Shawn Smith will represent Central New York, battling on Team CeeLo tonight on ‘The Voice.’ (From nbc.com)

Music lovers in Central New York have been waiting two weeks for Shawn Smith’s second appearance on “The Voice.”

The singer and guitarist from Utica was the very last performer to make it past the blind audition round at the season five start of NBC’s popular singing show. His down-home take on the Zac Brown Band’s spirited hit “Chicken Fried” earned Smith the final slot on the 12-member team led by CeeLo Green.

The past two weeks, Green and fellow mentors Blake Shelton, Christina Aguilera and Adam Levine have paired off their team members two-by-two to compete against each other in the appropriately named Battle Round. The two are given a song and instruction from their coaches and an assistant coach. (CeeLo’s second in command is fellow singer Miguel.)

Then they enter a boxing ring and sing the song together. The coach, with advice from his three peers and always much consternation, picks the winner, who goes on to compete against singers from the other teams in the Knockout Round.

If the loser is very lucky, one of the other three coaches hits the save button to claim him or her for their team. Each coach gets just two saves to use during those 18 battle rounds for the other squads.

The singers have rolled past, some very good, some pretty good, some not as good.

At first there were 12 members on Team CeeLo for season five of ‘The Voice.’

No “Big Sexy” — a nickname of which Smith is proud — last week, or last night.

Tonight’s the final evening for the Battle Round. I will be watching and listening closely, ready to write and post on markbialczak.com tomorrow morning.

Smith has been back singing with the Utica band Showtime, proudly listing local dates on his Facebook page. He’s blown up on the social media network, as they say. Yesterday, Smith posted that he’s reached the 5,000-friend mark. That tops him out. I’m glad I got my friend acceptance from Smith the very night he appeared on “The Voice” the first time.

He’s been happy on Facebook, but tight-lipped about his appearances on “The Voice.” No spoilers, in other words. His page has been a landing place for comments of many types.

More to come about that tomorrow morning, too.

Enjoy the battle.