Albright College, Getting Ponded, and I'm an Author

We're still in Reading, but we've moved :) We're in a hotel right down the street. It reminds me of the hotel we stayed at in Stowe, VT. Very old school.

This morning I did a radio interview over the phone with Eagle 101.5 in Gaylord, Mi. Were playing there Saturday night. The interview was really fun - Mike the dj was a fellow baby-crier!!! We had a baby-cry-off. It was a good time.
I can also add "author" to my resume. When I first called in, Mike had me confused with the author that he was interviewing later in the hour. He told me he Really enjoyed my book.

For a split second I thought, "How has he already read the children's book I haven't even written yet?"

But when I said "What?" He goes, "OOOOH!!! You're the singer!!! What I meant was, I love your VOICE!" :) It was so funny.

Tonight we played at Albright College. They were so much fun!!!

This group of students was there when we arrived to help us unload and stayed until the very end to help us reload the trailer! I <3 you guys.


Before we started the show, we got to talk to and hang out with Billy, our protector for the evening. He told us some pretty crazy stories about being on duty. Don't know if y'all realize this, but things can get pretty crazy here in Reading, PA. *wink wink*
He gave me his walkie to let me feel all official.


This is Zero and Hazel. I asked him if he'd seen Wolverine!!! Zero is one of the characters... So basically... I feel like I got to hang out with a Superhero tonight :)


At Albright there's a tradition. If it's your birthday - you get "ponded". Everyone grabs you and throws you in the pond on campus. And we got to witness a few "pondings," tonight. Tricia, one of the girls that helped us out all night, got ponded. It was pretty exciting.


This girl was pretty emotional when we talked. She lost her little brother a couple years ago and she told me that Angel meant a lot to her. It's never ceases to amaze me when someone is touched by one of my songs. It makes so thankful that I do this for a living.


So tonight was a really great night. The audience was so appreciative and made the show really fun for us. Plus, they had these amazing free cookies at the show for everyone. Yeah. That rocked.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

College of Staten Island & Delaware Valley College

AHHH. OK. I unintentionally lied yesterday in the blog. I slept the first couple of hours in the Suburban this morning, and then I drove the rest of the way. Sooooo.... I didn't finish the rest of the blog today "in the car" like I said I would. But no worries... I'm blogging from a comfort Inn. :) Wow. I have 3 shows to catch you up on. We'll start with the 2 from yesterday. :)

We have the tv on, and Tina Fey was just on Jimmy Fallon. I LOVE her. I think she is one of the funniest women EVER. She was talking about how "you know you're a mom when.... you have to put underpants on someone who's dancing"
I'm still laughing about that.

Yesterday's show at the College of Staten Island:
Well.... I cried constantly out of my right eye when in Texas at the Los Lonely Boys show. Yesterday, I evened out the playing field. I guess coming up north helped me balance out the scales a bit. I cried out of my left eye non-stop. Why is it that I only cry out of one eye at a time on stage? I don't think anyone noticed except for me. Well... and James. Poor James.... every time something like that happens, I am constantly turning around to him, lifting up my sunglasses and asking "Am I ok?" Which he knows translates to "Is there black mascara running all over my face?"

So you know when you see a band member walk over to another one onstage, and you wonder what they are talking about? In my case - it is usually me being paranoid that my face is messed up....

The show started out a little slow. They had set up a great stage for us out on the quad and had an awesome sound crew there, too. But there weren't other activities surrounding our show... it was just a concert. So students just looked confused when we started playing. They kept looking at the stage like, "What IS this?" But they quickly realized that we were there for THEM and not just some random band that decided to jam on school property. :) Students started to gather around the area and by the end of the show there were 50 or so people hanging out.

As I mentioned on yesterday's blog... I got to sign my first skaeboard :) Hehe. That was COOL.

I saw this girl in the audience.... yeah... not intimidating AT ALL to have a classical violinist at the show. It immediately makes me more aware of my intonation.


Connie bought the first cd of the day - she bought it during the show (which I LOVE), but of course we didn't have anyone to work the merch table.... so she ended up finding the sound guys, giving them the money, found a sharpie, and then I signed it during the intro of "Fancy" :) Connie is resourceful! And THEN after the show she bought another one for her friend in Oklahoma, too!


Our self-proclaimed #1 Staten Island fan. Y'all, if I ever needed a "hype man" like they have in rap groups.... like if I ever need my own Flava Flav... this woman would be the first person I would call! She was telling people who were AT the show about how awesome the show was :) It was so great. She was SOOO excited. And she got called to go to a car accident in the middle and was really frustrated about it. She was cracking me up talking about it. We took tons of pictures, and she actually bought the last small brown t-shirt. I'm gonna have to get more!!!


Our awesome crew for the day.


Their campus has an extremely diverse student population. I met so many kids from other countries. It reminded me of Berklee.

So we quickly packed up... grabbed some lunch in the cafeteria and headed to Delaware Valley College in Doylestown PA. It took us about 2 hours to get there, and we arrived right on time. Well... we missed the exit on the turnpike so we were a few minutes late, but no big deal.

They have the most GORGEOUS little campus. It's a small agricultural school, and they were having a huge pig roast on the lawn before the show. The stage they had set up was SO great. It made me happy. Plus their entire campus was lined with beautiful blossoming trees. And the stage was between 2 huge gingko trees (which are my favorite).

These kids were on TOP of it, especially Kristen. Kristen was my "right hand woman" the whole day. She hopped into the Suburban when we first got on campus to guide us to the stage. (We're always having to drive up on sidewalks and pull through narrow passageways to get to the stages) She was CONSTANTLY asking what she could do to help and even when I didn't give her something to do, she would find something to help out with. Greatest girl EVER. We love you!!!!

