The Voice: Blake Shelton scores four-chair singer Avery Roberson as blind auditions continue

Blake Shelton beat all of his fellow coaches to win a shy country singer for his team as the blind auditions continued on Monday’s episode of The Voice.

Avery Roberson, a 20-year-old musician from Rutherdforton, North Carolina, scored a four-chair turn from the coaches for his take on Tim McGraw’s If You’re Reading This.

The clarity and purity of his voice earned him a standing ovation, even though his performance was quiet and unassuming just like him.

Avery hailed from a small town known for its ‘thrift stores, gas stations and woods,’ where his biggest gig was performing at a local senior center.

Girls his age paid him little attention, but the senior women loved him, Avery admitted.

Kelly Clarkson, 38, was immediately won over by the contestant’s easy charm and sweet voice, impressed by the fact that he didn’t wail to get attention, but played things down.

‘It sounded so beautiful and intimate,’ she raved.

Blake, 44, watched as Kelly told Avery she ‘grew up on country music,’ and added: ‘Then she walked away from it.’

His fellow coaches teased him about going Hollywood, but he took winning Avery seriously.

‘I am the only person on the panel who knows who sings the song that you just sang,’ Blake told Avery. ‘It’s important to have a concrete understanding of country music, because you can’t know where it’s going unless you know where it came from.’

‘I have to be your coach, Avery,’ he went on. ‘This my 20th season. There [are] no motives here for me. I want to be able to be on your level, understand what you want to do, and fight for what you do. It’s not about me. I want this for you.’

John Legend, 42, urged Avery to ‘break the mold’ and choose a different coach, but he picked Blake anyway.

That wasn’t Blake’s only win on Monday.

He also won Emma Caroline, 25, to his team after hearing her sing Kacey Musgraves’ Slow Burn.

The Tuscaloosa, Alabama, contestant scored a chair turn from Blake and Kelly for her pretty vocals, but Blake won her over by praising her ‘mountain-sounding voice.’

Kelly lured her fair share of contestants to her team as well.

Schoolteacher Halley Greg, 29, from Seattle, quit her job to focus on music—right at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

‘All of a sudden, no more gigs,’ she recalled. ‘All of this momentum I had going was just gone.’

That knocked down Halley’s career options, but her mesmerizing version of Nelly Furtado’s I’m Like a Bird made it look like things would be fine anyway.

‘Your voice is so pure and it’s so intimate, and it’s so beautiful,’ said Kelly, who compared Halley to Annie Lennox and scored her for her team.

Ryleigh Modig, 18, from Spencer, Massachusetts, earned chair turns from Kelly and Nick Jonas, 28, after singing a gorgeous cover of Billie Eilish’s When The Party’s Over.

‘This song means the world to me because it’s about not wanting to lie about how you feel about things,’ said Ryleigh, who’d lost friends after coming out as gay.

Kelly loved Ryleigh’s tone, cheering ‘Wooh! You’d better sing those runs!’ and laughing after Ryleigh was unimpressed by Nick’s flirty pitch, declaring ‘Kelly, I’m gay!’

‘Yes!’ John teased Nick. ‘Your powers did not work on her!’

John did well for himself, scoring at least three contestants throughout the night.

Ciana Pelekai, 20, from Las Vegas, impressed everyone with her rendition of Tones and I’s Dance Monkey, which was so good on the high notes that John blocked Nick to get her.

‘I had this feeling that if anyone was gonna compete for your affection with me, it’d be this guy with the shiny leather jacket on,’ John said of Nick, who’d blocked him before. ‘This was the moment to get him back, and I am so happy.’

John later turned his chair for Durell Anthony, 34, from San Diego, who showed off his piercing vocals on Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On.

Kelly loved Durell’s unique singing style but the contestant was determined to join John’s team.

Next up was Pia Renee, 37, a single mom and working musician from Chicago, who wowed with her cover of Stevie Wonder’s Master Blaster (Jammin’).

Pia sang her heart out—and at first it looked like no one got it, but John and Blake saved their chair turns until the end.

‘Dang it!’ said a dispirited Blake, who knew Pia would go to straight to John and unsuccessfully cited girlfriend Gwen Stefani’s love of ska to woo the woman.

‘Wouldn’t it be great if SHE were here to coach you?’ John joked, as Pia joined his team.

Blake’s inability to recognize the names of famed reggae artists also did him in.

‘Blake acted like he knows reggae, but I said no, no, no way,’ John sang to Pia. ‘Welcome to Team Legend. Welcome to Team Legend!’

John’s fellow coaches later tried to come up with a similarly catchy tune, to no avail.

Andrew Marshall, 21, from Boxford, Massachusetts, joined Nick’s team after crooning his version of John Mayer’s Gravity.

As a kid, Andrew had been diagnosed with leukemia and met Mayer via Make-A-Wish, so the song was special to him. 

Jose Figueroa Jr., 34, a gospel artist and Zumba instructor from Kissimmee, Florida, delighted the panel with his cover of Billy Vera and the Beaters’ At this Moment.

Once again, John and Nick turned their chairs together, but Nick won.

‘Look at this guy,’ Blake said of Jose. ‘He’s gonna blow people’s brains out of their butts into the toilet, and the toilet’s gonna flush itself!’

Two singers did not end up going through on Monday.

James Tutson, 31, from Iowa City, Iowa, did a pretty cover of Leon Bridges’ Beyond, but the coaches found it a ‘little pitchy,’ John said.

Jesse Desorcy, 29, a singer from Burrillville, Rhode Island, also failed to make it with his take on Kenny Chesney’s Dust On The Bottle.

He didn’t know no one had turned until Kelly told him, though.

‘I’m legally blind so I have no idea what happened on that side of things,’ Jesse confessed.