Back in PCB!

I can't believe we're already back in Panama City Beach, Fl. I feel like we JUST left. But there's been a whole week in between. Man time flies.

Today's showings in the Suburban:

"Waiting"

"Pineapple Express"

"Any Given Sunday" (One of my personal favs)

And 2 episodes of the British "Office"



I hope we didn't keep our neighbors up... but Miguel and I had to practice a bit. We're gonna be on the lunch hour radio show tomorrow in Panama City. :) Then we set up, and play at Schooners! Can't wait to check out this club. I've heard nothing but great things.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Penn State Altoona

West Virginia sure is beautiful! The interstates twist and turn so much more than normal! :) We made it to Penn State Altoona right on time. They had a great room set up with a stage and lights. And we got all ready to go.
But....
There were a few things missing...
Miguel left his boots at home.... I had never seen him play in tennis shoes before! It was funny looking. :) And it turned out that there wasn't any monitors. But it wasn't a big deal at all. We just did without!
But Hootie had something new. A Bass! He played his first show with it tonight. It sounded awesome, and it's a 5-string, so he had a whole extra string to play than normal! :)

Apparently, at Penn State Altoona it takes 3 good-looking guys and one British accent to put on a show!


These girls were all musicians, too. They were so sweet!


Totally his first country concert! He said "country's not really his thing" but, hey! He stayed the WHOLE show :) Nice.


And Jenny bought a cd for all of her friends! What a sweetheart!


So now we are driving to Staten Island. We play an afternoon show there, so we are already heading that direction. We are all starving right now, but there wasn't anything open in Altoona.... so we got on the road. Just tried to stop at a Perkins but it was CLOSED! We've found a Denny's in 45 miles though. SCORE. :)

Peace, Love, Fiddle,
~natalie

Penn State Berks

Tonight was a bit different than most of our shows, and it was a really nice change of pace. The beautiful thing about colleges is that you NEVER know what kind of show it'll be. It really keeps you on your toes! And tonight was the rare "coffee house" setting.

We played at Penn State Berks and we were a part of their "Jitter Coffee House" series. They don't normally have bands - it's usually just a single singer/songwriter act. Oh... but tonight? They had a BAND! :) We didn't play quite as ALL OUT as we normally would. James didn't set up his full drum kit... but it was fun to do a bit of a stripped down set.

We debuted 3 new songs at this show. It was the PERFECT place to do some new ones because this show had such a "storytellers" vibe. I could hear the comments the audience was making between songs, and they could hear me even off the mic. They were sitting on couches and around tables with candles... I'm not always able to talk with the audience like that. But I LOVE it when I can. One kid walked onstage after one of Miguel's solos just to shake his hand. It was awesome :)

This is CAB - the group that put the show on and brought us to Penn State!


This girl was so sweet! She had rehearsal and ran over to the show afterwards... but she missed the whole thing. So she had to settle for buying a cd :)


These guys were REALLY excited about Miguel's playing. They loved the Zepplin. :)


Some of Hootie's friends came to see him, and then took him home after the show. We have a few days off, so he is flying to Nashville to see his woman. :) VERY sweet birthday surprise for her.

Miguel, James, and I headed to the Route 61 Diner after the show. It was the only place open, but I'm kinda glad - cause I'm not sure we wouldn't have ended up there if something closer had been open late. :) This dude sitting at the counter was AWESOME. He and this other guy were talking and the whole conversation was "If I ran this county...." But look at what he is wearing!!! It's a traditional Bobby hat.... I didn't know what that was. It just looked like a cop hat from the 1930's to me :) But it's like the hats the cops wear in England. But he wasn't British... So who knows why. Maybe he just likes it. :)


Miguel's girls came up here tonight, too!!! It is so fun! They are here to hang out with us on our few days off. Jenn and Ella were here at the hotel by the time we got back from the Diner. Poor Ella was sooooo tired. But she was being really sweet and was so happy to see her Daddy. We're all headed up to New York to hang out at my mother-in-law's tomorrow. EXCITING! :) I love New York.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Stowe, Vermont

What a weekend!!!

I can't say enough about how beautiful Stowe is. We could see a bit more of the landscape this time instead of just piles of snow :) But I like the piles of snow too... SOOO different from Tennessee.

The show on Friday night was really fun. It was a good crowd and a really good show on our part. There were a few key dancers on the dance floor that NEVER stopped. They kept the party going the whole evening.

The first person that came up to me was a very sweet girl who said "Are you Natalie?" I said, "Yeah." She said, "I heard you have a Chilean in your band!" And I eagerly pointed at Miguel. She was off!!! Miguel is quite popular in Stowe :) There are a lot of Chileans and Peruvians that work at the ski resort - and their housing is across the street from the Matterhorn! There was a whole group that came to support him.


John had the coldest job in the bar. He was our doorman both nights, and brrr. But at least it was 30 this time rather than the -15 we experienced last time - THAT was REALLY cold for him.


Saturday was quite a day. We had 2 shows. One was up on the mountain and then the night show was at the Matterhorn again. We were a bit concerned with the first show. Naturally, I was a worried about singing for 8 hours in one day.... they were both long shows. But even more so - we had to tear all our gear down at the club, load it into the trailer, drive 1/2 a mile up the road.... (and then the logistics of getting into the ski resort.... WHEW! Absolute chaos.), set up everything, do the show, tear down, reload the trailer, and then go unload and set up and do a whole other show.