This is the Student Activities Council - everyone that put on the show and helped out! Kristen is down front in the red shirt. :)


An of course our awesome sound crew! They got there at 11am to start setting up - the show started at 9. They worked so hard all day and it DEFINITELY paid off!!!


This was one of the best shows we've had in a while. The students packed the lawn in front of the stage - we were guessing there were about 250 kids there. And not 1 but 2 different people brought their couches out to the lawn! We saw two guys carrying a couch with a girl sitting ON the couch! It was so great!!! And there was a beach ball being thrown around the whole show. The dancing started on "Fancy" :) And by the end of the night everyone was on their feet. They were chanting for "1 more song" at the end, so of course we had to do a little Journey. Don't Stop Believin baby!!! Hold on to that feeeeeeeeeeeeling!

Yeah. I loved this show.



These guys were hysterical! One of the guys kept screaming "I Love You Natalie" during the show. Actually, it wasn't just the show... he continued the whole time I was signing autographs. You can't tell, but the guys have me completely lifted off the ground here.


These girls were hilarious. We had talked for a bit and had taken pictures earlier, but then they came back later and said "We brought you a fiddle player!" They had gone and gotten their friend who plays the violin to come back and talk to me.


Don't mess with these guys...


And Columbia, Tn was even represented :) A friend, Jeff Smith, who used to come to Sam Hill's to see us play, lives up here now, so he came to the show. It was great to see him and his girlfriend and so fun to have them in the audience. It took me almost the whole show to spot them in the audience, but I knew they were there :) We didn't get to talk afterwards in all the chaos, but I was so happy to have them there!

So yeah. Tomorrow we are playing at 3, so we have to leave at 7am. Another early morning. And of course... it's 3am... again. So I'm gonna try that whole "going to bed now" thing. It would probably help to have a voice for the show tomorrow :)

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Washburn University

What a DAY!!!

Today started EARLY for a bunch 'o musicians who are usually up until 4am or later! :) But it was AWESOME. I got up and went to 94.5 WIBW this morning to chat and sing with Walker Daniels. We chatted, I think they were VERY surprised about the REASON I was on Oprah :), they played one of my songs on air, and then Miguel and I played "Standing My Ground" acoustic on air. It was so fun.




That's Rusty Walker on the left and Jim Daniels on the right.


They were such great people. It is SO fun to do an interview when it doesn't feel like you're being "interviewed" :) It really just felt like we were having a conversation. And before we even got back to the hotel room, Walker Daniels had already facebooked me, posted a video, and become a "fan"!

To see the a little clip Rusty Walker posted from the studio, click here.


We got back to the hotel, we all worked a bit and even napped for a few minutes and then we met Brian (THE MAN!) for lunch. Brian was our contact with the school, he's the one that set up the radio and tv spots for us, was there all day with us, AND was there ALL night helping out. (Plus, I think he had a trillion meetings in between helping us out all day) Brian is a Champion and we love him!!! But don't make him mad when he has a lighting pole in his hands... the boy sure can whack a head with one! I think I am still seeing stars... I don't even want to know what it would feel like if it was intentional ; )-


After lunch and hanging out with Brian for a little bit, we ran some errands before we had to go to the tv studio. Whew! We were playing FULL band on a local news show. It's pretty intense to set up a full band for tv... especially when you have time restraints. It was a bit tricky because there really wasn't a great way to get our sound to them. But we got something figured out with their sound guy and everything worked out great. It was a quick segment, so we talked for just a bit, and then we got RIGHT to the song. We played "Standing My Ground" and I felt pretty good about the performance.


As soon as we got packed up it was time to head to the school and start setting up there! So we were off once again!

I was REALLY excited. Not only did a whole bunch of students come, but some non-students came as well! This is Jeff and Trina. They are huge Scott Holt fans. Scott is an incredible Blues artist from Columbia, Tn - my hometown! They saw Scott a few years ago and have been going to his shows ever since. They drove all the way from Topeka to Columbia to the annual Christmas Benefit show that Scott and I do together. So they ended up seeing us play with Scott this last Christmas. And then they came to OUR show tonight! How cool, right? And notice that Jeff has on his official Natalie Stovall/Scott Holt t-shirt!!! YAY!




Caleb came up to me after the show and told me that "Angel" meant a lot to him. His grandmother passed away last week, and he told me it felt like I was singing about her. He said she was a lot like my Granny and was always supporting him to follow his dreams in life. When he started taking piano lessons, she BOUGHT him a piano. How amazing is that? So I was very touched by Caleb and his grandmother's story.


These girls were all visiting from Japan!!! They are here for 3 weeks. They were SOOOO sweet. We took tons of pictures, but I HAD to get one with the whole group. They were just adorable.


This boy was right up front - he was rappin with Hootie, shouting and hollerin all night, and he even did quite the hoe-down during the last song. :) He had em ALL goin in the front!


And this is Joshua. He was there with Brian when we pulled up to Washburn and helped us load gear before and after the show. AND he took pictures for me because I couldn't find my camera (I was panicked! But I found it later in my coat pocket.... NEVER put it there.... weird) SO I have to thank Joshua for sending me all of these pics tonight so I could do a complete blog!!!



So I have been up almost 24hrs now. I am pretty stoked about sleeping tonight. Pretty ready to get in bed. See y'all tomorrow!

Peace, Love, Fiddle,
~natalie

Baby-Criers UNITE!!!!

Never thought I would see the day! Actually - I never really thought about it :) This lady was at our show at UNC tonight in Charlotte North Carolina - and she, too, did a "baby-cry" for Oprah!!! Watch and see :)