Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Blind audition: Maye Thomas, 27, of Broken Arrow, Okla., sang “Roses” by the Chainsmokers. Her vocal prompted an early chair turn from Adam Levine. And when Maye did a bit of a rap breakdown in the middle of the song, Miley Cyrus turned. Miley said she wants to make Maye the “gothic Dolly Parton.” Maye joined Team Miley.

Her background: Maye says she grew up in a musical family. Her dad is a deejay for a country radio station in Muskogee, Okla. The Swon Brothers, in fact, grew us in the station’s market area. Maye says her dad introduced her to classic rock, pop and country music. She met her husband when they were both 19; he worked in a clothing store in Tulsa. Grant was in a band (Progress in Color) at the time, and Maye says that made her want to pursue music even more. They moved to Nashville in 2013. She’s an indie-pop artist, who works as a waitress to make a living.

What the show didn’t show:
* Maye says her passion for music started in second grade when she tried out for her school musical and landed the lead role.
* When she was in sixth grade, she was part of a girl group that traveled around Oklahoma, covering “oldies.” “It was so fun,” she recalls. “I feel like that’s where I got my start besides singing in choir at school and singing at church.”
* She picked up the guitar when she was 19 and “got super into singer-songwriter stuff and that’s all I played up until auditioning for The Voice.”
* Maye says one of her biggest pre-Voice performances was performing with Hall of Fame songwriters at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville.
* There’s a video on her YouTube page of her and her husband, Grant, doing a splendid cover of The Civil War’s “Poison and Wine.” Just follow the link. “I loved singing that song with him,” Maye says. “We don’t perform together very often, but we sing together at home all the time. He always plays with me when I perform, but he’s kind of a recluse, so it’s always a treat for me when I can convince him to sing a song.”
* During a conference call with the media, Maye explained her decision to join Team Miley: “Miley just as an artist is super. She’s just unapologetic and she knows who she is and she’s very loud about that. And I really love that, and I’m at this point in my life where I want to be who I am loudly.”
* But what about Miley’s Dolly comment? “Being told she was going to turn me into a gothic Dolly Parton was THE coolest thing I’ve ever been told. I love Dolly so much. I was freaking out.”
* Maye says she decided to sing “Roses” for her blind audition because she loves the song and “it’s right in the vein of something I would release myself, so that’s what I wanted to show the coaches and audience.”
* “I’m just so honored to be a part of all of this,” Maye says of The Voice experience. “To be singing on The Voice stage is surreal and humbling. More than anything as a performer I want people to have a fun experience and be able to let go and just dance along. It’s super important to me to spread love and make people feel loved. That’s what I’m all about.”

Keeping up with Maye:
Twitter: @mayethomas
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