Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Her audition: Brenna Yaeger, 19, of Spokane, Wash., performed Miranda Lambert’s “The House that Built Me.” She displayed a sweet voice, turning in one of the best performances from the fourth blind audition episode. It prompted Blake Shelton and Adam Levine to turn their chairs. Given her song choice, it was no surprise Brenna opted to join Team Blake.

Her background: Brenna told The Voice she comes from a family of five children who grew up in a log cabin and enjoyed living there on a sanctuary with a variety of animals, including a bull named Bubblegum, who acted like a dog. But her parents split, forcing them to leave the log cabin, a place Brenna misses. Hence her blind audition song choice. She has the song title tattooed on her foot. Music was a means of coping with the split, of her parents and from her home. She now works at a general store, but says she wants to be a performer.

What the show didn’t show: In her Voice video, Brenna says she’d like to prove that you don’t have to come from L.A. or have tons of formal training to be good at music, that it’s performing from the heart that counts. And Brenna says she’s been singing for a while. “I was the singer of the family. I just sang everything. Of course, they (her siblings) got annoyed by it. But I didn’t stop.” In her YouTube bio, she says she’s been playing guitar for about five years. Her loves are fishing and singing. Oh, and she sells fishing tackles at that general store in Spokane, something she says she probably won’t be doing anymore should she become the Season 8 champ. One of the biggest crowds she’s performed for was 800 people when she competed in Spokane’s Got Talent. And she released a single called “Car Crash” about the dangers of drinking and driving in 2012 after a friend’s family was torn apart by a fatal accident. All proceeds from sales of the song were to go to the Greater Spokane Substance Abuse Council. Brenna’s also a 2014 graduate of Meade High School, where she also excelled in engineering, according to her hometown TV station. Of course, her engineering teacher recalls her carrying around a guitar and humming in class. Says Brenna in that YouTube bio: “I do believe that one day you’re gonna see me on the covers of magazines and (be) watching my music on CMT.”

On iTunes: Her audition song and the 2012 single called “Car Crash.” You can listen to it below.

Update: In the battle round, she was matched with Kelsie May. They sang Reba McEntire’s “Fancy.” Blake declared Kelsie the winner; Brenna was eliminated from the competition.

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