When “The Voice” returns to NBC next month, vocal coach BlakeShelton will be nowhere around.
The country superstar, whose latest album is “Red River Blue,”will be knee deep on his new tour, “Well Lit & Amplified,”which comes to Chaifetz Arena on Friday with supporting acts DiaFrampton of “The Voice” and Justin Moore.
But fans of the country superstar needn’t worry.
The first several weeks of the second season of “The Voice,”which begins Feb. 5 after the Super Bowl, have already been taped,allowing Shelton to tour and return to “The Voice” in time for thelive rounds.
“I’ve learned the hard way you can’t tour and do live TV at thesame time. that sucks bad,” Shelton said last week.
“This year, I’m not touring when ‘The Voice’ starts airing livein the middle of March. once we’re live, we shut it down andconcentrate on the show. we have to make my show and my team asstrong as it can be.”
“The Voice” was a strong performer in its first season, a rarebright spot on NBC’s prime-time schedule. Javier Colon was thewinner of the inaugural season, which featured coaches Shelton, CeeLo Green, Christina Aguilera and Adam Levine overseeing teams ofcontestants.
Frampton was part of Shelton’s team.
Shelton says the show’s immediate success was due to the noveltyof having famous coaches work with the contestants.
“I think having the four of us on the show together helped makeit interesting,” says Shelton, acknowledging that viewers probablydidn’t know what to make of the show initially.
“I was skeptical. I wondered if people would tune in to see thefirst few episodes and never watch again. but once they did tune into see what we were about, they were hooked. they realized itwasn’t just another talent show. (It was) artists working withother artists.”
The show could have its work cut out for itself in Season 2.When “The Voice” debuted last summer, it had no similarcompetition.
“American Idol” had just wrapped its season, and “The X Factor”had yet to air. this season, “The Voice” and “American Idol,” whichstarts Wednesday, will overlap.
“I’m interested to see what happens,” Shelton says. “Commonsense says that’s our competition, the only competition thereprobably is. I don’t know. We’re two different things. We’reobviously both looking for the next big star out there. but the waywe go about it is two completely different things, and I don’tthink any one of them is wrong.
“If anything, I hope because we’re a newer concept and havedifferent levels to go through that that will play into ourhands.”
“The X Factor,” Simon Cowell’s competition series that ended itsfirst season in December, and “The Voice” both have coaches, butShelton says there’s a difference. On “The Voice,” all four of thecoaches are performers. On “The X Factor,” two of thejudges-coaches are industry executives Cowell and L.a. Reid, alongwith singer-dancer Paula Abdul and singer Nicole Scherzinger.
“The interesting thing about that for me is that with any one ofthe four of us, if we see something going on up there on stage, wecan stop it and grab the microphone and sing as good or out-singanyone on our team,” Shelton says. “That’s what we do.”
On Season 2 of “The Voice” teams will increase to 12 people fromeight. Shelton attributes this to a bigger talent pool thisyear.
For Shelton, “The Voice” has clearly filtered into other areasof his career. He found the perfect connection between the TV showand his tour when he decided to grab Frampton. Getting her to tourwith him was a no-brainer, he says.
“When it came up, she was the first name I threw up there, forher to be a part of this,” Shelton says. “I pushed her over theedge of the cliff. I couldn’t leave her out there for thewolves.
“Now that she’s made a record, it was time to get her outthere,” says Shelton, who guests on her album.
Moore was another easy choice.
“That guy’s career is really taking off, and he’s developing afan base,” Shelton says. “He puts on an awesome show — really getspeople fired up. and that’s what I want, for people to walk awayexhausted. He’ll contribute to that.”
Still, Shelton knows that many fans are waiting for him to tourwith his wife, country star Miranda Lambert.
“That’s definitely something we talk about,” he says. “Thetrouble is, she and I are so unfocused on our future. It’s hard forus to put a plan together. but I know in our hearts we’ll do that.but it’ll take discipline on both our parts. we have to do it atsome point.”
Shelton approached his tour from the perspective of a fan. Heasked himself what he would want to see in concert — and the answerwas everything.
