The Voice: Reflecting on Eliminations And Why I May Have Not Seen All of Season 1

 

I can’t hide the fact that I am addicted to Season 2 of The Voice.  I sometimes rearrange my whole schedule (band rehearsal and the like) so I can watch 2 hours of nail biting performances, while binging on fast food, taking shots whenever Blake says “tender” and telling my friends to shut the hell up because I can’t hear who is singing.

Confession: I didn’t watch all of Season 1 of The Voice.

There we have it. I watched clips online and YouTube, but I delved  into my music and just used the momentum to book shows do as much as possible.  A lot of people had things to say about my elimination, good and bad. Even now people come up to me with opinions on how I should’ve performed or sang to beat Nakia. I even had one person insist that it was my fault I lost because I didn’t take their input.  That is the way of the world. Everyone has an opinion. Hindsight is 20/20. What I know is I had the best time being part of the show and getting to be on Cee Lo’s team.

This season is bigger and the show has more credibility.  The artists performing are incredible. And America shares its opinion all of the time online via twitter, facebook and blogs.  I love reading the blogs.  I love seeing the artists involved in the show tweet.

My thoughts so far on how things are going:

• I am going to miss Moses Stone and Sera Hill. I really root for R&B and hip hop.  Sometimes I feel like R&B singers are the black character in a horror flick.
• I think it was funny to see honest emotions on twitter about people getting eliminated and how JUSTICE IS SERVED. that is all i will say on that.  But I mean, that is real.  It may not have been nice, but I was amused.  There are so many thoughts and feelings that run through the mind of anyone that has been eliminated off the show. I gave myself 3 days to be sad about it when I was eliminated last year. Its really not the end of the world, and being on the show has helped me out a lot. I can only imagine what it can do for Season 2.
• To the coaches: Coming to the rescue of one of your artists who is being bashed is beautiful, just don’t forget to do it for all of your team members.
• Ashley De La Rosa impressed the hell out of me. She is a totally different performer from when I first saw her.  Very interested to see her progress.
• I tend to get overly emotional and start screaming at my television when the bottom 3 are announced. I almost threw something at my tv, and then realized that i wouldn’t be able to watch the episode anymore.
• Christina looked really good during eliminations. She is refusing my advances but I think we could have beautiful afro-hawaiian mixed babies together.
• I don’t know who I want to win yet. Do you? There are a lot of good artists so far.
• I have a whole list of people who I think were robbed.  But I guess that is what makes good television… i.e. The Shield Brothers, Jonathas, Lex Land, Lee Koch, Anthony Evans… I just feel they should still be in the competition. I want these guys to succeed.

As a viewer, my opinion counts, and it doesn’t.  I just want to share my thoughts having been involved in a great show.  I hope many of you who have dreams of being a singer will try out for Season 3.

Anxiously waiting for the next eliminations.

The Voice Season 2 Episode 7 – Battle Rounds

Team Xtina – Geoff Mcbride and Sera Hill singing Chain of Fools

 Both of these artists are really great to me.  Singing an old school song like Chain of Fools really seem to fit both Sera and Geoff. I really tried to focus on their voices and not so much the performance, which was good but I feel like they were both giving each other a lot of attitude which became distracting. They were definitely fighting to stay in the competition. Closing my eyes, they blended really well together.  I feel they were evenly matched.

Coaches Pick:

Cee Lo: Geoff

Blake: Sera

Adam: Geoff

Xtina has final choice. She loves Geoff’s vocal power. She has respect for Sera as vocalist because of how technical her runs on. Xtina’s pick:  Sera Hill

 

  

Team Blake – Lex Land and Charlotte Sometimes singing Pumped Up Kicks

Blake says he loves the song and realizes its not going to be easy but is confident they could do it. Blake says he paired them together because of their personalities: Charlotte, with a boisterous personality and Lex very introverted. Charlotte had 4 coaches turn around for her, and though Lex Land had 3, I had a feeling this battle was going to be really good. I wasn’t a fan of this song choice for either of them. They both have really great voices and good delivery.  I was really drawn to Lex’s voice over Charlotte’s in the Battle.

