Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Under the heading of striking while the iron is hot, Season 6 Voice contestant Jake Barker just released a four-track debut EP.

The EP is called “Stage Fright” and hit iTunes last week. Classified as R&B / Soul on the site, it features four tracks, including “Oh So Simple,” which I’ve embedded below.

The title, of course, is appropriate, because Jake is the guy who had never performed live before auditioning for Season 6 of The Voice at age 28.

He told the show he focused mostly on sports growing up, but got interested in music about five years ago and started posting videos to YouTube.

They made an impression — to the tune of more than 1.7 million views.

On the show, he turned three chairs with his blind audition performance of “When I Was Your Man,” landed a spot on Team Usher, was stolen by Adam Levine in the battle round and made it all the way to the Team Adam Top 5 before being eliminated.

In addition to the EP, four of the songs he performed on The Voice are still available on iTunes. And Jake got to perform on the season finale, performing “Team” by Lorde with Christina Grimmie and her friends and showing off some nifty dance moves in the process.

Fans of Jake got another bit of good news after Season 6 ended. He’s been added to The Voice summer tour that kicks off June 21 in San Antonio, Texas, and includes stops locally in Hershey and Baltimore. For ticket info on the local shows, click on the concerts tab at the top of the page.

That tour will also feature Christina, Josh Kaufman, Jake Worthington and Kristen Merlin from Season 6, Tessanne Chin, Jacquie Lee and Will Chaplin from Season 5 and Dia Frampton from Season 1.

30 dates are planned, with the tour continuing through early August. Head here for the complete list.

As for the EP, yeh, Jake admitted to feeling some stage fright when he started performing on The Voice, but the title is also the name of one of the songs on the EP and, in this case, the stage fright applies to a relationship.

“I hope you guys like the new music,” Jake writes on YouTube. “This is only the beginning and I’m so excited to release more and more stuff.”