Worcester County's Ricky Duran Advances On 'The Voice'

GRAFTON, MA — The votes are in and Worcester County's star musician is one step closer to becoming a national star. Grafton native Ricky Duran advanced to the next phase of NBC's "The Voice" on Tuesday night.

Duran moved from the show's "Top 20" to the "Top 13"with ease, being the first member of his team to move forward and one of the top two vote-earners on his team. Voters across the country pushed Duran through based on his performance on Monday night.

He sang John Mellencamp's "Small Town" for his last performance and judges praised his voice. Duran's coach, Blake Shelton said, "You can really kind of do it all, but I want America to vote you through tomorrow because you're the guy that we all want to see make it."

Duran is a Berklee College of Music graduate and has several songs on Spotify and iTunes. The singer-songwriter and guitarist is well known in Worcester as a performer. Although he moved from Worcester to Austin, Texas, he performed in the city for years at venues like Atlantic Poke, Michael's Cigar Bar and Ralph's Diner.

The next step for Duran and the 12 other competitors on the show, is a round of live performances starting on Monday.