I'm Cooler Than I Thought!

I have been to so many shows in town this week!!! It has been a very musical week :)

One of the shows I went to was at 3rd and Lindsley - Eric Paslay (who I've written with), Rachel Loy (who I went to school with) and Dave Pahanish. Oh! And a surprise and stunning appearance by Miss Sarah Buxton, who was phenomenal.

Dave Pahanish is an awesome songwriter that emailed me on myspace a few years ago. I still remember when he was about to "make the move" down to Nashville and was asking us natives for advice on the real estate market. He has since done VERY well for himself. He has had songs cut by Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Jimmy Wayne, Emily West, and Toby Keith!

I sang on some demos and played fiddle for him a couple of years ago (back when I was still in town a little more often) . And I didn't remember this... but I played fiddle on the demo for "This American Life" which you can hear on his myspace page:

http://www.myspace.com/davepahanish

Finding this out made me feel REALLY REALLY cool. Know why? "This American Life" is a song that Toby Keith cut... although you may know it as "American Ride." He wanted to change the "Life" to "Ride" and it became the title track for his latest album!!! I didn't know I was cool enough to have played on a demo that became a Toby Keith song! :)

Here's the ole Toby Keith video: Enjoy!!!


BTW: Dave, Eric, and Rachel put on a GREAT night of music! I saw friends I hadn't seen in a long time, and I enjoyed a true Nashville evening of outstanding songwriters and performances. If you get the chance to see ANY of those performers... GO!!

Peace. Love. FIDDLE!
~nat

Santa Needs a Swimsuit

It's been a LOOOONG day of driving. And I think I drove a stretch of interstate I've never driven before! We drove through Chattanooga and up to Knoxville. When you're coming from Nashville to get somewhere - you either go through one or the other... you never go through BOTH. It was weird.

But we got to stop at our favorite exit of the last 6 months - Hattiesburg Mississippi - for lunch! We have eaten in Hattiesburg way more times than we've eaten lunch at home since the summer!!! And we've never even played a show there! It's so funny how sometimes we get routed in ways where we keep stopping at the same place around the same time of day. McCallister's is usually our restaurant of choice. :) Some of the locations still have chocolate spoon cake!!!! MMMMmmmmm.

You something that's funny?? We were sitting in Red Robin (mmm Red Robin) tonight and Christmas songs were playing. I had this realization that I bet Christmas songs in America sound really funny to Miguel. It's summertime in Chile right now! He said that he always feels sorry for Santa Clause - when he has to make appearances outside... that red suit get HOT.

Snow, sitting by the fire, hot chocolate, bundling up - American Christmas songs all have SO much of that in them! And for Miguel, well... it's going swimming and suntan lotion and short sleeves.

It's all about perspective. :)

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Boston Garden. Celtics. National Anthem. Me.

It ain't the slick professional version... we'll get the copy of that in a few days :)

But here's the really fun "bootleg" version of what I got to do tonight :)




SO EXCITING!!!! And they completed their "season sweep" of the Hawks. Final score 104 - 92. YAY CELTICS!!! Let's do it again. World Champions Baby!!!

I love my job.

Peace, Love, Fiddle,
~natalie