Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Gwen Sebastian grew up in Hebron, North Dakota, a small farming community of about 900 people.

It might not have been Nashville, but she found plenty of musical inspiration there, she says in the bio on her website.

Of course, it helped that her father played guitar and fiddle, her mother played bass, her brother played drums and both of her parents sang. Gwen took piano lessons, and was organist at her small church by age 11.

Today, she’s 37, struggling with making the decision on whether to start a family with her drummer/boyfriend Louis Newman or to continue to pursue a career in country music.

She now lives in Nashville and has three releases available on iTunes — “Christmas in July,” an album released in 2008, “Invitation,” an album releaed in 2006, and “V.I.P. (Barefoot Girl),” an EP that came out in 2010 and includes the single “Hard Rain.” (Embedded below)

“I love other genres,” Gwen told The Voice, and you can find clips of her singing Lady Gaga on YouTube. “But I grew up in the country, my heart is country and that’s what I prefer to perform. That’s why I think being on Blake’s team, it’s a perfect fit.”

Not that Gwen didn’t have choices.

Her version of “Stay” was one of the highlights of the Feb. 7 episode of The Voice, and it enticed three judges to turn their chairs.

You can follow Gwen’s progress on Facebook here. On Twitter, she is simply @GwenSebastian.

Now, for some Gwen Sebastian music …

“Hard Rain”

“Need You Now”

The Voice audition — “Stay”