'The Voice' semifinalist Curtis Grimes: 'From nothing to something'

"All of a sudden I have fans in Wherever, Ohio, or Florida or Colorado or L.A. as opposed to just around the Texas scene," Curtis Grimes says of his rising career.

In making it to the semifinals of the first season of the hit television music competition show "The Voice" this summer, country singer Curtis Grimes boot scooted from the obscurity of the Texas roadhouse circuit to the national arena.

His new self-released EP Doin' My Time is getting the 25-year-old attention from Nashville labels and music publishers, and he recently signed with a national booking agent and has embarked on his first big tour, which stops here at Newby's on Monday.

"All of a sudden I have fans in Wherever, Ohio, or Florida or Colorado or L.A. as opposed to just around the Texas scene," he says of the show's impact on his career. "It's not a huge amount, but it definitely went from nothing to something."

But the real turning point for Grimes may have come five years ago when he abruptly tossed aside a promising sports career to take up music.

Growing up in Gilmer, Texas, Grimes remembers going to see his grandfather play bluegrass on the weekends. But his passion was baseball, and he excelled as an all-star pitcher, qualifying for state in 2003 and earning a scholarship to Centenary College in Shreveport, La.

Grimes turned his back on the sport after his freshman year, however, following a break-up with his fianceé at the time.

"I was pretty good at baseball, but I was pretty dumb and quit for a girl," he remembers. "That spring semester I went to a pawn shop and got a guitar and started from there."

With little training, Grimes nevertheless took to music quickly, winning a local contest to open for Kenny Chesney. He moved to Austin and formed a band and was soon touring the region. He was coming back from Houston when his manager called him to tell him about the auditions in Austin for a new television singing competition.

"I did it just to get the chance to get on TV and get some kind of exposure," says Grimes, describing the process of shooting the show as "a paid vacation to L.A. limited to your hotel and recording studios." "I never really had high expectation of winning the thing or getting anything huge out of it."

"The Voice" features four judges representing a variety of genres -- country singer Blake Shelton, pop-rock frontman Adam Levine of Maroon 5, hip-hop/R&B star Cee Lo Green, and pop diva Christina Aguilera. In the early rounds of the show, each judge assembles a team of singers to mentor and usher through the competition, picking members in a blind audition by swiveling their chairs around.

For obvious reasons -- a shared genre and the possibility of business contacts postshow -- Grimes wanted to be on Shelton's team, but he felt his chance slip when he was given Shelton's own hit "Hillbilly Bone" to sing in the audition.

"If somebody got out there and sang one of my songs I probably wouldn't want to pick them," Grimes remembers thinking. "But when Blake didn't turn around, Cee Lo turned around, and at the point I was just glad any judge turned around because that meant you got to go on the the next round."

From the start Grimes was realistic about how far he could go on the show. He recalls a meeting of all the contestants on the first day of production, when eventual winner Javier Colon took to a piano and sang the Sarah McLachlan song "Angel."

Though he only made it to the round of 16 before being cut, Grimes says he gained experience. He learned the ins and outs of making a television show like "The Voice" and he worked for the first time with a vocal coach.

The exposure from the show also brought Grimes a measure of revenge. After seeing him on television, his former fianceé reached out to him online.

"She tried to send me a message on Facebook or something, and I ignored her," he says. "It was right during 'The Voice,' too, and she was like, 'Hey, do you want to catch up Saturday?' I said, 'No, thanks.' "

Curtis Grimes

Monday at Newby's, 539 S. Highland. Admission: $10 at the door; doors open at 7:30 p.m. For more information, call (901) 452-8408.

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