“I want to hear every song the artist ever did,” he says.”That’s what I will try to do, have a packed set list. my career(is) going on 11 years now, so there’s a lot of songs that’vedropped out of the set list because I didn’t have time to do them.I want to incorporate some of those songs back into the set, thoughthey’re not recent hits.
“They’re still important to my overall catalog, and I love thosemoments when people in the audience are mouthing the words.”
The songs will be accompanied by what he says is his biggestproduction ever.
“It’s 10 times bigger, but it’s still not too big,” Sheltonsays. “I’m mainly, in my own small way, stepping into the bigleagues, and I’m coming armed with cool stuff that’ll be fun towatch without distracting from the music.”
Fans certainly don’t want to be distracted from “She Wouldn’t BeGone,” “I’ll Just Hold On,” “Nobody but Me,” “Home,” “The Baby” and”Some Beach,” or songs from his new “Red River Blue” album such as”God Gave Me You” and “Honey Bee.”
Shelton says there’s nothing about “Red River Blue” that’sparticularly artsy or that sounds important.
“I love all kinds of music, whether it’s making you laugh orcry, and I want to do all of that,” he says. “That’s what I thoughtabout when I was making this record, making songs about drinking myface off or picking up a girl at a bar. That’s how I approached it,and it works. I’m not saying it always will, but it did thistime.
“People take themselves too seriously. this isn’t brainsurgery.”
Competing on ‘The Voice’ paid off for singer DiaFrampton
Pop singer Dia Frampton says she had no idea what she wasgetting into when she auditioned for the first season of the NBChit “The Voice.”
“There were no previous seasons I could watch and see what I wastrying out for,” she says.
The quirky-voiced Frampton, part of the band Meg & Dia,tried out for “The Voice” at the suggestion of a friend.
“I was never really one to try out for a reality show,” shesays. “I never did ‘Idol.’ When I tried out, I didn’t know what itwas, and they didn’t have the coaches. if I’d known what ‘TheVoice’ was, I wouldn’t have tried out. I’m not that person. I’m notthe singer to comfortably belt out a Celine Dion song.”
Still, if she hadn’t auditioned for what would be the biggesttelevised singing competition since “American Idol,” “I wouldn’thave gotten this opportunity. it was an amazing experience.”
Frampton came in second in the competition to Javier Colon, butit hasn’t hampered her progress. she has a new album, “Red,”featuring the single “The Broken Ones.” and she’s on the roadbeginning this week, supporting her “Voice” coach Blake Shelton onhis tour, which comes to Chaifetz Arena tonight.
Since coming in second on “The Voice,” Frampton saw her newalbum fast-tracked because it had to be released before Season 2starts next month. that meant intense, daily songwriting.
On “Red,” she says, the main thing for her was that her creativevoice be heard.
“With shows like this, reality shows, when you have to put arecord out, it’s fast and quick and a huge group of songwriters arehired, and they make the songs and the singer has to record overit,” Frampton says. “And it’s done. I didn’t want it to happen likethat.”
Frampton co-wrote every song on the album, including one withher sister Meg.
Guests on the album include Shelton, rapper Kid Cudi and membersof the group Foster the People.
As a solo artist, she says, her songs are more upbeat than hermusic with her sister in Meg & Dia, which she describes asbeing more mellow and acoustic.
“I wanted a record you could make out to, and that would makeyou happy,” she says.
Frampton says making a career under her own name has not hurtMeg & Dia.
“It’s been very helpful,” she says. “All the other members ofthe band are on tour with me.”
And Shelton has helped her figure out who she is.
“He told me to be myself,” Frampton says. “Don’t try to changemyself. Learn your strengths and your weaknesses. but play up yourstrengths.”
Blake Shelton’s “Well Lit & Amplified” tour with DiaFrampton, Justin Moore
When 7:30 p.m. Friday • WhereChaifetz Arena, 1 South Compton Avenue • How much$25-$49.75 • More info MetroTix
‘Voice’ coach Blake Shelton gets back to touring
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