Idol Chatter & Voice Views

What happened: Voice fans voted Team Blake’s two country singers — Sundance Head and Austin Allsup — into the finals. That left Blake Shelton with the option of saving Courtney Harrell, Jason Warrior or Dana Harper. He went with Courtney.

What should have happened: If they perform like they did Monday night, I won’t be surprised to see Sundance and Austin hang around a while in the finals. Courtney’s much better than her Monday night performance, so I’m fine with her being saved. But it’s a shame there wasn’t a spot in the Top 12 for Jason, who’d been solid in every round.

Song by song grades —

Austin Allsup: “I Ain’t Living Long Like This” by Waylon Jennings — On a night when big performances were in order, Austin went upbeat with the Waylon tune and delivered a solid reason for Team Blake supporters to back him. Sundance Head figures to be the show’s country front-runner; Austin could be a dark horse. Grade: B+

Courtney Harrell: “It Must Have Been Love” by Roxette — Another of the bewildering song choices during Monday’s show. I mean, is this the same Courtney who slayed — absolutely slayed “River Deep Mountain High” in the knockout round? Didn’t sound like it. Grade: C–

Dana Harper: “Maneater” by Hall and Oates — Dana did a nice job changing up the opening of the song. After that — well, this performance just wasn’t anything special. Certainly nothing that screamed: I must be a member of the Top 12. Grade: C

Jason Warrior: “One Dance” by Drake — After a shaky opening, Jason found his groove and wound up delivering the most entertaining performance of the night on Team Blake. And that big ending was especially impressive considering all the running around Jason had done during the song. Grade: B

Sundance Head — “Blue Ain’t Your Color” by Keith Urban — I think Sundance showed he can be a Season 11 front-runner with his passionate performance and big voice on this song. On a night filled with some questionable song choices from the Top 20, this was one of the best and Sundance delivered. Grade: A–