Shawn Mayer, a 21-year-old from May City, avoided the elimination as "Nashville Star" named its three finalists in the NBC country music competition series.

Mayer led off the show and is joined in the Aug. 4 finale by Gabe Garcia a 28-year-old "Tex-Mex cowboy" from Lytle, Texas, who has overcome the loss of his father and wowed the judges with his smooth voice and authentically country sound. Also in the finals is Melissa Lawson, a 31-year-old working mom whose big voice has carried her from Arlington, Texas, to Nashville. She's charmed audiences with her devoted husband, rambunctious brood of five sons as well as her efforts to lose weight during the course of the season.

Mayer honed her talent singing along to a karaoke track at a bar in Melvin, which is about 10 miles away from her home in Osceola County. One of her first breaks came at the age of 15, when she opened the show for Lynyrd Skynyrd at the Clay County Fair in Spencer. She returned to Spencer for interviews and an autograph session on Wednesday.

Her concert Wednesday night in May City drew an estimated crowd of 3,000 to the unincorporated town of about 45.

"Fans from across the Midwest closed down the only paved road in her hometown to hear her perform," said "Nashville Star" host Billy Ray Cyrus in his introduction of Mayer.

"It's so hard for me to take in," Mayer said in a pre-taped segment to set up her first performance. "I don't feel like I'm anything special but I've made them proud and that's all that matters."

Mayer now lives in Madison, Tenn. Her official "Nashville Star" biography describes her as someone who has "worked on a hog farm, is a mechanic and a volunteer firefighter" in May City. She went to school at Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn and led a pack of motorcycles into her May City concert.

"Nothing in the world can mean as much as the hope and the love that I received today," she said. "I feel like I'm going to come back for the competition a whole different person. There's so much fight in me now, they're going to have to tie me down before you'll ever see me stop fighting."

Voting results eliminated the unconventional Coffey, a charismatic 29-year-old single dad who strayed from a classic country sound and dotes over his daughter Savannah. He has to hold the family together by selling CDs on a street corner in Santa Monica, Calif. He lives in Los Angeles by way of Bangs, Texas.

About 45,000 people auditioned for one of 12 spots in the televised finals. The contestants perform in front of platinum-selling artist Jewel, Grammy nominee John Rich of Big & Rich and award-winning songwriter Jeffrey Steele. The judges' comments after each performance serve as a guide, but Internet and text-message votes, along with toll-free phone calls, decided the eliminations each week.

Mayer performed "Here for the Party" by Gretchen Wilson for her first song Monday night.

"At the beginning of this season, I would have said please don't ever sing a Gretchen Wilson song," Rich said. "But you know what? You've come so far over the past few weeks, you actually made that sound like a Shawn Mayer song -- Really good. Way to go. What a journey."

Jewel told Mayer she was starting to come into her own.

"We're seeing you get confidence and you're really stepping into yourself and really starting to shine. That's great," Jewel said. "I really want to make sure that, as this process goes, with great fame comes great responsibility. Just start thinking about that as you go forward and become successful."

Steele has been Mayer's mentor throughout the month of July.

"Shawn's under a little duress tonight," he said. "She's got a little wisdom tooth issue going on. I really dig the fact that you are being a real pro tonight. You're stepping it up through all the pain and you're fighting tonight."

Contestants who reached the Aug. 4 finale were brought back to sing a second song in the last half hour of the show. Mayer performed "The Dance" by Garth Brooks.

"I would say that no matter what happens, ultimately in this show, you have now made the final three on 'Nashville Star' -- on NBC," Rich said. "That is a huge deal and a huge thing to be proud of. I will tell you this: The town you have been bar-tending in, Nashville, Tenn., trying to make your way, whether you win or not, you are light years ahead of where you were 10 weeks ago. We're all very proud of you right now. Good job."

Jewel told Mayer the key to being an artist is having a vision.

"I think you would be a good 'Nashville Star' because I think you'd have a vision for yourself and for your career -- to help your label help you find yourself," she said.

All four of the contestants will be part of the Nashville Star Concert Tour, scheduled to begin in the fall. The show's winner will be announced at 9 p.m. -- an hour later than usual -- Monday, Aug. 4 on NBC.

The winner of this year's competition will receive a major recording contract with Warner Bros. Nashville and will perform at the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.