We had NO idea what the show was going to be like at the ski lodge. We have a few days in April where we will have 2 shows in one day, but none of those will be 4 hour long shows.... So this was the day we were all the most apprehensive about. You know what, though? Everyone there - Everyone - helped out so much. Paul was a freakin workhorse. And everyone at the lodge was pitching in. We had a long way to load in all the gear - up an elevator through some curvy hallways and then through the dining area to the stage. But it didn't FEEL that way. It is amazing how when a lot of people pitch in to help - the work gets done SO quickly. Everyone's hospitality made the whole situation SOOO much better.

So the ski lodge? Gorgeous. It was GINORMOUS. (yes, that is an actual word people. Well, not really, but it should be) It was this really open room with food, a bar and glass widows all the way around so you could see the mountains outside. I have never played a gig before where I watched people skiing during the show!!! That was pretty cool, I must admit.

The show was from 2-6 (although set up took longer than usual, and we got a late start. But everyone was cool. Normally that would STRESS me out - but it was obvious we were working as fast as possible). And there were so many kids there. We had one group that pulled their chairs right up to the front of the stage. And did they sit in them? NOPE. They STOOD in them and screamed "You're AWESOME" and "You Rock" the whooooooole show. It was pretty amazing. Needless to say, our show was a bit different from a bar set or a typical "Natalie" show. I tried to incorporate the kids as much as possible. Especially since they were such a great audience!!!

These were the main front row girls who attracted MANY MANY more throughout the set. And I signed the one little girl's pink cast which she is showing off here. :)



This little boy was adorable!!! He was so shy when it came time to ask me... But he wanted me to sign his ski helmet. THAT was a first!!!


Signing ski boots was another first!




Ava wanted me to sign her hands. "Natalie" on one palm and "Stovall" on the other palm.


Then ALL of them wanted it:


Miguel gave a guitar lesson:


And James let a British chick play his drums:


There was a birthday party with about 200 people there too. It was Jim's 50th birthday! But Jim had a guest who was not prepared for the music. She came up to the stage and yelled at us - said she had to listen to us for TOO LONG (She was ANGRY) and wanted us to turn "all the way down"! I tried to be polite, and said "Ma'am, we only have 2 songs left, and then we're done." That did not matter. She kept yelling. But the song had already started. And no matter how much I tried to reason with her... she wouldn't listen. Even though it was 5:50!!! I wish stuff like that didn't get to me... but I found myself trying to sing "quieter". Ugh. Can't win em all. But the rest of the ginormous room seemed happy. :)

We finished the show, I signed some more interesting things - the inside hoods of jackets, tags or shirts.... you name it. Then we packed up and headed back down the mountain to the Matterhorn. When we got there, Gerry had his horse "Annie Oakley" tied up at the post. As soon as I got out of the car, he announced to everyone in the parking lot (he had been at the show the night before) "There's the singer!!! Natalie, come on. I brought Annie Oakley down for you to ride" I was SO excited he was gonna let me ride her!!! I shared one pic a couple of days ago. This was me right AFTER the ride.



Hootie got a turn, too. Right before he got off of her, she did a full body shake, and nearly shook him OFF! It was hilarious.


The show was AMAZING. It was PACKED just like last time. And I was really excited because there were a lot of people who had seen us there in January that came back this time!!! That always makes it fun.


This guy had me sign his shirt last time :) So he wanted to keep the Tradition alive I guess!!!


I had never met a world famous dog trainer before! But this is Alex and he's the trainer of Ashley Whippet. It is quite an amazing story - he and his increible dog Ashley have been on the David Letterman Show, The Today Show, you name it! Ashley has caught a frisbee on it!


It was the first time a fan has ever made and brought chex mix to a show for me!!! And mmm. mmmm. mmmmmm. He makes it with Worcestershire Sauce - just like my Mamma does!


These guys were all from the Harvard Business School. Pretty cool, huh?


Look at how much fun they are!!!


The Matterhorn did not disappoint. It was so incredible last time, that I didn't want it to be a disappointment this time. They had told us the season was winding down and it might not be as crowded, but it was AWESOME!!! It's just such a great bar. They have amazing food, enthusiastic clientele, and they even have Woodchuck on tap! HECK YEAH!!!! It's just good people, you know?

So after an amazing show, we are getting ready to head back to the hotel at 3am. James gets in Paul's car, and then Hootie, Miguel, and I are taking the Suburban. But as we are getting in the car, there is OBVIOUSLY a party going on inside the building we are next to. Miguel said, "OH!!! That must be the party they (the Chileans) were telling me about!" We walked in to see what was going on and we saw all these people who had been at the show. Everyone was dancing and getting down to Reggaeton (which was new to me!) and people were just having a good ole time. It was really fun. We couldn't stay because it was so late, but I wanted to!!! They were having so much fun. Ahh. Vermont is just filled with good people.

Driving back to Tennessee was looooooooooong. But good. And I love it here. Home is a good place to be. If only for 2 nights. :)

Peace. Love. Fiddle.