Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Team Kelly Clarkson entered Monday’s Top 24 show on The Voice with six singers.

They included Matthew Johnson and Jej Vinson, both of whom turned four chairs in the blind auditions. Rounding out her team were Abby Kasch, Presley Tennant, Rebecca Howell and Rod Stokes, who she stole in the cross battles.

Of the 24 singers who performed Monday, eight will advance via fan voting. Then each coach will be able to save one artist.

Here are song by song grades for Team Kelly from Monday’s show.

Presley Tennant (Team Kelly) Nothing Breaks Like a Heart by Mark Ronson — Ambitious, heartfelt performance by Presley. The young pop singer showed off her range, her power and a nice growl over the course of this cover. It wasn’t her best vocal, but I still think she’s the best singer of the teens who are still on the show. Grade: B

Abby Kasch (Team Kelly) I Got the Boy by Jana Kramer — Kelly was dying to get country singers on her team. But I’m going to be interested to see how the show’s country fan base responds to this performance. This was, flat out, not a good vocal. Abby’s has sounded much better. Grade: D+

Rebecca Howell (Team Kelly) Wild One by Faith Hill — Nice performance by Rebecca. But if she’s going to sing a song called “Wild One,” she needs to study Andrew Sevener and mimic some of his on-stage energy. As it was, Rebecca seemed to be concentrating so hard on nailing all those big notes — and she did it pretty impressively — that she didn’t seem to be having much fun on stage. Grade: B–

Rod Stokes (Team Kelly) Midnight Rider by Allman Brothers — The song choice was a nice match for his deep gravelly voice. And he sure doesn’t lack for vocal power. He turned in a solid performance that should please fans of The Voice. I also liked the way he put the guitar aside for a while to interact with the fans. Grade: B

Jej Vinson (Team Kelly) Love Lies by Khalid ft Normani — Jej sounded fabulous during his two pre-taped performances. His live efforts haven’t been quite as impressive. I thought he was fortunate to win his cross battle and, if he didn’t have a four-chair turn pedigree, I’d say he’d be a long shot to make the Top 13 based on this performance. Grade: C+

Matthew Johnson (Team Kelly) Ordinary People by John Legend — Matt was the only singer brave enough to tackle a coach’s song on Top 24 night. He showed flashes of his four-chair-turn pedigree, with a strong opening and his falsetto. But this vocal was also a bit all over the place. What I wrote about Jej’s chances: Ditto for Matthew. Good thing he has that four-chair turn in his hip pocket. Grade: C+