Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The first-ever country artist for Team John Legend will be singing on The Voice for at least one more week.

Bailey Rae earned the instant save at the end of Tuesday’s results show.

The top vote-getter from each team automatically advanced Tuesday. Then each coach selected an artist to save.

At the end of the show, the top remaining vote-getter from each team got to sing for an instant save.

That scenario put Bailey Rae up against Payge Turner of Team Gwen and fellow country artists Worth the Wait of Team Blake and Tanner Gomes of Team Kelly.

Here are song by song grades for those performances.

Bailey Rae, “Never Again, Again” by Lee Ann Womack — Not only did John have a country singer performing for a save, but she served up the twangiest of the instant save performances in a lineup that included three country songs. Bailey turned in an adequate vocal considering the pressure-packed situation. She’ll need much better to advance next week. Grade: B–

Payge Turner, “Diamonds” by Rihanna — A riveting opening followed by my favorite vocal among the instant save performances. Listen to the purity in Payge’s vocals. But I figured she stood little chance going up against three country acts. Besides, she was serving up subtlety on a show that rewards bombast … and country. Grade: B+

Tanner Gomes, “Pickin’ Wildflowers” by Keith Anderson — Tanner delivered a bit more attitude Tuesday, something that was a bit missing from Monday’s performance. The vocal? It started out strong, but didn’t stay that way. It reminded me that I could have been listening to Kelsie Watts or Marisa Corvo. Grade: C

Worth the Wait, “I’m Gonna Love You Through It” by Martina McBride — There were a whole lot more “yikes” than “yay” moments in this performance. So many in fact, the less written the better. So many, I was hoping Blake’s popularity wouldn’t unfairly boost this trio into the semifinals. Grade: D