Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His audition: Joshua Davis, 37, of Traverse City, Mich., performed Bob Dylan’s “I Shall be Released.” He’d barely started before Adam Levine and Blake Shelton turned around, almost simultaneously. Adam praised his vocals; Blake said he’s different from what the coaches typically hear on The Voice. Joshua joined Team Blake.

His background: He says his family had a huge record collection, and the music that spoke to him was the old blues tunes. So he learned to play guitar when he was 13 and joined a folk band when he was in college. He’s been playing music for a living ever since. He and his wife Ann already had a daughter when he auditioned. She was pregnant at the time; she’s since given birth to the couple’s first son. The arrival of a second child also “makes me want to push it even harder (with music),” Joshua told The Voice.

What the show didn’t show: Joshua said he’s been able to make a living playing music for 15 years thanks largely to the music lovers in Michigan. During that time — now get this — he’s released three solo albums, been frontman on five albums with a roots ensemble called “Steppin’ in It” and sang lead on an album of jazz standards by a classic swing band known as “Shout Sister Shout.” His latest album, released in 2013, is called “A Miracle of Birds” and, according to his Facebook bio, was inspired by his travels to the Palestinian West Bank with a nonprofit organization To the Ground. In a conference call this week, Joshua admitted The Voice isn’t an opportunity he expected to come along. But the show contacted him about auditioning, so he watched a couple of episodes. “I hate reality TV,” he says, but found The Voice different because it’s about building up singers, rather than “knocking anyone down.” Besides, part of folk music is passing it along to the next generation, and he says a great way to do that is to perform on a show watched by millions.

On picking Blake: “I’m a songwriter, and I love the way that he can really get into a song and speak to a song. That’s one of the things I like about him and his music and the way he presents himself.”

On iTunes: His audition song, plus all the aforementioned albums. His solo albums are “A Miracle of Birds” from 2013, “Magnolia Belles” from 2011 and “Fool Rooster” from 2005.

Update: Joshua was pitted against Brian Johnson in the battle round. They sang “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” Blake declared Brian the winner; Joshua was stolen by Adam. In the knockout round, he went up against Lexi Davila. He sang “In the Arms of the Woman” and was declared the winner. Lexi wound up being stolen. Meanwhile, Joshua’s cover of the Amos Lee tune wound up being the only single from the third night of the knockout round to crack the Top 200 on iTunes’ singles chart.

Live playoffs: He performed “Budapest” and was voted into the finals by Voice viewers. The song landed at number 20 on the iTunes’ singles chart, making it the second most successful from the live playoff round.

Top 12: He performed “America.” The song landed at number 24 on the iTunes singles chart, fourth best from the show. It was number three on the rock chart.

Top 10: He landed in the bottom three with DeAnna Johnson and Rob Taylor, but received the instant save. On performance night, his cover of “Hold Back the River” hit number 82 on iTunes, eight best of the night’s 10 songs.

Top 8: He advanced to the Top 6 on fan voting. His cover of “Fields of Gold” hit number 6 on iTunes, second best of the week.

Top 6; He advanced to the Top 5 on fan voting. “In My Life” hit number 14 on iTunes; “Desire” hit number 51. They ranked 4th and 9th among 12 songs on iTunes.

Top 5: He hit number 11 on iTunes with “I Can’t Make You Love Me” and number 34 on iTunes with “When I Paint My Masterpiece.” They wre the fourth and eighth most popular songs on iTunes from the 10 performed on Top 5 night.

Top 4: Joshua finished third on The Voice, behind Sawyer Fredericks and Meghan Linsey and in front of Koryn Hawthorne. On the performance show, he covered “Hallelujah,” sang an original called “Workingman’s Hym” and joined Adam Levine for a duet on “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes.” The songs landed at 12, 9 and 21, respectively, on iTunes.

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The Midnight Ghost (from Fool Rooster)

Goodbye Besty Brown (from Magnolia Blues)