NBC’s The Voice Season 14 has just started, and Monday’s (Feb. 26) debut had a showstopping ending: Coach Blake Shelton was blocked from turning around for the night’s star performer, Texas country singer Justin Kilgore. Seeing as Shelton had already been fighting tooth and nail with fellow coach Kelly Clarkson—who neatly scooped up Kilgore—this was a bitter pill to swallow.
Shelton found his vindication, however, on Tuesday night. Although he missed out on most of the night’s performers (three of his choices went to other coaches), he won out by scoring Pryor Baird, a 35-year-old from small-town California who wowed all four coaches with his weathered, bluesy voice on a version of “I Don’t Need No Doctor,” which has been covered by many but made famous by John Mayer. Baird, like Kilgore the night before, was the only contestant to entice all four coaches to turn their chairs.
This time, Clarkson was not going to win. Shelton laid it on thick, comparing Kilgore’s guitar playing to Dwight Yoakam‘s axeman, and heaped praise on Baird’s bluesy, “weathered” ‘sound: “It sounds like you smoked a pack of cigarettes and drank a bottle of whiskey before you got on stage. I did that stuff for years to sound like that!”
Baird hemmed and hawed, but it was obvious where his loyalties lay. He chose Shelton, noting that they seemed to be “kindred spirits.” Shelton, for his part, did a screaming dance when he was selected.
Coach Adam Levine, who admired Baird’s bluesy approach, admitted, “That one hurt. I should have had him.”
While Shelton had the moment of the night, he admittedly had to swallow some bitter pills beforehand. He lost the night’s first contestant, Davison, who did a contemplative version of the Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody,” to his arch-rival Levine.
That was followed by a performance from the ethereal Jacklyn Lovey, a 16-year-old who took on a dreamy version of Elvis Presley‘s “Can’t Help Falling in Love”—which spurred Shelton to muse he was imagining riding a unicorn while carrying a Care Bear while listening to her. Despite that, Lovey chose to go to Coach Alicia Keys.
Shelton’s biggest ouch probably came in the form of Molly Stevens, a raspy-voiced 34-year-old from Macon, Ga. who blew out a ballsy Patty Griffin tune…and also intrigued with her story of coming out to her Southern Baptist family. She ignited a verbal spar between Clarkson and Shelton as to whom was the more authentically country coach, with Shelton trying his dangdest, but Clarkson won this one in the end.
Tune in Mondays and Tuesdays for recaps of Season 14 of The Voice, as we keep track of who’s zooming who each week.
The Voice Moments We’ll Never Forget
This Article Was Originally Posted at www.TasteofCountry.com
http://tasteofcountry.com/blake-shelton-night-two-the-voice-season-14/
