Idol Chatter & Voice Views

A couple of standouts, a couple of missteps and a bizarre save — that pretty much summed up the second live quarterfinal episode on The Voice Tuesday night.

The standouts — and I mean by a country mile in a competition that once featured three male country artists — were Vicci Martinez from Team Cee Lo Green and Javier Colon from Team Adam Levine.

The missteps involved songs Cee Lo and Adam assigned to Curtis Grimes and Casey Weston, respectively. Or, perhaps in Casey’s case, I should say the way the song was approached.

The bizarre save came at the end of the show, when Blake Shelton used his judge’s save on a teenager who goes only by her first name — Xenia.

For those who need to catch up, here’s a quick recap of where we are on The Voice.

Last week, the four remaining members of Team Blake Shelton and Team Christina Aguilera performed a quarterfinal song.

This week, the members of Team Cee Lo and Team Adam performed; and we learned who would advance from Team Blake and Team Christina.

Two members advance per team — one selected by the public (the top vote-getter), the other selected by their judge.

Over on Team Christina (ophs, I almost typed Team Cleavage given Christina’s penchant for plunging necklines), things went pretty much as expected. Viewers, wisely, tabbed Beverly McClellan to advance. Christina chose the next best powerhouse voice on her team, Frenchie Davis, of former Idol infamy.

Viewers selected Dia Frampton from Team Blake. I wasn’t a fan of her rendition of “Heartless” last week, but lots of folks were, and I figured Dia might advance.

Then came the shocker.

Blake picked Xenia for his second semifinalist over country artist Patrick Thomas (who turned in the best performance last week) and Jared Blake (a rocker who’s always entertaining).

Now, let’s just says no one’s going to mistake Xenia for a single-name performer like Beyonce. I mean, she seems like a nice girl. But if I were ranking the 16 quarterfinalists … well, she’d be in the bottom two or three. For goodness sakes, Blake rushed on stage to hug her last week because she finished her number without succumbing to a bad case of the nerves.

I figure Blake just reduced his chance of having the winning contestant by 50 percent. I’d question Blake’s taste … if he hadn’t just married Miranda Lambert, whom I’d rate as the most talented lady singer-songwriter in Nashville right about now.

As for last night’s performances …

Team Cee Lo Green

Who should stay: Javier Colon might have the best voice on The Voice. He’s certainly the leading contender among the males, anyway. And he was pitch perfect on “Angel,” though I would have preferred a slightly more restrained performance. No way he doesn’t advance.

The second spot should go to Nakia, who sang  Kings  of Leon’s “Sex on Fire.” Now there’s a number you won’t see on American Idol. Anyway, Nakia delivered it with the sense of showmanship we’ve come to expect from him. The vocal couldn’t touch Javier’s, but it was clearly the second-best of the night on Cee Lo’s squad.

Who should go: I’ve been complimenting The Voice on song choice since the show started. Partly because the music is more current. At least it was until Tori and Taylor Thompson got stuck with the 1940s tune “Boogie, Woogie Bugle Boy.” And they sang nearly every line together. Yikes.

But that wasn’t as bad as country singer Curtis Grimes tackling Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love.” Why? Because Cee Lo wanted to nudge Curtis out of his country comfort zone. It did not work. In fact, between this performance and the battle round performance, I’d say Curtis isn’t worth keeping around.

Oh, and a side note to The Voice’s judges: We’ve only seen most of these people sing twice. There’s no need to nudge anyone out of their comfort zone.  Let them sing what they sing best.

Team Adam Levine:

Who should stay:  Vicci Martinez was allowed to sing the song of her choosing — Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.” And she turned in the most dazzling performance of the night. Perhaps the best of the two weeks of quarterfinals. She changed the arrangement of a well-known song just enough to keep it interesting. The performance: She’s a tiny dynamo on stage. The vocal: Flawless.

Casey Weston wanted to sing “Dark Horse and a Cherry Tree” as a ballad. Adam Levine coerced her into singing the song up tempo. Which is a shame, because Casey has a lovely tone to her voice, and it was pretty much lost in this rendition of the song. We heard that tone loud and clear later during Casey’s solo lines when Team Adam performed as a group.

Who should go: Jeff Jenkins has a decent country voice, but I was not a fan of his rendition of Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus Take the Wheel.” And, honestly, I’m getting a little tired of hearing about his mother. Even Danny Gokey didn’t talk about his late wife during every Idol performance. Anyway, moving forward I’d rather hear more from Casey than Jeff, though this spot is a pretty tough call.

It shouldn’t be a tough call to send Devon Barley packing. His vocal on “Stop and Stare” was the weakest of the night. He’s a pre-med major, and his parents weren’t keen on his decision to pursue a music career. Unless he can conquer the nervousness that seemed to plague his performance, they might be right.

Of course, I would have said the same about Xenia last week, and look what happened.

Well find out what the fans and judges think at 8 p.m. Tuesday, when The Voice returns on NBC. Remember, voting for Team Cee Lo and Team Adam continues through 10 a.m. Monday.