Album review: Jason Boland & The Stragglers “Dark and Dirty Mile”
A version of this review appears in Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman. To read my interview with Jason Boland, click here.
COUNTRY
Jason Boland & The Stragglers “Dark and Dirty Mile” (Proud Souls Entertainment/Thirty Tigers)
Jason Boland & The Stragglers keep steadfastly walking the classic country road with “Dark and Dirty Mile,” the renowned Austin, Texas-based band’s seventh studio album.
Released Tuesday, the follow-up to 2011’s excellent “Rancho Alto” showcases the worn-leather baritone of singer/songwriter/guitarist Boland as well as the hard-earned musicianship of his road-tested red dirt outfit, which includes guitar, pedal steel and resophonic guitar player Roger Ray, bassist Grant Tracy, drummer Brad Rice and fiddler/mandolin player Nick Worley.
More than that, the album, which Boland coproduced with Shooter Jennings, son of the legendary Waylon Jennings, affirms the band’s dedication to its hard-core country sound, folk songwriting sensibilities and outlaw country attitudes.
A Harrah native and former Oklahoma State University student, Boland, 38, again proudly shows his deep Oklahoma music roots on the new album, which features a stellar rendition of red dirt pioneer Randy Crouch’s thought-provoking “They Took It Away.” Like the somber story song “Ludlow” and the snappy and sharply worded cautionary tale “Nine Times Out of Ten,” the cover expresses what the frontman considers a healthy suspicion of the powers that be.
Even the two-stepping ballad “Electric Bill” includes the timely and darkly funny lyric “When they need to take a closer look at what it means to love, they can watch with a drone from miles above.”
In classic country fashion, “Dark and Dirty Road” walks the line between topical and timeless. The gorgeous love song “Lucky I Guess” seems custom crafted for two-stepping, while the closing ode “See You When I See You” tenderly bids “happy travels my old friend.” The loping Tex-Mex anthem “Spend All Your Time” channels the elder Jennings while urging listeners to really live life.
The rowdy rocker “Green Screen” cuttingly jabs at our society’s lies and false fronts, but authenticity isn’t a problem for the new album. Recorded to tape at Cedar Creek Recording in Austin. “Dark and Dirty Mile,” like the title track that opens the 11-song collection, has a warm, live and real vibe.
The Stragglers will celebrate the new album with a home-state show Friday night at Tulsa’s legendary Cain’s Ballroom. For more information, go to www.cainsballroom.com.
IN CONCERT
Jason Boland & The Stragglers
With: Jason Eady.
When: 8:30 p.m. Friday. Doors open at 7 p.m.
Where: Cain’s Ballroom, 423 N Main, Tulsa.
Information: www.cainsballroom.com.
-BAM
Interview: Jason Boland & The Stragglers take “Dark and Dirty Mile” to Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa
A version of this story appears in Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman. To read my “Dark and Dirty Mile” album review, click here.
Jason Boland & The Stragglers take “Dark and Dirty Mile” to Cain’s Ballroom
The red dirt band will celebrate the release of its seventh studio album with a return trip to the legendary Tulsa venue.
Call him a classic country torchbearer, a musical outlaw or an old-school folk singer, Jason Boland just wants to make sure his songs mean something.
“It’s just folk music is all it is. All folk music should have a little wink and nod to the salt of the earth, and that’s all it’s ever doing. It’s just trying to live up to Woody Guthrie on through Merle Haggard. Man, go listen to a lot of old Merle Haggard — it was all topical and about something. I think that’s one of the biggest problems with music is that it’s just lost talking about anything. It just talks about have a good time or cry over something,” or just pour salt in the wound or I don’t know,” the Harrah native said in a phone interview last week.
“Not every song has to be some world-changing protest song or some great history lesson. There’s time for dance songs, cry-in-your-beer songs. There’s time for everything. So I think we just try to keep a mix of it.”
