Post by Roimeister on Feb 3, 2016 11:40:02 GMT -5
Grandson of island resident is a hit on "The Voice"
Sawyer Fredericks is the grandson of Socha Cohen
By
Lars Trodson
Fri, 02/27/2015 - 9:15am
When island resident Socha Cohen was asked if she was having any anxiety about having her grandson, Sawyer Fredericks, appear on the hit TV show “The Voice,” she said, “That’s putting it mildly. I’m hanging from the rafters.”
That may apply to the many millions who tune into the reality show each week when it comes to the fate of Sawyer, who appeared on the Monday, Feb. 23 broadcast. Sawyer is the 15-year old son of Socha’s daughter Kirsten, and he appeared to be a hit with both the audience and the judges. This sudden burst of celebrity has caught Socha a bit off guard.
He performed a song, “I’m a Man of Constant Sorrow,” with such conviction that each of the judges made a plea to have Sawyer join their team. He eventually picked Pharrell Williams, but not before Christina Aguilera good-naturedly offered to be his roommate if he joined up with her.
“I paid attention to their body language more than to their words,” Socha said of the celebrity judges, which include Aguilera, Pharrell (who last year had the huge hit, “Happy”), Adam Levine of Maroon 5 and country singer/songwriter Blake Shelton. “Adam, Christina and Pharrell were all hooked the first three notes after he started playing the guitar. They were convinced he was one to latch onto.”
She said watching the show was a little surreal. “Every time they said the word ‘Sawyer’ on TV my whole body just trembled. I had to fight back tears. He’s my grandson. I thought they were talking to me. It was very intimate and extremely emotional," Cohen said.
His image of playing before millions of people is counter to her own memories of her grandson. “I see him as a grandma and him sitting and playing on the floor serenading me,” Cohen said.
After those in-home concerts, Sawyer’s mom would take him to cafés and the local markets to perform, but one event stuck out in Cohen’s mind that hade her think he might have a future in the music business.
“It didn’t hit me until he was called to play at The Bitter End in New York City,” she said. The Bitter End is a café that has been the start of many fabled music careers. Cohen also knew that her grandson had “a huge following on Facebook and Youtube and he has admirers in Europe and Asia. But still, it was always a family affair for me. It was never that Sawyer was going to be famous.”
Right now, the family is focusing on taking the process one day at a time. There’s a long way to go and no one knows who will eventually end up winning the big prize at the end of the season of "The Voice."
“I have to stay calm,” Cohen said. “Sawyer is focused on the process. He’s not focused on winning.”
It turns out that her grandson isn’t the only one making a few waves in show business. Her daughter Saskia Larsen is an actress with a first film, “10 Days in a Madhouse,” about to be released. The film is about Nellie Bly, who helped expose the inhumane treatment of the mentally ill in New York in the late 1800s.
www.blockislandtimes.com/article/grandson-island-resident-hit-voice/41854