Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Joe Kirkland tasted success in the music industry prior to his audition for The Voice.

He showed up on the show hoping to regain it.

Joe is a member of the band Artist vs. Poet.  He joined in 2008 as a guitarist and background singer.

He told The Voice that the band sold more than 100,000 singles and toured across the U.S. and overseas.

Then the lead singer left the group, and he stepped up to front it.

The record company wasn’t interested; Artists vs. Poet found itself without a label deal.

“And then it all just went away, like that,” Joe said.

As a result, the 24-year-old from Fort Worth, Texas, showed up on The Voice with something to prove “to a lot of people who care for me and a lot of people who gave up.”

He performed “Give Them Hell.” And didn’t have to wait long for a reaction.

Within a couple lines of the opening, both Adam and Blake turned around.

Blake said he showed “star quality.” Adam complimented him on having “a cool combination of an aggressive tone and a lot of control over it, which is really, really rare.”

Joe decided to become a member of Team Adam.

What the show didn’t show: Joe is apparently one band member who has no intention of abandoning his band post-Voice. He told his local TV station one of the reasons he went on the show was because they’d let him mention the band. The first extensive blog he wrote for The Voice website introduces readers to the band and its other members — Jason Dean and Dylan Stevens — and talks about how they decided to move to California and pursue music fulltime. His Facebook page includes a link to the band’s website. And the band has released music since he became lead singer, an eight-track acoustic album called “Remember This” in April and, it appears, a pair of singles in late 2011. You can listen to some of the original music and some covers on the band’s YouTube channel. Before joining Artist vs. Poet, Joe released a seven-track EP as The Follow Through, which you can also find on iTunes. As for picking Adam as his coach, Joe said Maroon 5’s “Songs About Jane” was one of the first albums he ever purchased.

Editor’s Note: Check back for live blogs once the battle rounds begin on The Voice.

Artist vs. Poet performs “Stay” from the “Remember This” album