Coaches Pick:

Xtina: undecided

Cee Lo: Charlotte

Adam: Lex

Blake has final choice.  He says he loves Lex and how she delivers her notes, though she had 1 pitchy note. With Charlotte he says she has the look, which is what it takes in the industry, but she didn’t deliver like Lex Did. Blake’s pick: Charlotte

Team Cee Lo– Sarah Golden and Juliette Simms singing Stay With Me  

Cee Lo says there is a contrast between their two voices with Juliette’s grit and Sarah’s smooth sound. Its funny though, Juliette says she has been called a female Rod Stewart; Sarah feels stylistically the song is a fit for Julia, so from the get go, Juliette seems like a sure win here. After a quick practice, Cee Lo said though Juliette sounds great, so does Sarah. During the battle, all I could notice at first was how great Juliette’s legs look.  She definitely fit this song a lot more then Sarah Golden. Sarah was really solid and sang her heart out.  It is ridiculous to me to pair a mellow folk singer versus a rock singer.

Coaches Pick:

Adam: Juliette

Blake: Sarah

Xtina: Juliette

The final pick goes with Cee Lo. He explains to Sarah that the song choice was a challenge she deserved to show the range of her vocal ability. But if he has to make a decision he goes with: Juliette

Team Adam– Whitney Meyer and Kim Yarbrough singing No More Drama

Adam feels they are both powerful singers and paired them for this reason.  I like how they keep emphasizing that Kim has over 25 years of experience on Whitney. Is that in the music business or life? Because age doesn’t guarantee a win (see Geoff vs Sera).  During the Battle Round, the song didn’t really pick up for me until they got to the end when they began harmonizing. At that point, they both had their A-game. Kim’s voice is huge kind of reminds me of Jennifer Hudson’s in how she delivers, which isn’t necessarily my style of music. Whitney kind of reminds me of Rihanna in her delivery, and I am a sucker for Rihanna.

Coaches Pick:

Blake: Carson Daly

Xtina: Kim

Cee Lo: Kim

The final pick goes with Adam. The Verdict: Kim

Team Xtina– Lee Koch and Lindsay Pavao singing Heart-Shaped Box

I have never heard of this song before so I no preconceived notions of how the song should sound. Lindsay is one of my favorite voices and Lee had such a dope performance during his Blind Audition AND he has a fro. During practice with Lee, it looked like Jewel and Xtina were not enjoying his performance, and suggested he really spend some time learning the song and pronouncing his words. During practice with Lindsay,  Lionel and Xtina suggested she worked on her stage presence and getting out of her head, bringing some confidence to the stage. This was my first favorite performance of the night. They both were quite amazing and this song was so haunting. They took all of the advice from practice to heart and created such a great duet. This song fit them both so well.

Coaches Pick:

Cee  Lo: Lee (he said no one outperformed the other and I agree with him. They were both good)

Adam: Lee

Blake: Lindsay

Final pick goes to Xtina. She picks Lindsay Pavao

 

 

 

Team Cee Lo– Jamar Rogers and Jamie Lono singing I Wanna Know What Love Is

Cee Lo says he was inspired by the both of them and feels their experiences will add to the performance. Jamar is another of my favorite voices from this season so though I enjoy Jamie Lono, I am really rooting for Jamar. Jamie had a little trouble during practice. His nerves were showing through and his voice cracked a few times, which I think was making him feel worse and worse as he progressed. Jamar’s practice seemed to go well, and Ne-Yo suggested he let all the emotion show and not focus entirely on the technicality of the song. The harmony in the beginning of Battle, was so dope. I felt like Jamar was singing his ass off in the song, but was also very respectful to his friend and didn’t over sing Jamie while he sang his verses.

Coaches Pick:

Adam – Jamar

Blake – Jamie

Xtina – Jamar

Final pick goes to Cee Lo. Cee Lo felt that Jamie was so nervous while Jamar displays power and confidence. The winner of the battle: Jamar

Any thoughts on the battles?

Any one get sent home unjustly?

Or do you agree with the coaches?