That mix is evident on “Dark and Dirty Mile,” the red dirt musician’s seventh studio album with his band, The Stragglers. Released Tuesday, the album is already earning widespread praise for its old-school country sound, profound songwriting and Boland’s weathered baritone. The 11 tracks include the poignant funeral ode “See You When I See You,” the lovely ballad “Lucky I Guess” and the timely two-stepper “Electric Bill.”
That last one, a toe-tapping tribute to love in hard times, sneaks in the topical line “When they need to take a closer look at what it means to love, they can watch with a drone from miles above.” From the sobering story song “Ludlow” to the band’s cover of red dirt pioneer Randy Crouch’s “They Took It Away,” Boland often expresses what he considers a healthy distrust of the government in his music.
“Well, I guess that’s why they call us outlaws or something,” he said with a laugh. “I just think, isn’t that what patriots are called to do? Is just always question things, you know. I think that’s just part of our job is just being critical thinkers. Just to be aware of things.”
The Crouch cover didn’t just make the cut because it fit the theme. Boland and his cohorts make it a point to record great songs by their red dirt music forerunners, and they never have a problem finding plenty of options.
“We’re always lookin’ to do songs by the people that inspired us to approach music the way we do today. So, we always do (Bob) Childers songs, and we’ve done several Crouch and this was another one that just fit the record. I think we got a really nice take of it,” Boland said from the road in his adopted home state of Texas.
Boland, 38, co-produced “Dark and Dirty Mile” with singer-songwriter Shooter Jennings. who had helped on a couple of projects but had never taken on such an active producing role.
“It was just an organic thing. It wasn’t anybody, ‘Hey, we need to set this up in a meeting,’” Boland said.
“You know, producers help arrange the songs, so he was in the rehearsals with us and he helped arranged some of the melodic licks. “He was just what you need, just a good hands-on producer, an extra trusted ear in the room, another set of ideas, another person that’s not one of us in the band that’s locked into this that’s been playing ‘em night after night getting ‘em ready. The guys worked really hard on this record, too, just arranging their parts and getting their songs together. It was a big group effort of producing the music on this record.”
The band again recorded at Cedar Creek Recording in Austin, Texas, and he said Jennings understood the tone and sound they wanted for the album.
“We just got in there with the band and some buddies and cut it straight to tape and mixed it down to tape and tried to keep the computers out of the process and had a great time doing that. And I think anybody that was a fan of the tone and the sound we were going for on our first record, ‘Pearl Snaps,’ I think they’ll really enjoy listening to this record and hearing where we’ve gone,” Boland said.
“What we were going for again … was to capture a pretty live recording. We were still in the studio and we rewound the tape a lot, but it’s performances. It’s not put through ProTools or any of that environment, which anymore that’s pretty rare. It’ll probably be to our folly: Some people hear it and think ‘oh, that doesn’t sound right.’ But it’s what I enjoy hearing.”
The singer-songwriter recently returned from a European tour that included a solo show in Belgium, acoustic performances in Italy with Stragglers fiddler Nick Worley and a full-band gig at Mayfest in Pontivy, France.
“It was a lot of fun, good crowds and a lot of good sightseeing,” said Boland, who had previously played a 2004 festival in France but saw more of Europe on this trek. “They’re very attentive, they know way more of the material than you ever think they’re going to, and it’s just a great experience.”
He and his bandmates are playing a much more familiar spot Friday, when he will celebrate the new album with a home-state show at Tulsa’s legendary Cain’s Ballroom.
“Cain’s is truly one that rises to the top when we say our favorite all-time gigs. It’s just it’s special to us all in so many ways, really. However cheesy it may sound or nostalgic, if there’s any place that fires that up in us, it’s Cain’s,” Boland said.
“We’re rooted in the region. I don’t think any of us consider ourselves any kind of spokespeople or anything, but … if they hear it and they know it’s true, then we feel like we’ve done our job.”
IN CONCERT
Jason Boland & The Stragglers
With: Jason Eady.
