Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Sundance Head with Blake Shelton at a post-show press conference on Tuesday. (NBC Photo)

To sum it up, the challenge went like this: Make Sundance Head a star in the music industry.

“This is Season 11 of The Voice, and I’m sitting here right now next to a guy who has won over America’s hearts,” Blake said.
“He’s so popular. He has proven that he sells tons of music. His biggest selling song is going to be the song he wrote himself.

“I hope that we can all come together, meaning us and Universal Records — this is the guy that I think can break the mold and become a star out of this show. This guy deserves to be star, and there’s no excuses anymore. We need to make the record and put the work and support behind it that he deserves.”

The Voice has enjoyed modest success with some of its winners in the past. Cassadee Pope and Danielle Bradbery debuted in the Top 10 on the Billboard country charts with their post-show albums. Jordan Smith set new Voice standards when his album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 and recorded first-week sales of 54,000 copies.

But the show has yet to produce a breakout star like a Kelly Clarkson or a Carrie Underwood. Or even had a singer release a single as successful as Phillip Phillips’ “Home.”

Sundance Head performs with Kiss during Tuesday’s Season 11 finale on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

Now a five-time winner on The Voice, Blake coached both Cassadee and Danielle to victory. But his past winners also include Craig Wayne Boyd, who’s making his post-show album independently, and Jermaine Paul, who pretty much disappeared as a solo artist after The Voice and has yet to release an album.

“This is where it gets tough,” Blake said. “It’s not been easy for people in the past. I think Sundance is the guy who can break that mold. I think the first thing he’s gotta figure out is where he fits in musically. I think the most important thing is to take a minute — not too long — and figure out what he wants to do musically and move forward from there. Unlike anybody else who’s ever won this show, there’s so many options for Sundance.”

While he looks and sounds country, Blake said there’s also a soulful and bluesy quality to Sundance’s voice and his music.

“Sundance fits in a lot of genres,” Blake said. “And mostly anybody any of us works with (on The Voice) fits into one category or another. I think we’re in a position at The Voice that Sundance could deliver a really important album for the music industry and for this television show.”

Sundance says he knows the type of album he’d like to make. Heck, he already released one, “Soul Country” in April 2015. It includes “Darlin’ Don’t Go,” the song he performed on Monday’s show that soared to number one on the iTunes Top 200.

“I know what I want it to sound like and I know how to make it sound that way,” Sundance says of his forthcoming album. “As far as what people call it when they hear it, I’m just going to leave that up to their interpretation.

“The most important thing to me is to create music that when you listen to it, you know it’s Sundance Head. I really want to have the opportunity to write songs and create records. I would just like to make great music. I just want you to able to hear a song on the radio — and I don’t care if you’re listening to a country station, a gospel station or a R&B station — but you’ll know right away, that’s Sundance Head.”