Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Kameron Marlowe and Kayley Hill during rehearsals for the battle round on The Voice. (NBC Photo),

Kameron Marlowe made a key strategic decision while rehearsing for the Team Blake Shelton battle round match on The Voice.

The country singer-songwriter decided to put down the guitar for his performance of “I Only Want to Be With You” with teammate Kayley Hill.

He’s convinced it made a difference in the outcome. Blake declared Kameron the winner; Kayley was eliminated.

“It was way strategic because I felt comfortable playing,” Kameron said during a conference call with the media. “It was more the fact that I didn’t feel I could connect to the song as well with the guitar in my hand.

“I wanted the freedom to be able to have my hands free and to be able to connect with the audience more.”

That said, one of the biggest battle round challenges he and Kayley faced was the song itself. Both are country singers.

And while Darius Rucker now sings country music, his Hootie and the Blowfish hit is by no means a country song.

“We knew the song pretty well,” Kameron told Voice Views. “It was just kind of the fact of how the heck can we change this and make it a duet song. So with that aspect in mind, we decided to kind of strip it down a little bit, make it a little bit more intimate. And it all kind of fell into place, especially after I took my guitar off and kind of was able to feel the groove a little better.

“So once we did that I believe that it worked out for both of us. And Kayley is an amazing singer and I was so glad to be able to sing with her so to be able to have the opportunity to bet on stage with her was great.”

Voice Views also talked to Jake Wells, Reagan Strange and Sarah Grace about their battle round wins, which aired last week. Here’s what they had to say.

Erika Zade and Sarah Grace perform during their battle round match on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

Sarah Grace was paired up with Erika Zade for a Team Kelly Clarkson performance of “No Roots” by Alice Merton.

Just 15, she fronts her own blues back back in Houston. But her band mates don’t sing, so duets aren’t something she’s used to.

“That was one thing that I loved about the battle was that I got the chance to harmonize and learn from another vocalist, which I don’t get to do often,” she said. “So it was a really awesome experience, especially being paired with Erika because she’s just such an amazing vocalist and an amazing person that learning from her both as a person and as a vocalist, it’s just such a great experience. It was so close.”

Sarah loves the blues, but moving forward on The Voice, said she wants to show that she can be musically diverse.

“I definitely think that I can improve my versatility genre-wise,” she explains. “Like with ‘No Roots’ — that was a huge leap out of my comfort zone because it was so pop-oriented. I mean, there was a lot of blues in the song, but it was definitely not my normal genre. I think having Erika with me to kind of ease me into the genre was really nice.”

Natalie Brady and Jake Wells rehearse for the battle round on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

Adam Levine paired up Jake Wells and Natalie Brady for a performance of “Closing Time” by Semisonic.

Jake, from Kansas City and 23 when he auditioned, sang the matchup and the song choice caught him by surprise.

“I don’t think that there is possibly two more different people — vocally and even just personality wise. Natalie and I are very different people and I think.

“When I’m on Team Adam I’m thinking, ‘Okay there’s a beautiful, long, blonde hair type that has this soft tone. Certainly, I’ll get paired with him or, you know, maybe one of these other people and to have Natalie, I was immediately surprised.

“That goes with the song choice as well. ‘Closing Time’ — my only connection to that song when was closing down bars and we used to play a joke as bartenders — we would always play that song and it was always like a joke song. I never took it seriously. So I think it was a big challenge for me to re-imagine that song and understand how we could create something dynamic and something new with the arrangement and vocally as well, which I believe we did.”

But Jake credits his battle round victory to the way he connected to the song.

“I really try to use my voice as a method of communicating and connecting with people and I think that’s why Adam turned around for me in the blinds in the first place.”

Emily Hough and Reagan Strange listen to feedback following their battle round match on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

Reagan Strange won her Team Kelly Clarkson battle round match with Emily Hough. They performed “Photograph” by Ed Sheeran.

Reagan, from Memphis, Tenn., was one of two singers among the Season 15 cast who was just 13 when she auditioned. The Voice hadn’t had a 13-year-old make the show since Season 11.

Emily, from Petersburg, Ill., was 16 when she auditioned.

“Actually, this was my very first duet and I was very blessed to have a duet with my best friend on the show. That was really unique for my first duet,” Reagan told Voice Voice.

“I think regardless of who I would’ve been paired with, it still would’ve been incredible with all the amazing amount of talent on this show. But just having Emily — not only in our voices, but just in our personalities, they blend so well together and to get to sing a song with her, it was just incredible. It even helped me grow as a musician.”

The friendship they enjoyed, Reagan explained, helped her relate to a song about long distance relationships.

“I just think that it really, really helped me find the emotion in the song and just really pour my heart out,” Reagan said.

We’ll next see Reagan, Jake, Sarah and Kameron in the knockout round, which begins Monday night on The voice.