When: 8:30 p.m. Friday. Doors open at 7 p.m.
Where: Cain’s Ballroom, 423 N Main, Tulsa.
Information: www.cainsballroom.com.
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Interview: After 10 years, Toby Keith pleased with the progress on the OK Kids Korral
Toby Keith, left, watches as Brock Hart, 3, from Edmond, shovels dirt during groundbreaking ceremonies for the OK Kids Korral, to be built by the Toby Keith Foundation at NE 8 and Laird, in Oklahoma City Friday, May 18, 2012. Keith said in a recent interview that Brock is now cancer-free, and the OK KIds Korral will open this fall. Photo by Paul B. Southerland, The Oklahoman Archives
A version of this story appears in Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
After 10 years, Toby Keith pleased with the progress on the OK Kids Korral
The country music superstar has been working for a decade to build the a home-away-from-home for Oklahoma children battling cancer and their families, and now the $8.5 million project is due to open in October.
NORMAN — After a decade of dreaming, planning and fundraising, Toby Keith is pleased to see progress at the OK Kids Korral.
“I see it on paper, I see great graphics, I see the people working on it. I see our goal. … And then you actually drive down there and pull up in the driveway and look at it and go inside and walk around in there and you just go ‘Holy crap. Look at this big sucker. What a beautiful facility for the kids of Oklahoma,’” Keith told The Oklahoman last weekend at his fundraiser for the project.
The country music superstar believes that the donors and fellow celebrities that have supported his goal of constructing a home-away-from-home for Oklahoma children battling cancer and their families are excited about the progress, too.
The proof is in the numbers: The Toby Keith & Friends Golf Classic, along with its Denim & Diamond dinner and auction, last weekend raked in more than $1 million toward the project. By comparison, last year’s fundraiser brought in $664,000.
The $8.5 million, 25,000-square-foot lodge on the south end of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center is set to open in October.
Making a difference
“There was a lot of bureaucracy, a lot of red tape, hoops we had to jump through. And we had help from a lot of people and we had some resistance from others. Now that it’s up, it’s the buzz of the medical campus,” Keith said backstage May 10 at Riverwind Casino, where the Denim & Diamond dinner and auction kicked off the two-day event.
“It’s immaculate. It kept the lodge look of wood and rock, but it’s got the modern look of 2013 put into it. And I’m just completely amazed. It’s more than I could imagine and I’m very proud of it.”
More importantly, the OK Kids Korral will feature 16 guest suites, a gourmet kitchen, indoor and outdoor playgrounds, a movie theater, family resource room and more. It will offer overnight accommodations for families who must travel hundreds of miles from rural Oklahoma towns for their children to receive treatment as well as dayrooms where metro-area families can relax between appointments. It even will have a neutropenic wing designed for youngsters whose immune systems have been badly compromised.
“It doesn’t cost them a nickel to go. It’s just there as an offering of love to kids who are unfortunate. It’s just God shining his light through me,” Keith said.
The OK Kids Korral is the primary project of the Toby Keith Foundation, which makes its mission to “encourage the health and happiness of pediatric cancer patients.” The mission has been a personal one for the Norman resident since Ally Webb, the 2-year-old daughter of his former bandmate Scott Webb, succumbed to cancer in 2003.
Helping other families facing the same heartbreaking situation has made a difference in the superstar’s life. For instance, he got to attend the bell-ringing ceremony when Brock Hart, the 3-year-old Edmond boy who helped Keith break ground last year on the OK Kids Korral, was declared cancer-free.
“You ring the bell when you beat cancer and they check you out of the hospital, and all the doctors come in, the family comes in, your friends. He rang the bell and walked out of there. So, we hope he never needs the OK Kids Korral, but … we’ll always remember him. And he’ll always remember that we were there with him,” Keith said.
“As you get in and you start meeting these people, they become part of your life. … Brock’s amazing, man. Brock is a rock star.”
