The first week of the The Voice Season 11 Blind Auditions likely gave us half of the singers for the live shows. However, there’s still another half to go! For The Voice season 11 episode 4 The teams started out with coaches Alicia Keys and Blake Shelton having five slots filled while Miley Cyrus and Adam Levine had four.
What’s a little unusual is that Adam’s team is all guys. while Miley’s is all female. She’s got three women and one teenage girl. Blake has four men and a woman. Alicia has the most diverse team overall. It’s two women, two men and a teenage girl. She’s concerned about her team filling up too fast.
Even though Alicia seems laid back about the competition part of the show, don’t be fooled! She’s clearly putting some serious thought into the building of her team. Blake is looking to “counteract” Alicia and Miley’s ability to beat him when they’re going for the same vocalist. Interestingly enough, both Miley and Adam are on the same page at this point. Miley feels like she has some space, but says she really wants to hear a voice that knocks her out. Adam says he’s looking to be inspired by a singer.
It’s always a little funny to realize that although the blinds happens over weeks on TV, what we’re seeing was really just one day for the coaches. (Hence the same outfits.) That’s a lot of voices to be listening to for 12-14 hours! If they’ve made it so far to even be heard by the coaches they have to be good. So Adam and Miley’s focus isn’t about being pretentious. Earlier in the day, good may have gotten a chair turn. Now when someone turns a chair, you know they’ve got to be really special!
The Voice Season 11 Episode 4 – The Blind Auditions Recap
Bindi Liebowitz: Age 23
Bindi’s from Plainfield, New Jersey. Her parents are divorced, but it was amicable, so that’s not the sad part. In terms of music, Bindi has been singing in choirs since she was little and even founded one at her college.
While in college her mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. This depressed Bindi and she stopped singing and going to class. Her mom encouraged her to start singing around the house by saying Bindi’s singing made her feel better. The good news is her mom is cancer free almost two years!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIa_ajelVv4]
“Burst Your Windows” by Jazmine Sullivan is an interesting choice. It mixes r&b with a tango rhythm which allows for some vocally jazz-like moments. Bindi does a good job with it, but while Alicia tells Adam Bindi is good she doesn’t turn around. Later she says it’s because she already has similar singers – which is true. Bindi ends up on team Adam. Thank goodness! He needed a woman. Bindi picks Adam because she likes to mix genres.
Zach Hicks: Age 24
Zach is a country boy from Hope, Arkansas. He’s the oldest of four and the only boy. At eighteen he moved to Dallas, Texas and came out as a gay man (on Facebook!). It took about six months time for his mom to accept it, but she does. He’s engaged to his boyfriend of 2 and a half years. He sings “At This Moment” by Billy Vera.
Zach doesn’t make it on, but as Adam said, he was really, really close. Unlike the other singers this wasn’t about nerves or being off-pitch. There’s a sweetness in his tone and some emotional resonance – but the song itself doesn’t really fit him. All four coaches give him serious notes. I’ve no doubt this guy will be back!
Elia Esparza; Age 23
Elia is from El Paso, Texas and is proudly Mexican-American. She has a happy close-knit family. “We’re crazy, but we’re the good kind of crazy.” When her mother says, “Elia was never shy” and her dad jokingly says she was such a handful they waited 8 years to have her brother, I totally got what she meant!
Growing up she was in choirs and shows at school. After high school she moved to New York City. There she works as a performer for children’s birthday parties. The song she’s chosen is “Como La Flor” by Selena. (It’s beautiful seeing Selena’s music living on like this. )
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wlw03Y7wfak&w=640&h=360]
The only coach not to turn is Alicia – even though she encouraged Blake to push his button. Later on she says that she’s assessing what she has on her team already and what’s missing.
Elsa said she was interested in doing pop music in English and Spanish. At that point I knew Blake was out. It was interesting that she chose Adam over Miley though. Her first reason was that he was the first to hit his button. (Miley and Blake don’t come in until nearly the end.) The second reason she gave has to come from watching seasons of The Voice.
He really works with the artist, and listens for something really specific.
In this case Adam’s experience with coaching gave him the final edge. (I bet that made his day!) Now, who thinks Adam will be giving former coach Shakira a call for some song suggestions? A little cameo phone call would be awesome!
Lane Mack: Age 30
Lane is from Lafayette, Louisiana and music runs in his family. His uncle is a Grammy-nominated artist for Cajun and exotica music. Lane’s been playing guitar, singing, and writing songs since he was young. Now married and a father of two he’s worked in his father’s cabinet finishing business since after college. However, he’s never stopped making music. The song he’s doing is the B.B. King classic, “Every Day I Have the Blues.”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmZGPAXE0oA]
Miley is the only one that turned for him – but I’m thinking they may regret that. Blues is the grandfather of rock. There’s a lot of potential in Lane in that regard. I’m curious to see what Miley does with him.
