McNeiece Eliminated, Davis Advances on "The Voice"

One Traverse City contestant was eliminated and one advanced on NBC reality singing competition "The Voice" Monday night.

Soulful crooner James McNeiece was cut in the show's first battle round episode, which pitted two contestants from the same celebrity coach's team against each other. Coach Adam Levine paired McNeiece with New Orleans singer Tonya Boyd to perform "PYT (Pretty Young Thing)" by Michael Jackson.

Though the panel of four celebrity judges all praised McNeiece's performance, singling out his "rasp and grit" and noting he "never missed a beat," the singer was ultimately overshadowed by the powerhouse vocals of Boyd. "He put a great fight, he really did," said Levine after choosing Boyd to move on to the next round.

Traverse City singer-songwriter Joshua Davis - who was on Blake Shelton's team - also lost his battle round Monday night, suffering a narrow defeat to contestant Brian Johnson while performing Bob Dylan's "Knockin' On Heaven's Door." But Levine, who had lobbied Davis to be on his team during the show's blind auditions, immediately used one of his allotted "steals" to scoop up the musician. "He's definitely one of the better steals to me," agreed fellow coach Pharrell Williams.

Davis will now move forward in the competition as part of Levine's team. "I'm super excited about Adam and about the steal," said Davis. "It's been a great learning experience."