Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Her audition: Lyndsey Elm, 22, of Vacaville, Calif., auditioned with “Lips Are Movin'” by Meghan Trainor. Her stripped-down, acoustic version had Gwen Stefani turning around almost immediately, followed pretty quickly by Adam Levine and Pharrell Williams. Blake Shelton then joined the party, giving Lyndsey a four-chair turn. Gwen complimented Lyndsey on having the style and stage presence, as well as the voice, to do well on the show. Lyndsey joined Team Gwen.

Her background: The California town she grew up in is known as “cow town,” Lindsey tells us. And she graduated from college with a degree in kinesiology — the study of human movement. To save money and pay off her college loans, she moved back home to work for the family pest control business. Lyndsey says she was more the athletic type in high school, playing basketball from fifth grade until she graduated. She got a guitar as a graduation gift and says “the musical side of me started coming out. I figured, put down the basketball, pick up the microphone and let’s give it a shot.”

What the show didn’t show: Lyndsey told her hometown newspaper that singing has been more than a hobby for her for the past two years. She books gigs at coffee shops while working at The Father’s House, a church in Vacaville. And you can hear one of her complete coffee house shows — 17 songs, complete with a cover of “Lips Are Movin'” — on her website.

During a conference call with the media, Lyndsey said she considers herself a pop/soul artist and that she’s been trying to incorporate a loop pedal into her performances “to kind of make my own band, per se, as myself.” She said she’s “kind of new” to songwriting, but also wants to work more originals into her show and is hoping to release an EP something in the next year or so.

She said she knew performing an acoustic, pop/soul version of a song as popular as “Lips Are Movin'” was a risk, but it turned out to be one that paid off. The song not only earned her a four-chair turn and praise from the coaches, it wound up being the second most popular of the night’s 11 songs on iTunes. And her cover earned praised from Meghan Trainor, who tweeted: “I love this version of #LipsAreMovin. congrats.”

Heading into the blind audition, Lyndsey said she thought she’d pick Pharrell as her coach if he turned. But she notes that Gwen turned her chair first and “I felt like Gwenn was fighting the hardest for me which I totally didn’t expect.” It was also a matter of what she said — about passing along her career advice, about being nurturing and about Lyndsey as an artist. “She said that she loved what I did with ‘Lips are Movin” so she wanted me to be able to tell my story through the songs that I sang on the show, and that really resonated with me,” Lyndsey explained.

On iTunes: Just her performances from The Voice.

Update:
Battle round: Lost to Braiden Sunshine, singing “No One is to Blame” and was eliminated.

Keeping up with Lyndsey:
Website
Facebook
YouTube
Twitter: @lyndseyelm

Sure Thing (cover)

Runaway (cover)

Blind audition — “Lips Are Movin'”