Karlee Metzger
Springfield, Missouri always done music, but was teased about her weight in school. Between that and moving around often because of her dad’s job she confesses to some shyness and insecurity. However, the most important piece of information is that she gained confidence by posting covers of songs on YouTube…. It’s not that she had a ton of followers – just the act of putting herself out there seems to have given her courage! (Also, just as a FYI, go check out her videos. What she does for the blind audition doesn’t begin to cover her true potential.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8og4pcV4sY]
The funniest thing about this one is that Miley pulls Blake in to turn and battle for Karlee! As such, it’s not surprising that Miley wins Karlee.
My only concern is that Miley has too many women on her team…. That’s okay though. Miley is perfect for getting Karlee to trust herself and be less shy. Then I can see Karlee going to team Adam in a steal. Her voice is really alternative rock and Adam’s work with falsetto will come in handy. The quality of Karlee’s voice is like a Sarah McLachlan or Jewel – but she’s also got a rich lower register like Adele! I can’t think of anyone out there recently that’s tapped into the sound of all of the above singers in a big way. Hopefully Karlee will make it through to the live shows!
Josh Halverson: Age 31
Josh is from West, Texas. He’s married and has a son named Thunderbird. Those are the first three things he says. Then he explains that Thunderbird is “a powerful Native American symbol” – and that his mother was a Sioux Indian. Clearly his heritage and family are dear to him – as is music.
Even though he’s been working on his father’s cattle ranch since he was twelve, he started playing piano at five. At twenty-one he picked up guitar and wrote his first song. Josh’s dad’s comment about his son’s music is straightforward:
Josh never really was into the cattle business. He was always more…artistic.
He adds his own spin to the much covered “Forever Young” – which was originally done by Bob Dylan.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSGjcB1NNU4]
Alicia, who hadn’t turned for anyone all night, turned for Josh – and gets him! Blake is crushed! Tonight he’s been beaten by Adam, Miley, and Alicia!
It’s partly Blake’s fault that he lost out to Alicia. He wasn’t really hearing what Josh said when he first addressed the coaches. If he had Blake wouldn’t have brought up the darn yearlings. Josh made a point that he wanted to get away from cattle and do what he loved. If Blake hadn’t been so in his head about how to get an angle to connect to Josh he’d have caught that the last thing the guy wanted to discuss was cattle!
Still, even if Blake hadn’t royally screwed that up, I don’t know if he could have gotten Josh. Alicia honed in Josh’s soulfulness. Blake usually doesn’t express that kind of depth (I’m not saying he doesn’t have it – just that it’s not often displayed.) Alicia seems to be pulling two types of artists (regardless of genre) – the ones with soul and depth, and ones that need nurturing. Josh is the former.
Finally, Adam’s pitch saying Blake was the better coach for him didn’t help much either. It suggested that Adam didn’t see beyond the ranch in Texas either. Yes, Josh is dressed in a way you might see a cool country artist. It doesn’t mean that’s what he wants to do. It could just mean he’s dressed like a cool guy from Texas. I mean, the man chose a Bob Dylan song. That’s folk rock, not country.
The Voice Season 11 Episode 4 Wrap Up
It’s funny that this episode was the night of the first presidential debate because one of the things discussed prior to that debate happening was the gender issues that changed the rules a bit. There’s a similar thing going on with The Voice. It was suggested that Hillary Clinton couldn’t be seen as being too aloof or dismissive, but that Donald Trump had to be concerned about looking like a bully. That’s now Blake’s problem. The kind of teasing he’s used to doing with another guy can be perceived differently when it’s a young woman. Thus, I’m not sure Blake’s strategy of teasing Miley about how much she talks is going to help him get vocalists. The first time is cute, but when he keeps doing it in front of the same person it may turn them off.
The Teams Thus Far
At the end of the night, Adam has added two women to his team – which he really needed. Miley has one guy – and another woman. I expect she’ll be focusing on getting more male vocalists in the next episode. However, Miley’s got a powerhouse team – both vocally and performance-wise. Alicia’s team has the most diverse-sounding voices though – and some definite top talent. Adam’s got a decent team as well. I could see the three coming out of Miley, Alicia’s and Adam’s teams. That leaves Blake as the odd coach out.
Luckily, this is only the fourth day of the blinds. Blake could pick up some amazing vocalists. Plus, sometimes the most amazing talent doesn’t make it through to the finals due to a number of unpredictable factors. It’s way too early to guess which coach is going to win!
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