Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His blind audition: Britton Buchanan, 18, of Sanford, N.C., performed “Trouble” by Ray LaMontagne. He quickly had Alicia Keys, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton facing in his direction. Blake blocked Adam, limiting Britton’s choices to two coaches. He opted to join Team Alicia.

His background: Britton’s mom said she knew she wasn’t raising a future athlete when Britton would stand in the outfield and pick flowers during a baseball game. “But we bought him a $60 guitar and, one day, it just clicked.” By age 13, Britton had joined a classic rock cover band. “Music was like freedom,” he told The Voice. “A place where I can be different than everybody else.”

What the show didn’t show:

* Britton began playing guitar at age 8, started taking singing seriously at age 12 and learned piano by age 14, according to his ReverbNation profile.

* He’s competed in a number of talent shows in North Carolina and was twice selected to sing the national anthem for the Durham Bulls, a minor league baseball team.

* At age 15, he was performing with a band called Brick City South that also included George Morris, T.C. Mann and Ethan Ross.

* The band entered an original song in an online competition called Bands4Good made the finals and won best in genre, according to that Reverb bio.

* Among other musical highlights so far, Britton performed at the Down South Music Festival and opened for country singer Craig Campbell and the band Nantucket (think 1977 hit “Heartbreaker”).

* More recently, Britton played the lead role of Danny in a performance of “Grease” sponsored by the Lee County Fine Arts Department. “I’ve always wanted to live in the 50’s,” he wrote in a thank-you post on Instagram once the show’s run ended. “Thanks for giving me that. If only for two months. It’ll last a lifetime.”

* I can’t find a YouTube channel for Britton, but search his name on the site and you’ll find plenty of videos of him performing, including some originals. I’ve embedded one of those, “Trying to Forget,” below.

On picking Alicia: He said he went into the audition wanting Adam as his coach. As noted, Adam was blocked from becoming his coach. But in a conference call with the media, Britton said that might not have made a difference. “Alicia is a great salesperson, and she roped me right in with everything that she said. So she pretty much had me in the palm of her hand as soon as she started talking.”

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