Continuing a mission
The Oklahoma native hosted his Toby Keith & Friends Golf Classic just three days after returning from his 10-day United Service Organization tour. The superstar performed for hundreds of U.S. troops and their families as his 11th annual USO tour took him to the Philippines, Guam and Hawaii.
“It was different because 10 years we’ve been in the desert. We’d do a week in Iraq and a week in Afghanistan. And a couple of years ago, they said no more Iraq, but do a week in Afghanistan and do another week in the Persian Gulf. So we started landing on aircraft carriers. And then this year … they said, ‘A lot going on in the southern Philippines nobody knows about, special forces guys down there in the jungle,’” he said.
“They were all big shows and great big bases and we surpassed our 200th show,” added Keith, who is already looking forward to next year’s USO tour. “It’s amazing. The USO does a great job. They’ve been doing it for years.”
Upcoming projects
Keith, 51, will embark on his summer “Hammer Down Tour” June 8 at the Thunder on the Mountain festival in Ozark, Ark. On June 12, he is due to receive the Songwriter Icon Award from the National Music Publishers’ Association in New York City.
“I’ve got boxes full of awards, even the People’s Choice and some of those crazy awards I’ve won over the years, the songwriting was the part of it that meant the most to me. It’s the bloodline … of the music,” he said.
“So when they honor me with something, I put it there with everything. I take a lot of pride in knowing they honored me.”
Although his tour continues into the fall, it’s a sure bet Keith will be back in Oklahoma when it comes time to celebrate the long-awaited opening of the OK Kids Korral.
For more information on the projects, go to www.tobykeithfoundation.org.
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What to do in Oklahoma on May 16, 2013: Hear Parmalee at the Wormy Dog
Today's featured event:
Hear emerging country band Parmalee at 9:30 tonight at the Wormy Dog Saloon, 311 E Sheridan. Doors open at 6 p.m.
The North Carolina outfit has already earned two consecutive Top 40 Country radio hits, including its debut single, “Musta Had A Good Time,” and “Carolina.”
The family band comprised of brothers Matt and Scott Thomas (lead vocals/ guitar and drums, respectively), cousin Barry Knox (bass) and lifelong best friend Josh McSwain (guitar). Influenced by such musical heavyweights as the Allman Brothers, Travis Tritt and Bob Seger, the band’s name is derived from the small town of Parmele, N.C., (population 262), which is home to a gas station, two blinking yellow lights and a small tin-roofed barn dubbed Studio B, where the band practiced on every given evening.
Parmalee was handpicked by Southwest Airlines as the first act to perform for the 2013 season on its Southwest Airlines "Travelin’ Taylor Tour," sponsored by Taylor Guitars. On Monday, the band performed on its Taylor Guitars for passengers at 35,000 feet in midair on a direct flight from Nashville, Tenn., to Houston, Texas.
For more information on the OKC show, go to www.wormydog.com.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
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Wednesday Video Spotlight: Gretchen Wilson to kick off Newcastle Casino Outdoor Concert Series Thursday
NEWCASTLE – On Thursday night, country singer Gretchen Wilson will kick off the the third annual Outdoor Concert Series at Newcastle Casino, I-44 and Highway 62.
Newcastle Casino’s Outdoor Concert Series is open to the public, takes place in the casino’s north parking lot and admission is free.
Ryan Sykes, Newcastle Casino’s general manager, said the festival is a chance to give back to the community and its employees.
“We are thrilled to host our third annual Outdoor Concert Series,” Sykes said in a news release. “This is a chance to show our appreciation for the local community. A concert is a great way to spend an evening outdoors listening to great music and enjoying food and friends.”
This year’s concert series will be the casino’s largest yet, Jennifer Cross, Newcastle Casino’s marketing manager added in the release. She said the concert series is a community event that locals look forward to all year.
Along with Wilson, this year’s lineup will include Creedence Clearwater Revisited, Joe Nichols, Bellamy Brothers and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.
