‘The Voice': Jordan Matthew Young Turns Three Chairs With Keith Whitley Tune
The Voice's 20th season trooped on with its Blind Auditions on Monday (March 15), with Blake Shelton, Kelly Clarkson, John Legend and Nick Jonas adding yet more talent to their respective teams.
The night's biggest dose of country came in the form of 34-year-old Jordan Matthew Young, who hails from Austin, Texas, and delivered a smoothly confident yet well-worn-sounding version of Keith Whitley's "I'm No Stranger to the Rain," a song that would be pretty difficult for anyone much younger than him to carry off convincingly.
His efforts turned three chairs: Shelton ("That's good!"), then Clarkson, and finally, perhaps to some surprise, Jonas.
Shelton, of course, predictably started off by saying he was the only coach present who could identify the song. He then laid out that Young started off a bit shaky but found his footing quickly, and that "I don't get to work with guys like you too often."
'You don't normally work with country male singers on this show?" retorted Clarkson, much to everyone's amusement.
Shelton brushed that aside, praising Young's baritone voice, comparing his attitude to Eric Church, then giving the (over-used at this point) "you don't sound like anybody else in country music."
Whether that may be true or not, Clarkson added a few comments about Young's old-school vibe, then brought out her secret weapon: A video of Shelton's fiancee, Gwen Stefani, telling Young that Clarkson is probably his best bet over Shelton. Oh...wait. That was just a bunch of spliced-together Gwen moments over the seasons, cleverly edited to make her say "Blake Shelton would be terrible as a coach."
Very funny, Kelly. "Go with someone who does know country music, and has won The Voice twice with a country singer," Clarkson said, settling back into practicalities.
Jonas brought things back to earth with his commentary: "I turned at the end because I had it in my head it was probably a done deal between Kelly and Blake," he noted. "But the reality is there is a lot of music in the country world that's starting to sound a certain way and it's becoming harder for things to break through in that more traditional sense." He added that he'd like to go on a journey with Young and create something "disruptive."
Given all that, Young didn't have too much trouble picking a coach. After flat-out telling Clarkson she wasn't even in the running (guess she won't be using a steal on him anytime soon), he predictably went with Shelton, saying that the country star resonated with him the most.
The Voice airs on NBC at 8PM CT each Monday and Tuesday.
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