Idol.”

Josiah Siska, a golf-course maintenance worker, performed an acoustic version of “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky,” a 1948 country and western standard best known to modern audiences via Johnny Cash’s 1979 recording.

“That’s just cool,” judge Harry Connick Jr. said. “We’ve never heard anything like that.”

In fact, Connick joined Siska onstage halfway through his Atlanta audition, adding some hand-clap and leg-slap percussion and sound effects including a whip crack and horse whinny, almost cracking Josiah up in the process.

His booming baritone got three “yes” votes from Connick, Jennifer Lopez and Keith Urban, sending him to the next round in the final season of the Fox network’s singing competition.