Food and refreshment vendors will be on site, and for-purchase options will include selections from the casino’s restaurants, Stone House Pizzeria and Blackjack Grill, as well as La Luna’s taco truck. Other retailers will be setup to provide the full concert experience. Outside food and drink will be prohibited. Attendees older than 18 will receive rewards play redeemable in the casino.
Wilson, 39, last month released a new country album, “Right On Time”; check out the video for the first single, “Still Rollin’.” is an album of new material and includes the single ‘Still Rollin’.”
The country singer recently told Yahoo! Music she plans to release two more albums this year: a collection of rock cover songs called “Under the Covers,” due out this summer, and a Christmas album.
The Illinois native has notched 13 singles on the Billboard Country charts, of which five have reached Top 10: the No. 1 hit “Redneck Woman,” as well as “Here for the Party,” “When I Think About Cheatin’,” “Homewrecker” and “All Jacked Up.”
For more information on the Newcastle Casino, go to MyNewcastleCasino.com. The Outdoor Concert Series concert schedule:
Thursday, May 16- Gretchen Wilson
Thursday, June 6- Creedence Clearwater Revisited (CCR)
Thursday, July 18- Joe Nichols
Saturday, Aug. 24- Bellamy Brothers
Thursday, Sept. 26- Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
Sunday, Oct. 13- EXIT 107 LIVE Family Music Festival
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Wednesday Video Spotlight: Blake Shelton, The Swon Brothers and the rest of Team Blake, “Play Something Country”
Check out this video of Oklahoma country music superstar Blake Shelton and his all-country team – Muskogee duo The Swon Brothers, 16-year-old Texan Danielle Bradbury and Baylor University student Holly Tucker – performing the Brooks & Dunn hit “Play Something Country” on Tuesday’s episode of “The Voice.”
The Swon Brothers
Okies Zach and Colton Swon, who are the first duo to make it to “The Voice” live rounds, lead off on this fun group performance.
As previously reported, it was another elimination episode Tuesday night, but all three members of Team Blake got enough public votes to stay in the competition.
“Congratulations #TeamBlake… Well done my friends… Well done.” Shelton quickly posted on Twitter (@blakeshelton).
As the finalists were whittled from the Top 12 to the Top 10 tonight, the two lowest vote-getters were eliminated: Garrett Gardner from Team Shakira and Vedo from Team Usher.
“The Voice” live playoffs continue at 7 p.m. Monday and Tuesday on NBC.
Here is your “The Voice” Season 4 Top 10:
Team Blake: The Swon Brothers, Danielle Bradbury, Holly Tucker.
Team Adam: Judith Hill, Amber Carrington, Sarah Simmons.
Team Shakira: Kris Thomas, Sasha Allen.
Team Usher: Josiah Hawley, Michelle Chamuel.
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Wednesday Video Spotlight: Pistol Annies perform “Unhappily Married” on “Craig Ferguson,” playing live streaming show tonight
Pistol Annies, the country music trio comprised of Tishomingo resident Miranda Lambert and singer-songwriter pals Angaleena Presley and Ashley Monroe, performed the television debut of their song “Unhappily Married,” Tuesday night on “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.”
“Unhappily Married” is a darkly funny track off the group’s second album, “Annie Up.”
The Annies are continuing their media blitz in support of their sophomore release at 9 tonight with a live streaming show. Yahoo! Music will live stream the group’s one-hour concert as part of its “Ram Country Live!,” a series of exclusive special music events accessible to millions of viewers on Yahoo!
Find the player for tonight’s concert embedded after the break; it will go live at showtime.
Speaking of showtime, the Pistol Annies will play June 13 at First Council Casino in Newkirk and June 14 at Lucky Star Casino in Concho. For tickets and information, go to www.ticketstorm.com.
“Judy ‘n’ Jody” reunion concert set for Thursday night at the Oklahoma History Center
Grammy winner Jody Miller appears in a 2011 photo at Oklahoma City University. Photo by Sarah Phipps, The Oklahoman Archives
“Judy ‘n’ Jody” reunion concert set for Thursday night at the Oklahoma History Center
The public is invited to the free event, which will feature live music, light refreshments and an announcement about the proposed OKPOP museum.
