WRAL let the cat out of the bag today that Sanford’s Britton Buchanan will be featured on the season premiere of NBC’s The Voice Monday night. But the show’s official YouTube channel has unlocked (for now, anyway) the young man’s full audition and banter with the coaches as well.
Watch the video above to see Buchanan perform (spoiler alert) Ray LaMontagne’s 2004 hit “Trouble” and declare to millions that “I’m Britton Buchanan, I’m 17, and I’m from Sanford, North Carolina.” Also watch him become the first contestant to witness the show’s new “block” feature, that allows one judge to block another from picking a contestant after they turn their chair around.
The entire five-minute video is somewhat surreal for many in our fair city to view, as we’ve watched this kid grow up on local stages — usually with an acoustic guitar in hand — for years now. Reddit threads and “insider” websites for the show have already unearthed Buchanan’s history in Sanford — this site pointing out that he began playing guitar at 8, singing seriously at 12 and playing piano at 14 (he’s 18 now). A few years ago, he formed the very Sanford-sounding band Brick City South with friends George Morris, T.C. Mann and Ethan Ross, and he played the lead role “Danny” in the Lee County Fine Arts Council’s recent production of “Grease.”
The only thing the YouTube video doesn’t reveal is who Buchanan chooses as his mentor going forward (we know that, too, through the grapevine … but we’ll stay silent there). If you’re going to wait until Monday to watch him perform, go ahead and learn more about Britton’s talents through other means:
- ReverbNation page
- YouTube: Cover of “Fire Away” by Chris Stapleton
- YouTube: Cover of “The Way it Is” by Bruce Hornsby
- Follow him on Twitter
