Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His audition: Bransen Ireland, 27, of Fairview, Tenn., auditioned with “Tulsa Time” by Don Williams. He earned a chair turn from Blake Shelton early in the performance; Adam Levine followed. Bransen decided to join Team Blake, fulfilling a promise to his sons.

His background: His full-time job is as a genius at an Apple store. “If you come in with an issue with an Apple product, I’m at the genius bar to help you with that,” he says. Bransen was 20 when he met his wife. She already had one son. They married and had another. Playing music took Bransen away from home a lot. He credits his wife, who started her own cleaning company, with keeping the family on track and keeping him on track to pursue his musical dreams.

What the show didn’t show:

* Bransen is from Blue Springs, Missouri, and says on his website that he became a fan of country music at an early age.

* He picked up guitar in college and began songwriting and performing around the Kansas City area.

* Rather than follow the latest trends in country music, Bransen says in that bio that he’s committed to delivering “true country” music.

* Over the years, he has opened for The Band Perry, Chris Young, Lee Brice, John Rich and many others.

* He released a single called “Don’t Go There” in 2011 and a four-track EP called “Hat” later the same year.

* Early last year, he launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a new EP, but it failed to reach its fund-raising goal.

* At the time, he said his new music “is inspired by hard-working, middle-class families.” You can check out three originals on his YouTube channel and a more recent post of a song called “From the Ground Up” on his Facebook page. Below, you can check out Bransen singing “A Little Lot.”

On picking Team Blake: “Other than my children’s preference, Blake is a Nashville guy with strong ties to the songwriting community here in Nashville, which has been a major part of my life the last six, six an a half years. It just made sense. It felt like something that might strengthen and broaden those opportunities here in the Nashville community.”

On social media:
Instagram
Website
Twitter: @BransenIreland
Facebook
YouTube