Many of the musicians who played on Oklahoma’s beloved “Jude ‘n’ Jody” show will perform at a reunion Thursday night, and the public is invited.
Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Oklahoma History Center, 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive. The festivities will include free food and live music.
Guests will be invited to tour the “Oklahoma @ the Movies” exhibit, see historic footage of the television show, and partake in light refreshments. A cash bar will be available.
The program will begin at 7:15 p.m. Thursday. Admission is free, but seating is limited.
Grammy winner Jody Miller, who appeared on the “Jude ‘n’ Jody” show and had numerous top 10 hits, including “Queen of the House,” will take part in the concert.
Also featured will be Jude Northcutt, who is best remembered by Oklahoma natives as “Jude” of the Jude ‘n’ Jody furniture store band and country music duo.
Northcutt and Harold Dean “Jody” Taylor were regularly featured on Oklahoma City TV for 40 years, appearing on all three network affiliated stations. They began appearing on a show on an Ada TV station in 1954, then moved to Oklahoma City television in 1956. They continued to appear on local TV programs through 1980.-
Jody Taylor died in 2009 at the age of 74.
While not the original “Jody” of the show, Miller, who hails from Blanchard, is known for a number of hits from the 1960s and ‘70s, most notably “Queen of the House,” her 1965 answer to Erick-bred Roger Miller’s smash “King of the Road.”
In addition to the headliners, several musicians who have worked with Northcutt over the years will be reunited at the concert.
A special announcement regarding the proposed Oklahoma Museum of Popular Culture, or OKPOP, will be made during the program.
Eligible guests will be able to join AARP and then take advantage of a special discounted rate to join the Oklahoma Historical Society.
For reservations or information, contact Nicole Harvey at the Oklahoma History Center at 522-5202 or by email at nharvey@okhistory.org.
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Interview: Toby Keith Foundation’s 10th annual hometown fundraiser brings in $1 million for OK Kids Korral
Toby Keith, foreground, stands with construction workers while viewing construction at the OK Kids Korral, 818 NE 8 Street, in Oklahoma City Monday, April 1, 2013. Photo by Paul B. Southerland, The Oklahoman Archives
A version of this story appears in Wednesday’s The Oklahoman. Read more of my interview with Toby Keith in the coming day.
Toby Keith Foundation’s 10th annual fundraiser brings in $1 million
The Toby Keith & Friends Golf Classic, along with its Denim & Diamond dinner and auction, benefits the country music star’s foundation and its primary project: the construction of the OK Kids Korral, a home-away-from-home for Oklahoma children fighting cancer and their families.
NORMAN — With the help of more than a thousand fellow celebrities and hundreds of supporters, Toby Keith’s 10th annual hometown fundraiser raised more than $1 million last weekend. Toby Keith’s 10th annual hometown fundraiser raised more than $1 million last weekend.
The Toby Keith & Friends Golf Classic, along with its Denim & Diamond dinner and auction, benefits the Toby Keith Foundation and its primary project: the construction of the OK Kids Korral, a home-away-from-home for Oklahoma children fighting cancer and their families.
The $8.5 million, 25,000-square-foot lodge on the south end of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center is due to open in a matter of months.
“For the first time, we get to show people some results of what we’ve been working on for the last decade,” Keith said backstage at Friday’s Denim & Diamond event at Riverwind Casino. “The OK Kids Korral should be open in the fall, and people get to drive by and actually see where their money went.”
Having results to show seemed to resonate with supporters at the two-day event. With Keith and Tulsa comedian Rodney Carrington acting as auctioneers, Friday night’s live auction raised nearly $500,000 alone. The highest-priced item was a behind-the-scenes day with Keith’s crew on his upcoming “Hammer Down Tour.” CMT Music Awards and Academy of Country Music Awards packages and a custom Honda Rune motorcycle were other top-selling live auction items, according to a news release.