And my SXSW starts | The Voice comes to Austin | Dogwood, The Hangar, ACL Live and More

SXSW (south by southwest) is an incredible festival in Austin, Tx that features Music, Film, Interactive, Education, Fashion and more. And it is SPRING BREAK craziness for adults. My interest in SX (south by) is for the music and film, but also the hundreds of parties that feature cool people from all over the world, free food and drinks. This year I look forward to the possibility of seeing officially and unofficially: Jay-Z, Mos Def, 50 cent, Allen Stone, Neon Trees, Cris Cab, Talib Kwali, Mystikal and even a couple people from The Voice (Lee Koch, Brian Fuente, Tony Lucca, Nakia, Casey Desmond, Jonathas, Lex Land, myself of course, Sonia Rao, Rebecca Loebe, Whitney Meyer and more!)

My first party I attended (on 3/07) was at The Hangar for The Bay Are Edtech. When me and my road dawg arrived, it was apparent that this was a group of teachers and such.  A lot of people were asking me what I taught, to which I replied “i don’t teach. i’m here for the open bar.” The truth will set you free. Free being the operative word. OPEN BAR is the theme of SXSW for me.

The second party was on 3/08 at Dogwood. Another dope party hosted by Bypass Lane, an app mainly for use while you are watching a sporting event in an arena. Say you are at the Frank Erwin Center, you are sitting with your friends and you wanna order drinks. Pull out your phone, log in to the app, choose your arena and order your beverages. They will send you a text and BAM! Your drinks are ready, no waiting in line, you go down and pick em up. DOPE.  So at Dogwood, they allowed us to log in to the app through our phones, and order as many FREE drinks that we wanted. And believe me, we took full advantage.

On 3/09 the band I performed at The Hyatt Regency from 5 – 7pm but then had to rush to the George Washington Carver Library to perform for the Blacks In Technology Reception, which got such an amazing response from everyone in attendance.

After the BIT Reception, we headed over to the Old School Bar to see Jonathas (@iknowJonathas) perform.

During which we almost got the car towed (luckily we got to it in time)

While we were there, AG sent me a text that Ghostland Observatory was doing a secret show at ACL LIVE and they were letting the first 1000 people in. So Tom and I rushed over and enjoyed an amazing performance!

All in all a great evening spent with friends.

The Voice Season 2 Episode 5 (final blind auditions)

Whitney Meyer - from Nevada. A flame haired beauty, who kind of looks black to me. She is a musician raised by an awesome musician dad. for her Blind Audition song she sings “No One”. I love her version. It was a mix of R&B and Sheryl Crow.  Making the song your own is very popular this season because she gets all 4 coaches to turn around, with Adam being the first coach, Xtina the last. Adam goes as far to say that Whitney could win the whole thing and he would be there for her. In the end, Whitney chooses Team Adam.

David Dunn – from Midland, Tx (TX STAND UP!!) this guy is from west texas, not too far away from where my family is. David feels he is the black sheep, as he is wants to break out of the family business of oil rigs to be a musician. his dad rubs me the wrong way when he says “david is following the music passion… we’ll see how long it lasts.” i’m sure he was just trying to be funny but it just sounded mean. For David’s Blind Audition, he sings The Man Who Can’t Be Moved (a very familiar song via XENIA season 1). His performance was nice, but you could tell by the shake in his voice he was extremely nervous. And unfortunately none of the judges turned around. Blake said he had to compare it to Xenia, and hearing the song takes him back there which sucks for David. SWEET MOMENT: Dad was the first to hug him.

The Shield Brothers - Tristan and Rory from Virginia. These dudes crack me up. They look like the party and dont give a shit about anything. They want to punch America in the face with rock n roll. For their Blind Audition, they sing Dancing With Myself.  I’m not familiar with this song at all.  They sound like a rock n roll group to me. I don’t feel this song particularly showed off their voices, but Cee Lo turned around and seemed to enjoy the performance. I did like how they ended their song. Lots of energy. TEAM CEE LO.

Cheesa - from Honolulu, HA. A fellow Hawaiian, which excites me. I feel so many Hawaiians have soul. For her Blind Audition she sings If I Were A Boy. She starts off in a low register, kind of like Toni Braxton would. Then as she got to the chorus, she belted it out like there was no tomorrow. Then she lets out the last of a phrase and there is a pause in the music. Cee Lo looks shocked like he wanted to push his button but wasnt sure if that was the end of the song. He pushes it, she sings one more sentence and she is on Team Cee Lo.

