Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Her audition: Dallas Caroline, 17, of Santa Rosa, Calif., performed “Always on My Mind” by Willie Nelson. Adam Levine and Kelly Clarkson turned early; Blake Shelton followed. Alicia Keys’ team was already full. Dallas joined Team Blake.

Her background: She’s named after a county song, Alan Jackson’s song, Dallas, so you might say becoming a singer was destiny. She starting singing at age 8 and playing guitar at 12. She also started home schooling in eighth grade so she could devote as much time as possible to music.She’s now a high school grad and, last June, got to play at the CMA Fest in Nashville. She dedicated her audition song to her community, which was hit with a deadly wildfire last October.

What the show didn’t show:

* Dallas describes herself as a singer-songwriter, model and actress on her Facebook page.

* In a get-to-know Dallas video on her YouTube channel, she says one of her favorite childhood memories was landing the role of Molly in a production of “Annie” around age 9 or 10 though she’d never acted before and wasn’t very experienced as a singer.

* Dallas started playing guitar and piano around age 12. Soon after, she started to experiment with songwriting.

* She has released several covers you can listen to on Spotify, including her version of Meghan Trainor’s “Like I’m Gonna Lose You” in 2016 and a six-track cover EP in 2017. It includes “Mad Love” by JoJo and “Love on the Brain” by Rihanna. The latter is particularly impressive.

* Though she has dabbled with pop music, Dallas told Voice Views she grew up on country music and has decided that’s the direction her music should take. “And when I started songwriting, I was writing country music,” she said. “Every since then, I’ve always known that the direction I want to go in.”

* Dallas said she also auditioned with “Always on My Mind” because it’s always been one of her grandmother’s favorite songs. She also said she’s long had an appreciation for the classic country music of Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline.

* As for her own sound, here’s what Dallas says: “My voice has a pure tone to it, so I kind of like to take from Dolly Parton and try to mix it with a Maren Morris kind of style and do my own thing.”

* Here’s one of the more interesting challenges I’ve seen a Voice contestant take on. Listeners of 92.9 Froggy, a country radio station in Santa Rosa, suggested lyrics regarding deejay Rob’s hair. Dallas was tasked with turning them into “Rob’s Hair Song,” which you can hear here.

* Better yet, check out the splendid version of Miranda Lambert’s “Tin Man” below. It’s also from Dallas’ cover EP.

* Dallas appeared nervous when her Voice blind audition began and admits, “I was shaking in my boots. I don’t know if you could tell, but I really was shaking. I was so nervous.” Nevertheless, she turned every available chair.

On picking Blake: For starters, he compared her to Tanya Tucker and LeAnn Rimes, which Dallas describes as “a huge honor.” “But I’m also a huge fan of Blake. I want to move to Nashville. And I’ve seen what he does with country artists and how he continues to support them after the show. I’ve been watching the show. So that’s something I definitely paid attention to.”

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Twitter: @Dallas_Caroline
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