Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Clark Beckham earned a ticket to Hollywood during American Idol’s Season 14 Nashville auditions. (FOX Photo)

But that might be selling the 22-year-old from White House, Tenn., short.

This is a street performer who has already released two solid EPs — a self-titled six-track effort in June 2013 and a 6-track “Songs About Her” EP in September.

According to his website, he’s also a senior at Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn., and a four-year member of Campus Choir, a touring Pentecostal worship choir that has played at churches all over the western hemisphere.

Clark credits his parents for his interest in music and for being his inspiration.

On Facebook, he says his mother, Terri, has been his music teacher “my whole life along with surrounding me with the best music in the world (60’s and 70’s music).”

The result: “I was the only kindergartner in my class who knew all the words to ‘Let’s Get It On,’” Clark says on his website.

He says his father, Virgil, spent most of his life in the music business.

“He plays and sings blues and just straight-up soul,” Clark says of his father. “Of all the singers and songwriters I grew up listening to — people like Stevie Wonder, Al Green, Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding and the Beatles — my dad has influenced me most. He’s really just the best there is.”

As for Clark, in addition to singing and writing music, he says he’s been playing the guitar for six years, the piano for three years and the drums for about a year.

And, yes, busking in Nashville, which, as he told us on Idol, isn’t an easy way to make a buck.

Easier was impressing the judges with an impassioned version of “It’s a Man’s World” that earned him his golden ticket to Hollywood.

Jennifer Lopez was especially impressed by his bluesy sound, complete with what she called “a touch of sweetness.”

Here are some Clark links, followed by two of his originals. You can check out full-length versions of all the songs on his most recent EP on his website.

Website
Facebook
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Twitter: @ClarkBeckham