Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Chris Cauley is the guy who told us, pre-audition, that he’s inspired by his grandmother, a bluegrass musician who gave him his first guitar.

At 27, the guy from Atlanta, Ga., is hardly a novice at the music business, having release a 2005 album “Fish Out of Water,” a self-titled 208 EP and a single called “Everything Easy” in September. (You can listen to the latter below.)

“As far as musical styles, my mom was a big Earth, Wind and Fire fan, and my dad’s a big James Brown fan,” Chris told The Voice in an interview after his audition.   “I’m kind of in the middle, and I throw a little bit of pop in there.  I just call it soul-pop, really.”

In an extensive bio on his MySpace page, Chris says he started playing guitar in middle school.

“I never took a lesson, had no formal teaching,” he says.  “It was all by ear. From growing up, listening to it, I sort of knew what I wanted it to sound like. It just kinda took off from there.”

In college, he was part of a trio called the Broken Poets before embarking on a solo career.

And, despite all that experience, he admits suffering from a bad case of nerves when he auditioned for The Voice.

“I’m not one to get nervous, but I was terrified out there,” he says.  “As far as my performance goes, I know I can do 200 times better.”

One humorous note:  Chris says he has a bad habit of singing with his eyes closed.  So when he stopped singing, he wasn’t sure which judges had turned around and almost had to ask that embarrassing question.

“At the last moment, I noticed those lights that say ‘I Want You’ on the bottom of the chairs,” he said, smiling.  “I kind of figured that out at the perfect time.”

Here’s a link to Chris’ Facebook page. On Twitter, he is simply chriscauley. You can also listen to Chris’ music on his Facebook music page.

“Georgia on My Mind”

“Everything Easy”

The Voice audition — “Grenade”