NACA CENTRAL!!!!

My very first booking conference was at NACA Central 2 years ago and WOW!!!!! How far we have come!!!! This year the conference is in Tulsa, OK. NACA Central is made up of schools from Colorado and New Mexico east of the 107th longitude (which roughly parallels the Rocky Mountains), Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

We got to see a lot of old friends and made a ton of new friends. And we've already booked over 20 dates for next year from this conference!!! So we'll see ya'll over the Central US!!!

Here's the highlights!

ME AND BELDING!!!!!!!!!!! I used to watch "Saved By The Bell" EVERY DAY after school while eating goldfish crackers and a caffeine free coke :) Mr. Belding is AWESOME. We're rockin out :)



Ari (my agent) and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary at this conference. We first met at NACA Central 2 years ago when I had no agent and didn't really know much about NACA. He saw my showcase that year in Little Rock and signed me! Happy Anniversary to us! Awwwwwwww..
This is Ari and me in a Dave Sandwich :)
Dave Madden is on the left and he was the keyboard player in my very first band in college!!! We were called Green Line South and we lived at my parents house 2 summers in a row playing music around Nashville. Dave is an incredible singer/songwriter/musician and he lives in Austin, TX.
Check him out!! www.davemaddenmusic.com
And Dave Tamkin is on the far right. He is another amazing signer/songwriter. He's lived in Chicago his whole life and is currently moving to Denver. He has a really fun, funky, acoustic sound. Check him out, too!
www.myspace.com/davetamkin



Before we got to NACA we had a message from the Orion Experience from New York. They were flying in and needed to share gear with another band, and we just happened to have the right amount of amps and such. :) I can't believe I had never heard of these guys! THEY ARE SO MUCH FUN!!!!! First off, they made our gear sound amazing :) It was fun to hear my fiddle amp handle a rockin guitar. These guys have a new song that was just featured in "The Hills" And L.C. AND Audrina both give props to this band as one of their favorites. And Perez Hilton loves them too!!! If you want to read what PEREZ has to say:
Click here
Their website is:
www.theorionexperience.com
They are a MUST KNOW band. Learn about them now so you can be one of those people saying:
"I knew them before they were HUGE."
I am obsessed with "Obsessed With You"

Here's me and Orion:


And both our bands!


Right after we took these pics, I ran into Nikhil Korula who we played a show with at Quinnapiac University in Hamden, CT. Nikhil has such a cool sound and his band has opened for Dave Matthews on the road. So if you like DMB, you will LOVE this guy!
www.nkband.com



We ran into tons of students that we met at previous conferences and Colleges we have played and then this sweet girl came up to me and said, "Hey! I saw you in San Diego on July 4th!!!!" Isn't that awesome? San Diego to Tulsa :)




So yeah, NACA #1 this year was awesome. We have another one in Lancaster, PA this next week. Stay tuned for the next Tour Diary which James is editing right now. I keep cracking up at all the footage!

Peace, Love, Fiddle