Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Their audition: Jubal and Amanda auditioned with “Seven Bridges Road,” an Eagles hit written by Jubal’s dad. Gwen Stefani and Pharrell Williams turned late in the performance. As the coaches were making their pitches, Blake Shelton asked if the couple were married. At which point Jubal dropped to his knee and produced an engagement ring. She said “yes;” then they picked Pharrell.

Their background: He’s Jubal Lee Young; she’s Amanda Preslar. They not only sing together, they’re also a couple. “We were hanging around, singing on our first date and I thought, ‘I could do this the rest of my life,'” Amanda recalls. “A year and a half later, here we are.” Amanda grew up performing with her sisters and now runs a music school. Jubal calls his dad one of the pioneers of “outlaw country.” “One of my earliest memories is looking up at Waylon Jennings as he was walking through our living room,” Jubal recalls.

What the show didn’t show: Jubal has been making music for some time. In fact, he has five albums to his credit, the latest being “On a Dark Highway” from just last year. I’ve embedded two of the best songs from that album below. Amanda runs Preslar Music, a business that offers music lessons in Tulsa, Okla. Growing up, she performed in an acapella trio called The Preslar Sisters. Oh, and their romance began through an online dating site.

“Seven Bridges Road” made for the perfect audition song for reasons beyond the fact that it was written by Jubal’s father. Amanda says that’s one of the songs she and her sisters regularly performed. “I mean, I about lost it when I heard his dad had written that song,” she said in a conference call with the media. “I mean, it was just wild. So I think it was important and monumental for both of us in that way because that song meant so much to me growing up and then obviously it meant so much to Jubal because his dad wrote that song. It was such a neat moment just kind of combining and merging our two worlds, if you will.”

Speaking of which, there’s the little matter of that proposal. Jubal said he was determined to make it before the couple announced who they were selecting as their coach, while they still had command of the stage. Blake just happened to provide him with the perfect opportunity to pop the question when he asked if they were married. Amanda said she sensed something was up; she never dreamed it was a ring Jubal would drop to one knee to present to her.

“When I was performing on stage, I’m feeling the energy between us,” she recalled. “I’m like, ‘Something is up with Jubal’ as we were singing … and I’m thinking, “Man, I hope he sticks with me through this thing,’ and, you know, ‘What’s going on?’ And after the whole song was over and the proposal took place I was like, ‘That, it was it.’ Like, his mind was on two separate things … To pull that off on national television and to get that genuine response from me — that was pretty good and he had to be pretty sneaky to do that. So props to you Jubal.”

And, of course, after the proposal, they still had a coach to select. Amanda and Jubal said they were particularly impressed when they watched the way Pharrell coached his singers in Season 8. “Just his energy, his presence, his vibe,” Jubal says. “I describe him as having this kind of ‘Dalai Lama-esque’ vibe and I was just drawn to it.” That said, the duo admitted their decision might have been more difficult had fellow Oklahoman Blake Shelton turned his chair.

On iTunes: Jubal has released five albums, including “Not Another Beautiful Day” (2006), “Jubal Lee Young” (2007), “The Last Free Place in America” (2009), “Take It Home” (2011) and “On a Dark Highway” (2014)

Update:
Battle round: Lost to Amy Vachal, singing “To Love Somebody” and was eliminated. The song hit #187 on the iTunes’s singles chart, the eighth best of the battle round.

Keeping up with Jubal and Amanda:
Website
Facebook
YouTube
YouTube: Jubal Lee Young
Twitter: @JubalandAmanda

Falling for You (from Last Free Place in America)

White Trash Song (from “On a Dark Highway)

Under a Rock in Arkansas (from “On a Dark Highway”)

Blind audition — “Seven Bridges Road”