Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His audition: Tanner Fussell, 28, of Nashville, Tenn., performed “Anymore” by Travis Tritt: Tanner’s strong vocals on the chorus eventually prompted a chair turn from Blake Shelton. He was the only coach to turn, so Tanner automatically became Team Blake. Blake said he loved the way Tanner’s voice soared on the chorus.

Here’s more about Tanner.

* He hails from Statesboro, Ga., and is now Nashville based, performing as both a solo artist and a duo.

* According to his website bio, he began playing guitar and writing songs at age 8.

* In 2014, he formed a rock band called Half-Seas Over that played gigs throughout the south over the next five years.

* Half-Seas Over released a three-song EP called “The Hideout Sessions” in 2017 and a live album the following year. Tanner wrote the group’s songs.

* The band parted ways in 2019 and Tanner moved to Colorado, continuing to pursue a solo career.

* While there, he also joined forces with Jack Stein to form a duo called Stealin’ Hearts.

* He’s since moved to Nashville and continues to play gigs, both solo and as part of the duo.

* Tanner released a pair of singles in 20212 — “Tangled” and “Love Sick Fool.” He has two other songs available on streaming sites — “Red Eye” and “Amity” from a 2020 appearance at a radio station.

* He hasn’t released it yet, but Tanner posted a song to Instagram called “When Grown Men Cry” that he wrote after losing a good friend, Will Smith, in a May 2021 car crash.

* Says Tanner: “I’ve heard songwriters say ‘the song wrote itself” or ‘It wasn’t me that wrote this one.’ I had never fully understood this until about a week after his funeral when I sat down and this song came out just as fast as I could put it on to paper. When I got to the end it felt as though I came back down to earth from somewhere else, and I was all alone again with this song in front of me. No re-writes. No revisions. Just done. This is the last song that me and Will Smith wrote together — ‘When Grown Men Cry.'”

* He describes his music as his “own original style of soulful southern rock.”

Tanner on social media:
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