'The Voice' live shows will feature two metro Atlantans (James David Carter, Jean Kelley )

On Wednesday, the 20 singers will be trimmed to 12. The top 2 vote getters from each team will survive and each coach will pick a third.

Carter last week took a risk by picking a non-country song and "countrifying" it: Carol King's classic "You've Got a Friend" (and made more famous by James Taylor.).  Shelton worried he wouldn't be able to hit that "big note" with this style of song. But Carter pulls a few interesting vocal twists that convinced Shelton to keep him.

He was clearly stronger than rival Griffin's "As Long As You Love Me."

Carter said in an interview this past Friday that he was greatly influenced by Taylor. He learned to play the guitar partly with Taylor songs. "You've Got a Friend" "was in my gut," he said. Despite Shelton's trepidations, he went with said gut and it worked out.

"I sing the song 2 and a half steps up from the original," Carter noted. "It gave it a little more lift. I did so some things with the melody but without compromising the integrity of the original. I hold a guy like James Taylor is high esteem and I didn't want to butcher it."

He said he's looking forward go going live, something he did for years at Cowboy's in Kennesaw as the house band lead singer. "Live shows will feel more normal to me," he said. "You get that instant reaction from people. I'm really looking forward to it."

During his earlier knockout round, he outdueled Craig Wayne Boyd singing Pat Green's "Wave on Wave."  Carter thought the song was actually better suited for Boyd but he did his best to make it work for him.

He is planning a quicker-paced song for his first live performance tonight after playing mostly earnest mid-tempo ballads to date. "I want people to see the light-hearted side of my personality," he said. "It's a 90s country song, real tongue in cheek."

During the battle rounds, Kelley chose Sia's "Chandelier." She brought subtle power and theatrical flair to a very difficult song.

She was a huge fan of the song from the first time she heard it and saw the video. "It has haunted me ever since," she said. She was aware the song has been sung on other reality shows (including last season's "The Voice" and "America's Got Talent.") She wanted to infuse more emotion.

"It was a risky performance," she acknowledged. "I've been amazed by the reaction I've gotten. I love Sia. She's an incredible songwriter. And she has a great back story."

She also likes how deep the song is: "People misinterpret it as living your dreams. Instead, it's really about getting so messed up each night so you can forget your life, having to wake up the next day and hating yourself. I love songs that are brutally honest. It allowed me to get completely into it."

She said she moved around the stage in a way that "people might think I was stumbling around like a drunk person. I tried to keep it loosely interpretive."

During her battle rounds vs. Sugar Joans, they sang Destiny Child's 'Survivor," chosen by the producers. "We both knew the song from childhood but I hadn't thought about it since," Kelley said. "The song is deceivingly hard. It's a little laid back and behind the beat." She struggled in the rehearsals, saying it was like doing aerobics and singing at the same time. "Ours was a full-on dance routine!" It was a close call  as they harmonized well together but Gwen chose Sugar's raspier voice while Pharrell, who adored Jean, plucked her away.

Kelley said she still loved her original coach Gwen going back to her childhood. "I'm not a trained singer at all," she said. "She showed she that you can be highly trained and not compel people. I'm big on performance because that's the whole experience."

She was happy, though, to have Pharrell as her new coach. "I respect his music and his career and his entire outlook in life," she said. "I feel like I'm in great hands." She said he also values performance. "I'm really excited to learn more from him," she said.

Oddly, she and Sugar ended up back on the same team - just a different judge. Sugar also got stolen away from Gwen and moved to Pharrell's team. "We're been friends from the beginning," Kelley said. "We had a feeling something like that would happen!"

She hopes that going live, she'll be able to garner votes. She said it's difficult to judge who will be able to do so.

Another singer with Georgia ties Beth Spangler, a senior radiographer for Children's Hospital of Georgia and an Aiken, S.C. resident, was cut last night in the Knockout Rounds.

TV preview

"The Voice," Mondays, 8 p.m., Tuesdays, 8 p.m.

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