The Denim & Diamonds dinner also boasted nearly 100 silent auction items, including the opportunity to name a sandwich at the Oklahoma City Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill, which sold for $10,000.
The 2012 fundraiser raised $664,000.
Juliet Nees-Bright, executive director of The Toby Keith Foundation, said the appearance of Edmond resident Beth McDowell and her daughter Mia, 3, at Friday’s event also moved donors. Mia, who is cancer-free after battling stage 4 neuroblastoma, enchanted attendees when she began twirling around the stage.
“When I told them about our day rooms for families who live relatively close to OKC, but who have multiple appointments in a day, she (Beth) told me how they … really needed a place like the Korral while they were in treatment,” Nees-Bright said. “So, I asked her to come speak to the people at our event.”
The Korral, 818 NE 8, also will have overnight suites for families who must travel hundreds of miles from rural Oklahoma towns for their children to receive treatment, plus a kitchen, dining hall, indoor and outdoor playgrounds, game rooms and a movie theater.
Together, the live and silent auction totals were by far the biggest in the fundraiser’s 10-year history. Organizers believe the event is one of the biggest auctions ever in the state, according to the release.
In addition, a record-breaking 240 people participated in Saturday’s golf tournament at Belmar Golf Club in Norman, forcing organizers to arrange two separate shotgun starts for the first time.
For more information on the OK Kids Korral, go to www.tobykeithfoundation.org.
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Swon Brothers advance to the Top 10 on “The Voice”
The Swon Brothers
Muskogee’s The Swon Brothers have advanced to the Top 10 on the hit reality TV show “The Voice.”
Competing on Oklahoma country music superstar Blake Shelton’s team, Zach and Colton Swon were revealed as “safe” early in tonight’s hourlong live elimination episode. The normally effusive brothers’ giddy excitement was apparent the moment host Carson Daly revealed they had earned enough public votes to move on in the competition.
The live playoffs continue next week on “The Voice,” which airs at 7 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays on NBC.
“America, thank you so much, God bless you all, we love you,” Colton Swon, 24, said when “The Voice” social media correspondent Christina Milian interviewed them after their advancement.
“We’re freaking out, in case you can’t see,” Zach Swon, 28, interjected.
“We can’t believe this,” Colton added.
The Swon Brothers later took the lead when Shelton and his team, which also includes 16-year-old Texan Danielle Bradbury and Baylor University student Holly Tucker, performed Brooks & Dunn’s “Play Something Country” on tonight’s episode.
As previously reported, The Swon Brothers delivered a poignant and tuneful tribute to the late, great George Jones Monday night during “The Voice” live playoffs. They performed an acoustic rendition of The Possum’s classic “Who’s Gonna Fill Their Shoes” in honor of the Country Music Hall of Famer, who died April 26 at the age of 81.
They posted on Facebook earlier today that their Jones cover had made it into the top five on the iTunes country charts. Since iTunes downloads count as votes on “The Voice,” the popularity of the song undoubtedly helped them move on.
The Swon Brothers are the first duo in “The Voice’s” four-season history to advance to the live playoffs.
As the finalists were whittled from the Top 12 to the Top 10 tonight, the two lowest vote-getters were eliminated: Garrett Gardner from Team Shakira and Vedo from Team Usher.
All three of Shelton’s Team Blake contestants were saved, as were all three of Adam Levine’s finalists.
“Congratulations #TeamBlake… Well done my friends… Well done.” Shelton quickly posted on Twitter (@blakeshelton).
Here is your “The Voice” Season 4 Top 10:
Team Blake: The Swon Brothers, Danielle Bradbury, Holly Tucker.
Team Adam: Judith Hill, Amber Carrington, Sarah Simmons.
Team Shakira: Kris Thomas, Sasha Allen.
Team Usher: Josiah Hawley, Michelle Chamuel.
-BAM
