Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The members of Team Reba — Justin and Jeremy Garcia, Josh Sanders, L. Rodgers, Asher HaVon and Jackie Romeo — await their fate on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

The Voice playoffs concluded Monday night with performances by Team Chance and Team Reba.

And after everyone performed, Reba McEntire had to choose three singers from his team to advance.

Reba decided to advance Asher HaVon, L. Rodgers and Josh Sanders.

Asher and L. absolutely needed to advance after their superb playoff round performances.

I’m much more lukewarm on Josh, but can understand Reba’s desire to take a country singer — especially a male country singer — into the live shows considering how much support they’ve gotten from Voice fans in the past.

Here are the song by song grades for Team Reba.

Josh Sanders, 35, of Kannapolis, N.C., “Black Water” by The Doobie Brothers: Josh says this is a song he remembers singing with his dad. Josh has lost his cap for this performance. Nice move because it was hiding his eyes during most of his earlier performances. Superb opening by Josh, but I’m not sure he fully capitalized on that momentum. He tried to insert all sorts of vocal moments into the song and the performance wound up seeming oddly disjointed at times. John loved how soulful the performance was. Chance complimented him on amazing pitch control and called it a show-stopping performance. Reba called it Josh’s best performance. Grade: C+

Justin and Jeremy Garcia, 17, Millbrae, Calif., “Castle on the Hill” by Ed Sheeran: They say the song reminds them to cherish memories they spent together in their childhood. The rehearsal came off like a noisy mess. That said, the on-stage performance was much, much better. And they sang harmonies for the bulk of the song. And delivered a pretty impressive ending too. That was much better than I expected. Dan says there’s something contageous and magical to the energy they bring to the stage. John complimented them on the growth they’ve shown. Reba said the real performance was 60 times better than in rehearsal. Grade: B–

Jackie Romeo, 20, of Massapequa, N.Y., “The Story” by Brandi Carlile: Originally a member of Team Legend, Jackie is Reba’s steal. She says she connects with this song more than any she’s performed on the show so far because of the sacrifices her mom made for her children. Wow, I didn’t know Jackie had that much range. Superb opening. And Jackie is performing the song with a passion that shows that connection she was talking about. But here’s the thing: this performance could have been so much better without the noise created by the band. A stripped down version of the song would have been so much more powerful. John said he loved the performance. Reba said Jackie sang like an angel. Grade: B+

L. Rodgers, 34, of Baltimore, Md., “All I Know So Far” by Pink: L. was Reba’s playoff pass, so we haven’t heard from her in a while. She starts off powerfully. A cappella no less. That folks, is how you approach the playoffs on The Voice. That was a dynamic vocal, from beginning to end by a singer completely in control of what she was doing on stage. Didn’t realize, or else I’d forgotten, that L. has that nice touch of rasp in her voice. Dan called it an awesome performance. Reba said she did spectacularly well. Grade: A–

Asher HaVon, 31, Selma, Ala., “Titanium” by Sia: He shows up on stage wearing a cape. And displaying one of the show’s best voices. And, my, my, he’s going to turn “Titanium” into a heartfelt ballad. I usually frown on a vocal with this many frills. But Asher is doing them so well and tastefully, I don’t mind one bit. This folks, is a masterful vocal performance on a show that’s supposed to be all about the voice. Great job. Shay said it felt like a Grammy moment for Asher. Dan said he could win the show. Reba praised his performance as well. John called Asher stunning. Grade: A