Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His audition: Cody Wickline, 20, of Beckley, W.Va., auditioned with a tender and spot-on performance of George Jones’ “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” Adam Levine turned around just a few notes into the performance. Blake Shelton joined him near the end of the song. Then Pharrell Williams and Christina Aguilera turned around as well, giving Cody one of those coveted four-chair turns. Blake complimented Cody on the Merle Haggard quality in his voice. Cody joined Team Blake.

His background: Cody told The Voice he’s pretty much the only member of his family who has anything to do with music. His dad is a contractor; his mother is a stay-at-home mom. “And they can’t sing a lick,” Cody adds. As for himself, he’s always loved singing, but says he didn’t take the talent seriously until age 16. He says he performed “Feliz Navidad” in Spanish class and got hooked. By 17, he was playing shows at local bars. He’s also the first member of his family to attend college, earning a scholarship into the nursing program at Bluefield State College in West Virginia.

What the show didn’t show: It’s little wonder Cody auditioned with a George Jones song. Listen to the story as he tells it in his Voice video: “I grew up listening to Hank Williams Sr. and George Jones,” Cody says. “My grandpa, every time we went on vacation, he’d play the same CDs over and over and over again. It was kind of like pounded into my head. By the time I was 6 years old, I knew every song Hank Williams and George Jones sang.” Regardless of how it happened, Cody wound up with the second most popular tune on iTunes from night one of the auditions, cracking the Top 100 on iTunes. And he’s not just a country singer, though that’s certainly his focus. His Facebook bio tells us this singer got his start performing in church on Sunday mornings. These days, he says he tries to incorporate a little blues, a little R&B, a little rock and, of course, a broad dash of country into his music. “I love music in general,” he says. “If it’s good music, I listen to it.” His Facebook page also talks about a debut EP, but you won’t find it on iTunes. Head to Reverbnation though, and you can listen to some Cody originals as well as covers of songs by Justin Moore and, of course, Hank Williams. There’s also a tribute to his grandfather, who worked in the coal mines of West Virginia.

On picking Blake: “He’s the kind of guy I could hang out with. We could sit there, ‘Hey, man, what do you want to do?’ ‘Ah, let’s go fishing.’ And we’d sit there and just bullcrap all day.”

On iTunes: Just his audition song.

Update: Cody was matched with fellow country singer Matt Snook in a Team Blake battle round. They sang Randy Houser’s “How Country Feels.” Blake declared Cody the winner; Matt was eliminated. In the knockout round, he was matched with another country singer, Corey Kent White. Cody sang “Til My Last Day” by Justin Moore, but Blake declared Corey the winner, meaning Cody was eliminated from the show.

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Twitter: @cody_wickline

Simple Man (Lynyrd Skynyrd cover)

Cheatin’ Heart (Hank Williams cover)

Mama Tried (Merle Haggard cover)