Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Former Voice Top 10 finisher Ashland Craft has released a pair of new country singles.

And this week’s new post-Voice music also includes new covers from girl group Citizen Queen and from Mendeleyev, his first release since appearing on Season 17.

* Ashland Craft from Season 13 hails from South Carolina, but is making her home in Nashville these days and just dropped two more country singles, “When a Cowboy’s Heart Breaks” and “Good Ol’ Girls.” The former is a co-write with Lauren Hungate and Ashland writes on Instagram that “we let out Wild West imagination and past heartaches write this amazing song.” It’s party time on “Good Ol’ Girls,” which Ashland describes as reminiscent of honky tonk music from the 1990s. “I always loved line dancing and wanted to write a simple, rockin’ uptempo song that people could drink and dance to.” Mission accomplished.

* Mendeleyev joins the Season 17 cast members who have already released music. In his case, it’s a studio version of “Girl from the North Country.” That’s the Bob Dylan song the 28-year-old from Santa Barbara covered so impressively that he turned four chairs with his Voice blind audition. New originals probably aren’t far behind; Mendeleyev’s been playing them at his live shows, according to his Instagram page.

* Citizen Queen is back with another impressive cover, this time delivering a delightfully different take on Billie Eilish’s mega-hit “Bad Guy.” And this being Citizen Queen, of course there’s an accompanying music video. “Bad Guy” follows ‘Senorita” and “Good as Hell” as the third release in a month from Citizen Queen, an all-girl a capella quintet signed to RCA Records and including Hannah Mrozak from Season 13.