Preston Shannon - from Memphis, TN. 64 year old blues singer and for his Blind Audition he sings In The Midnight Hour. The dude is good. He’s got a gravely tone and a lot of confidence. You can tell he is no stranger to performing. And he’s incredible on the guitar. Unfortunately no one turned around for him. Adam lets out an expletive, to which Preston replies, “my sentiments exactly.”

Lex Land - from Austin, Tx (REPRESENT!!). a singer-songwriter who volunteers at a Girl’s Rock Camp. for her Blind Audition she sings If I Cant Make You Love Me. from the moment she begins, I smile. Smooth, sexy, and sultry. Then when Cee Lo and Adam both turn around, her nerves and complete bafflement take over and she fights to regain control. Adam says “she’s nervous”. Blake turns around. Carson says “she sounds nervous, but she’s still killing it.” FUCK WHAT YOU SAY I LOVE LEX. In the end, she goes with Team Blake.

Cameron Novack - from St. Louis, MO. this guy looks like a tall vampire. Maybe I watch a little too much Vampire Diaries and reruns of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  For his Blind Audition, he sings You Oughta Know. Xtina immediately calls out Cee Lo’s name, I guess thinking that Cameron would be perfect for him. This guy definitely has his own style and power in his voice. No coaches turn around, and when they do they are all shocked by the way he looks. Adam is shocked that he isnt a woman. Cameron just looks pissed and then busts out a lil flow. Then there is the awkward moment where Adam calls out to the producers “Can we cheat?” getting everyone’s hopes up. Cee Lo reins the crowd back in with how that would ruin the integrity of the show.

Orlando Napier - an LA blues singer. Orlando grew up a reckless partier that spent a brief stint in jail over a bar fight. He recently calmed down a bit, and performs with his dad. For his Blind Audition he sings Waiting on the World to Change. Adam immediately turns around. And here is where Adam becomes the first coach to land his 12th and final artist.

Lee Koch - works in a bakery from California. This dude needs to be my best friend. I love bread and bread like substances. Will his music be as good as his baked goods? For his Blind Audition he sings Like A Rolling Stone. I dig this guys look and his voice. As soon as he started playing the harmonica, Xtina turned around. Good thing because that was it for his song. Xtina now has one more spot on her team.

Wade - 18 year old R&B singer from Alabama. he seems to have a positive spirit about him and I am excited. I’m already pulling for this dude. For his Blind Audition he sings Rehab. I love the rasp in his voice. Cee Lo turns around for him and doing so fills up Team Cee Lo! PREDICTION: I feel like in the BATTLE ROUNDS he is going to go against JAMAR ROGERS. They both have that awesome rasp. That Battle would be sick, but very sad at the same time.

Adley Stump – singing country music for 10 months from Tulsa, OK. For her Blind Audition she sings Last Name, a song I’m not familiar with it. She has power in her voice. At the last minute Blake and Xtina both turn around, to which Adley’s mom freaks out in the back and jumps on Carson Daly, straddling him. I rewound that part over a couple times because she has height in that jump. Haha. There is a bromance moment between Adam and Blake where Blake tells Adamhe loves him. Adam says I love you too, in a non sexual way. Blake replies he cant say the same.Good stuff. Good stuff. So who does Adley choose? Blake Shelton. So Blake fills his team with his 12th artist.

Sera Hill - from ATL, GA and from the get go we already know she is Team Xtina. She is the last performer of the night, so she has to be something special. for her Blind Audition she sings I’m Goin Down. When Xtina finally turns around, her family of course goes crazy. After her final note, Sera does a victory dance. Xtina soon grabs a mic, gets the band to play, and they rock out. A sweet moment in The Voice history. An impromptu duet with a coach during a Blind Audition. CRAZY!

So the teams are filled. Battle Rounds will be fought.

Everyone is amazing but these are my favorites:

RaeLynn, Juliet Simms, Jamar Rogers, Lex Land, Jonathas, Jesse Campbell, Wade, Gwen Sebastian,Sera Hill, James Massone, Lindsey Pavao… i know i’m missing some folks. But these are favorites so far, from one performance. I’m open to being swayed. 

Who are your favorites?

Any battle round predictions?