Evan James and Luke Curran Leave Adam Levine Torn After Tucker Wetmore Duet on ‘The Voice’

Country music has clearly taken over The Voice for Season 30, with contestants proving week after week that they have what it takes to make their mark on the genre. On Tuesday night (October 13), we saw that happen once again when Evan James and Luke Curran became the latest members of Adam Levine’s team to face off in the Battle Rounds.

The pair of hopefuls got both the coaches and the live audience swaying along to their take on a track that has been making waves among the new generation of country music fans, Tucker Wetmore’s “Wind Up Missin’ You.”

Although the original song isn’t a duet, Evan and Luke effortlessly transformed it into a collaborative performance to remember. They took turns singing the verses and giving each other an opportunity to showcase their individual vocal style and when they joined forces for the chorus, their smooth harmonies added a softer, more tender feel to the mid-tempo hit.

Riley Green made sure to call attention to the arrangement that they chose in the end, stating “I think it was great.” He felt that they both offered plenty of “individuality,” but also impressed him with the parts of the song that they sang together.  

“Evan, it felt like you’ve sang this song a hundred times. So you felt really comfortable from the very beginning and love your stage presence, how you handle yourself. It was great,” Green stated. “Luke, probably stylistically not something that I would have pictured you doing, but that’s part of the battles and that’s the tough part of it. But man, you really made it your own. I turned for you in the blinds as well because I can see you being able to do that with about anything that’s thrown at you. So you did a great job today.”

Green added that if he had to choose a winner of this battle, he would likely lean more towards Evan, claiming he felt “more suited” for this particular song.

Coach Queen Latifah also had nothing but good things to say about the delivery.

“Wow. Y’all got into that. Y’all sound great together,” she began. “I mean, y’all felt locked in from the very beginning. This is going to be a tricky one right here. Evan just ran all around the world real quick. Luke just gave it to that microphone like, ‘how dare you? Don’t be disrespectful.’ I feel extremely encouraged by both of you in your performances that you can keep going in this competition. So congratulations. Good on you both.”

Next to comment was Kelly Clarkson, who highlighted how well they sounded together considering the fact that they have “such different tones.”

“I actually find this a really cool odd pairing. Evan, you have this presence and you just fill up the space easily, just within a verse. And Luke, you have this rasp and soulfulness and storyteller vibe, which I really dig too.”

When it was time for the leader of Team Adam to give his thoughts, he admitted while watching the performance he found himself going back and forth on who he felt was doing the best overall because they each brought something different to the table.

“At multiple points in this performance today, I was like, ‘Oh, Evan.’ And then I’m like, ‘Well, no, Luke.’ And then I was like, ‘Oh no, no, no, Evan.’ So this is a tough decision because you guys were neck and neck.”

He went on to say that there were some issues with pitch for both singers, but as Clarkson pointed out, “we’re human and not AI, so it’s okay.”

“We all have different challenges we’re going to face on this show. You both deserve to be rewarded for this, which is why this sucks,” Levine added.

Evan ended up being named the champion of this battle round, putting him straight through to “Cut Week,” which replaces the portion of the show that would usually include Knockouts and Playoffs before the Live Shows.

Explaining the reason behind his pick, the Maroon 5 member stated, “Evan just edged him out a little bit. He’s got a big, powerful voice that fills the room. And whenever that happens, it’s incredibly hard not to stay with someone like that. He could surprise us all and just absolutely smash for cut week.”

He added, “My decisions actually have been difficult. Their job is to make my job hard and they’ve really been successful and caused me a lot of stress.”

Evan noted that his goal is to continue to try and make Adam proud as the only country singer on his team and hopefully, lead him straight to the finale.

Once the Battle Round comes to an end, each of the four coaches will be left with seven artists each. During Cut Week, which launches November 2, two artists will be chosen to advance into the Live shows while the remaining five compete for the final spots in the Top 12. America will also vote one additional Artist into the Top 13.

Viewers can tune into the next two-hour episode of The Voice airing on Monday, October 19 at 9 p.m. ET on NBC, with streaming available the next day on Peacock.