Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The Voice Season 16 Top 4 of Andrew Sevener, Gyth Rigdon, Maelyn Jarmon and Dexter Roberts. (NBC Photo)

Each member of The Voice Top 4 will take the stage three times tonight.

Maelyn Jarmon of Team John Legend and Team Blake Shelton’s trio of country artists — Dexter Roberts, Gyth Rigdon and Andrew Sevener — will each sing two solo songs and perform a duet with their coach.

One of the solos will be a new original; the other will be a cover.

Both of those will count toward that valuable overnight streaming bonus on Apple Music. The coach-contestant duet will not factor into those calculations.

For those who forget, Maelyn Jarmon won the streaming bonus the past two weeks, and those votes carry over the final vote tabulation for determining the Season 16 winner.

I’ve grouped the grades below by round of competition. The numbers indicate the performance order.

See also …
Ranking the Top 4 on The Voice
Andrew Sevener’s Voice performances
Dexter Roberts’ Voice performances
Gyth Rigdon’s Voice performances
Maelyn Jarmon’s Voice performances

Original songs

5. Andrew Sevener, “Rural Route Raising” Andrew likes this song because it’s current, but has an old-time rock and roll feel at the same time. Andrew says this is the kind of music he’d like to make. If I had to chose to download one of the four new singles, I’m pretty sure this is the one I’d pick. It’s catchy and fun. Really nice pick, Andrew. He’s the longshot tonight, but he’s turning in solid performances. Grade: B+

8. Dexter Roberts, “Looking Back” — Blake says he’s glad they found a song that would work with Dexter’s voice. And he’ll be the first singer tonight to wrap up his solos. His voice certainly cuts through on that chorus, but I’m not thrilled with this original song. Blake though this worked well with Dexter’s voice, huh? Hate to say it, Dexter fans, but this is my least favorite performance of his from the entire competition. Grade: C

11. Gyth Rigdon, “Proof I’ve Always Loved You” — Gyth wrote his own original. Very cool. He says it’s a song he’s had in his back pocket for a long time. It was inspired by Gyth’s wife, Bayleigh. I’m still wondering if Gyth is in tip-top shape vocally. His voice sounding a lot more ragged tonight. Nice song, but Gyth’s vocal was all over the place. Grade: C+

1. Maelyn Jarmon, “Wait for You” — Maelyn says she relates to this song because of the long-distant relationship she and her boyfriend have had to endure while she competes. Maelyn has a beautiful little lilt to her voice. And she’s one again delivering a pitch perfect vocal. And she takes an opportunity to deliver a really nice glory night just before walking down to perform among the fans. Nice show-opening performance from Maelyn. Grade: B+

New covers

9. Andrew Sevener, “Lips of an Angel” by Hinder — Hey, Andrew sounds really good on this. Wish he had a couple of more weeks to grow on fans. He’s been the most solid of Blake’s country trio tonight, from my viewpoint. Really heartfelt and an excellent ending from Andrew. Kelly is beside herself over that performance. In fact, Andrew earned a standing ovation from the judges. Grade: A–

3. Dexter Roberts, “Anything Goes” by Randy Houser — Dexter notes that he turned four chairs with a Randy Houser song in the blinds and saved this song in case he made it to the finals. Dexter’s probably the strongest pure country singer of the three guys in the finals. And he’s making a nice emotion connection to this song. Personaly, I’m not thrilled with the song choice. But it is giving Dexter a chance to show off the power in his voice. Grade: B

7. Gyth Rigdon, “Once in a Blue Moon” by Earl Thomas Conley — Blake talks about Gyth’s potential as a country artist. And he launches into this song with a big blue moon behind him, of course. Sorry, very shaky opening. Like the gravelly tone in Gyth’s vocal, but this isn’t making the impact I think he and Blake had hoped for. Maybe that’s why the blue moon just turned white. Grade: C+

12. Maelyn Jarmon, “Hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley — The Voice reminds us that Maelyn was the first ever singer to join Team John Legend. As for performance order, I would have predicted this as the show-closer as soon as I saw the set list earlier today. The came alive when Maelyn hit the third verse and started adding her little wrinkles to the song. The closing was brilliant. But then again, performing that song on a show like this is a huge advantage. Grade:A

Contestant / Coach Duets

2. Andrew Sevener with Blake Shelton, “All Right Now” by Free — Still think contestants should have performed a third solo tonight because the finals have been shortened so drastically. But this should be a fun performance. I’m not sure Andrew has a vocal gear that doesn’t go 100 mph. Andrew did a lot of ab libbing during that song, to pretty good effect. Grade: B

10. Dexter Roberts with Blake Shelton, “Hard Workin’ Man” — Another up-tempo number featuring Blake and one of his country singers. Dexter is sounding much better on this than he did on his original from a few minutes earlier. Really solid ending from Dexter too. Like the way Blake handles duets. He always gives his contestants the best chance to shine. Not all Voice coaches (remember Christina) always did that. Grade: B

4. Gyth Rigdon with Blake shelton, “Take It Easy” by The Eagles — Blake and Gyth say they’re doing the Travis Tritt version of this classic hit. Mistake: Gyth should have said the first voice and Gyth the chorus. Maybe Gyth’s voice is shot from doing The Voice, but he had trouble belting last week and seemed to have trouble doing it there. Gyth did sound much better later in the song. Grade: B–

6. Maelyn Jarmon with John Legend, “Unforgetable” by Nat King Cole — Wake me up when this is over. Seriously, this dates back to 1951. As in almost 70 years ago. Nice vocal. Nice ending note by Maelyn. But a little too sleepy for my taste. Grade: B–