Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Blind audition: Nolan Neal, 35, Nashville, Tenn., returned to The Voice after failing to turn a chair in Season 10. This time, he auditioned with Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer.” He displayed nice raspy vocals and delivered several impressive moments over the course of the performance. Blake Shelton and Adam Levine turned quickly, followed by Miley Cyrus and Alicia Keys. Adam predicted Nolan will be the first guy to go home without a chair turn one season and win the next. Blake reminded Nolan that he has a proven track record of getting singers to the finale. Nolan picked Team Adam.

His background: During his Season 10 intro clip, Nolan shared the story of his dad’s suicide, how the tragedy caused him to turn to drugs and his own efforts to get clean. After the segment aired, Nolan said he “went home and did a lot of self-reflecting because my last time on The Voice, it opened up a lot of old scars.” What surprised him was the “outpouring of love” he received by people who watched the show and were touched by his story. As for returning for a second shot at The Voice? “I’ve come too far to turn back now,” he said.

What the show didn’t show:
* Music was a natural pursuit for Nolan since his father was a professional drummer and his mother made her living as a singer.
* According to his website bio, he began his career playing clubs in Nashville and as a street performer playing for tips passers-by would drop into his guitar case.
* Nolan served as lead singer for the rock band Hinder on their 2014 summer tour.
* He has also toured and written with the bands Tonic, Saliva and Shinedown.
* Nolan has released a pair of independent albums, “The Road to Now” in 2006 and “The Wire” in 2013 and is working on a third, according to his website. “Lost” from “The Wire” is superb. You can check out a live version below.
* His latest releases are a pair of singles, “This Walking Dream” in 2015 and “I’ll be Fine” in 2016. The official video for the latter is embedded below.
* In Season 10, he auditioned with “Drive” by Incubus. This time around, he went with what he calls his “favorite cover song.” “I believed in that cover of the song,” he said of “Tiny Dancer” during a conference call with the media. “Because I had been doing that song for like 10 years.”
* Not only did “Tiny Dancer” earn him a four-chair turn, Nolan’s cover was the best-selling of the night on iTunes and only the second of the blind auditions to crack the Top 50 on iTunes’ overall singles chart.
* As for his choice of coach, Nolan said he went into the audition hoping Adam would recognize his voice and turn around. “I promised my son I was going to choose Adam,” he said during that conference call. “And everybody was like, ‘You better choose Adam.’ But then once the chairs did turn and everyone started talking I was about to pick Miley. I was so close.”
* In a post-audition Facebook chat with fans, Nolan says he’s been working on his upcoming album for years. “It’s a compilation of my greatest songs over the last 15 years — some songs I didn’t release. Sometimes it takes me 30 minutes to write a song. Sometimes it takes a year. ‘I’ll Be Fine’ took about seven months of writing and re-writing.”

Keeping up with Nolan:
Twitter: @NolanNeal
Facebook
Website
YouTube