UT Chattanooga, Einstein, Dance Knife Fighting, and Preggers

Guess who's got two thumbs and internet service tonight!?!?! THIS GIRL. (imagine the over-the-top pointing of my thumbs in towards myself).

We have never played at colleges in Tennessee... and this month we play 3! Tonight was the 2nd of the three at UT Chattanooga. (The first time I typed Chattabooga... I kinda like the way that looks and sounds and even had to say it outloud because it makes me giggle)

We left Atlanta this afternoon at noon. The parking woes continued - James had to start moving the van from it's parking spot at 10am. But we had told everyone to be ready to check out at 12. And considering everyone stayed up late, plus it was our first time in a LONG time to have that many hours of sleep... James just decided to hang out with the van until noon. Hopefully he got some good talk time in with his Dad. I know that was his main motivation for getting up...

Once we all loaded up the van (and ourselves with smoothies) we set out towards Chattanooga. As we were trucking along, 2 hours ahead of schedule... feeling pretty good about ourselves and our "short 2 1/2 hour drive... BAM. Dead stop on the interstate. Took us an hour and a half JUST to get to an exit... that's how little we moved in that time. But finally we got off on an exit and started taking back roads... but turns out we were the only ones with that bright idea. We got to the gig at 6, (show stated at 7) when we were planning on being there at 3. But everything worked out just fine! We loaded in and soundchecked quickly.

David opened the show and played one of my favorite songs of his "Nobody Loves Me Like You Do". And then a guy named Nathan Angelo did a set. WOW. What a voice! Think Gavin Degraw... one of my favorites anyway. Nathan's voice is just incredible. And his songs were so fun and just made you wanna get up and groove!

Plus Jenn and Ella drove up for the show!!! It was so fun to have them here. And I know Miguel loves having them here. Jenn is SOOOO pregnant! She's so cute with her big belly. She's so tiny, but has such a big belly right now! It's awesome.

Two guys did the entire "Beat It" dance during the show AND the knife fight part, too!!! No one has ever acted out that part!

The girl who says "Rip It Up" was written for her. :) She and a girlfriend even had the whole chorus choreographed by the end of the song!








And here's some pics from yesterday - I LOVE Einstein - the magic bunny! He totally picked Miguel's card out of the deck! It was amazing!



And Panther. With a Panther.


Showin that mic some 3-part love.
'

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

So Many Songs

Finished another song today!!! I feel so accomplished. Sorry we didn't have a chance to make a video, but I am SURE you will hear this one soon enough. :)

I got back together with Angela Lauer and JoAnna Janet today. They are so much fun to write with. And thank goodness, Angela didn't have any contractions today!!!! Whew. She had a few rough kicks... but at least she didn't go into early labor. :)

The song we wrote is definitely gonna be a guilty pleasure song. It is so much fun - and I have to add one name to the decription I gave yesterday. I think it is a cross of Poison/ Bonnie Raitt/ and Shania Twain. YES! How great is that???

It's called "Tell Me Something I Don't Know" :)

After writing with those fine ladies, I headed over to Miguel's. He and I have been talking about coming up with some cool fiddle/guitar riffs. We have been playing so much more together in the shows and I can't speak for him, but I am having a BLAST with it. I LOVE it when the fiddle is doubling a guitar riff. There is something so cool and different about that sound.

But at this point, the majority of the fiddle/guitar stuff happens during our big rock medley we do (Black Dog, Back In Black, Ants Marching, Beat It, Are You Gonna Go My Way....)

So now I want to have MY OWN songs with that kind of hotness! :) I think we've stumbled onto something so cool. And it adds the flavor to my music that I think I have been missing for a while. I am a rockstar in my own head (Aren't we all?) and now that I am playing a lot of the same stuff Miguel is - well... let's just say that REALLY maks me feel like a rockstar. I mean Have you SEEN this guy play guitar?? Yeah. I am hoping his face-melting playing rubs off on me a bit...



The cool thing today was that he had come up with a really hot riff (whew - took me a few tries to get it right on the fiddle!). We played it a bunch and then he continued to share the other stuff he had come up with. And then out of nowhere I FLIPPED OUT! I was like "Whoa. Play that again." He played it again and I have to say it was a little Twilight Zonish...

Let me back up to explain:
I started writing a song in the dressing room at the Kenosha Wisconsin PAC show. It was one of those times I was curling my hair and divine inspiration struck. I started singing a song out of nowhere, and had to record it on my phone. (Quietly so all the stage hands getting our stage ready for the show wouldn't hear my goofy butt singing into a cell phone alone in my dressing room). I even came up with a little fiddle riff. Turns out the riff was cooler in my head than on the fiddle when I actually tried to play it. But I still loved the rest of the song ideas.

But TODAY I realized that the riff Miguel was playing fit PERFECTLY!!! The song was the same feel - it was the same key AND it was the perfect musical attitude for what I was envisioning. Ahhhh. Stars are aligning, ya'll.

Plus we started 2 or 3 other songs. I feel like I had SUCH a productive day! And I can't WAIT to work on all of these songs!

I've lost count of how many unfinished songs I have right now. But that's how I work best. I'll start churning them out, and we'll have TOO MANY for the new record :) How awesome would THAT be??? That's always the hope...


Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Awesome Video from Cameron University

I have something I want to share with everyone. :)



I want to say a HUGE thank you to Ryan Faucett for posting this video!!! It made my day!

Peace, Love, Fiddle,