Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His audition: James David Carter, 34, of Atlanta, Ga., auditioned with Kevin Sharp’s hit, “Nobody Knows,” and earned a quick four-chair turn with his stellar vocals. Pharrell Williams appreciated the fact that he didn’t sense “a nervous moment” in the performance. Blake Shelton called it “maybe the best” country audition he’s heard in the show’s seven seasons. James David joined Team Blake.

His background: James David says he grew up loving country music but spent most of his childhood “chasing sports” and thought football would be his future. That changed when he wrecked his knee during his senior year in high school. So he started writing music and eventually became a working musician at a honky tonk called “Cowboys,” where he got to open up for country stars like Brad Paisley and Dwight Yoakam. “I’ve managed to make a living as a solo musician the past 12 years,” he says. “I’m just ready for my big break.”

What the show didn’t show: On Facebook, James David writes “I’m an observer and typically slow to speak. I believe there is a song in most every situation, detail, emotion and place we find ourselves in life.” And he adds that he’s been writing for a record he hopes to release sometime soon. Fact is, he’s already released a pair of EPs, plus a 12-track album of acoustic covers. The latter was released in 2011. The EPs include the five-track “To Be Continued” from 2008 and the five-track “Songs to God” from last year. He’s also the earlier Season 7 leader in social media backing, with 27,000 likes on Facebook and about 11,500 followers on Twitter. He says joining Team Blake seemed just a natural choice for him. “The knowledge Blake has and the commonality that we have with country music and the catalog of songs I would like to pick from and bounce ideas off him, I knew that that relationship would probably be more fluid and a little more natural than the other three.”

On iTunes: The two EPs, the album full of YouTube covers and his audition song, “Nobody Knows.”

Keeping up with James David:
Twitter: @JDCmusic
Facebook
YouTube

“The House That Built Me”

“Green Light” (original)

“I Don’t Dance”