Riley Green Gives “Best Compliment” To Kayleigh Mathews After Her Classic Country Patsy Cline Cover On ‘The Voice’
on
One of the standout performances of the very first “Cut Week” episode of The Voice was delivered by Kayleigh Mathews, singing a classic country tune by Patsy Cline.
Following her performance, her coach on The Voice, country artist Riley Green, said, “That was so country, and that’s the best compliment I can give.”
Now, there’s a chance she won’t be making it to the first live episode of the season, which will air next week on Nov. 9.
RELATED: Riley Green Reveals His Perfect Date Night And Exactly What He Finds Attractive
Watch Kayleigh Mathews Perform A Patsy Cline Classic, And Compare Her Performance To The Original
During the Monday, Nov. 2, episode of The Voice, the first-ever “Cut Week” saw the coaches whittle the competition down to 12 singers.
That places 16 singers in the hands of the fans, as only one of the eliminated 16 singers will return to round out the top 13 on Nov. 9.
With voting concluding in the early hours of Nov. 3, viewers are left hypothesizing who will be brought back into the competition in next week’s episode, which will conclude “Cut Week” on Nov. 9.
Among those at risk of being cut for good is Kayleigh Mathews, whose status as a member of Team Riley is in the balance.
Kayleigh — who first turned heads, and four chairs, with her cover of Vince Gill’s “When I Call Your Name” — needed to make a strong impression, and she did so with a confident performance of Patsy Cline’s “Walkin’ After Midnight.”
Instrumentally, the cover of “Walkin’ After Midnight” is quite comparable to Patsy Cline’s 1957 original, but Kayleigh’s voice is where her performance makes the song her own.
Where Patsy Cline’s iconic contralto voice relishes in the lower notes, Kayleigh Mathews brings the song to a higher register. What isn’t lost in this difference is the song’s storytelling.
After Riley Green described her performance as “so country,” he went on to say, “I love, too, that your voice is so unique and that you’ve got a bluesy kind of thing that you can do at the end of some notes.”
Concluding his remarks, Riley stated, “I just loved everything about it. You’re great.”
One of the other coaches, Kelly Clarkson, also praised Kayleigh’s performance, saying, “You have this beautiful, like, yodel thing that goes on in your resonance that’s so beautiful. You just have quite a gift, girl.”
Fellow coach Queen Latifah praised her appearance, complimenting her sparkly outfit, which compelled Clarkson to humorously say, “I really need to see Riley in those.”
Riley then turned and jokingly said, “Roll the footage,” as if cueing up video evidence that he had, in fact, worn the outfit… For now, no such footage exists.
Watch Kayleigh Mathews’ take on “Walkin’ After Midnight,” here:
Listen to Patsy Cline’s 1957 original recording of “Walkin’ After Midnight,” here:
RELATED: Team Riley’s Joe Henley Secures Frontrunner Status With “Incredible” Keith Whitley Cover
