I'm Going Global

Chile supports Peace. Love. Fiddle.



Do you?

This drummer probably would. :) If you haven't seen this video yet (tons of people have been posting it on facebook) you need to watch it. WOW is seriously all I got. This gets me all giggly. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItZyaOlrb7E



Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Following Our Yellow Brick Road

This morning James and I got the most disturbing wake-up call of all... THE FIRE ALARM.

Ugh. Throw on warm clothes (it was in the 30's this morning in NY!!!!), grab the fiddles and computers, and run outside.

Good thing to know we would have no band right now if the fire had been any worse... Matt was in the shower. Panther thought he heard it, but David assured him it was just his alarm... Still not sure exactly how that one worked. (???) Turns out someone threw their ash tray in the trash can and the trash caught on fire. OOPS.

After a little Starbucks to jolt the ringing out of my ears... I was ready to go for our show at Jefferson Community College in Watertown, NY. It's Chilly up here!!! And Miguel isn't even with us ;)

It was another great Spring Fling with crazy inflatable jousting, laser tag, caricatures, free food and balloons! They had an awesome tent set up for us. But once we got the stage set up... well... this was one time where it was advantageous for me to be short!!! The front of the tent almost hung down in my face! Almost... :) But then we taped it up and you could even see David's face!

Big thanks to Adam Pate for my new favorite artwork hanging up in the trailer! Seriously took him less than 5 minutes!


And thanks to Mary and all the students that brought us here!!!




Our awesome sound guys - Mike and Tom!






After the show... we found... TERIYAKI!!!!!!!!! It wasn't Seattle. we have still yet to find ANYTHING that lives up to the teriyaki phenomenon that exists in Seattle... The search will never end.


Umm. First door we saw when we walked into the hotel for tonight. I really wish we were staying in that room.


Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Miguel's Family is ok!

Everyone in Miguel's family is ok!!!!

He was finally able to get through to his dad who had already talked to his mom. Everyone seems to be fine. His dad said the shaking lasted 3 minutes and he felt like the house was coming down. But Santiago, even though it shook, is pretty well structured for earthquakes, whereas Haiti is not at all.

It's still devastating. But it isn't nearly as bad as it could have been.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

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

A Prayer of Thanks

There's nothing like playing for a ginormous, packed club! We played at The Country Club in Augusta Georgia tonight, and it was a BLAST!!! We had people dancing, singing along and giving us energy all night. The guys at the Country Club really do it right. They have a really fun stage, great lights, great sound system - it's an awesome venue.
Thanks to everyone who came out from our previous shows in Augusta - and especially all the soldiers from Ft. Gordon!!! God Bless our Troops!
Plus we made lots of new friends tonight, too :)

I'm so happy that the last 3 days have all been really amazing shows. We needed it. It's been a tough week personally for everyone. Especially for our grandparents. Miguel's grandpa passed away yesterday. His grandma passed away just a couple of months ago. They were both diagnosed with cancer at the same time a while ago. But thank the good Lord they aren't in pain anymore. But it is so hard to be on the road and not be able to get to Chile for him to be with his family. He's been trying to make it work, but it's just not gonna be possible. But his mom may get to come up here soon instead, which would be incredible.
We've had some more bad news about grandparents, but we don't know enough yet for me to feel comfortable to talk about it.

More than anything this week has been such a good reminder for us to be thankful of all we DO have. We've all been faced with circumstances that make us stop and think. I am so thankful for the time I've already had with the ones I love... and the time still remaining. We've created such a close family here on the road. I am so thankful that I get to travel with people that I truly love. It would make times like this a lot harder if we weren't already so close with each other. Tonight, I will be saying a prayer of Thanks for every moment I get to spend with my friends and family. I love you ALL. You know who you are.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Happy Father's Day From The Road

And Anniversary to me and James :)

We spent ALLLL day in the car...


View Larger Map

The day consisted of lots of phone calls to Dads across the US and even Chile!

And Movie Showings included:
"Pirates of the Carribean 3"
"That Thing You Do"
"Girl Next Door"
"Once"
"Old School"
"Wedding Crashers"

Good movie day! :)

You think I should go to bed? It's 5:30am.... Later this week, my goal is to be asleep BEFORE the sun rises. You gotta set your goals high, folks.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Potato Skins Are Just The Carriers

"The way I see it.... potato skins are just the carriers for the cheese and bacon. The same way that the vocal is just the carrier for the fiddle."

Ben Strano (friend, engineer, co-producer aka The Sonic Fedora) upon discussing the vocals for "Devil Went Down To Georgia".

Turns out there's a BIG difference in singing this one on stage and in the studio. I think we were all a bit aware that this would be the case. I'm pretty animated when I sing this song live. It's hard not to be. It is such a fun and energetic song. But again. Recording is a microscope. And if I tried to sing this on the record as hard and excited as I sing it live? Well, it would sound almost cartoon-like... theatrical, if you will. And even though it is a song about a fiddle contest between the devil and a good-ole Georgia boy.... the song is cool as well... (sorry but I gotta...) hell. (You know, Devil... Hell... I'm a dork!)

I've always noticed that rappers do that... everything is way more hyped live because it is harder to get energy across when you are speaking. Never knew I'd be drawing inspiration from Jay-Z or 50 Cent in the studio. Just call me a Southern Ghetto-Fabulous Belle.

The other thing that is so different about the studio... NOTHING sounds like it will once it is mixed. When Ben is done EQ-ing and compressing my voice and mixing the track... it will sound sound a million times better than it does as we listen back right now. And the EQ-ing automatically makes it sound like it has more energy. We were talking about this... And the way I described it to him was... it's like the different between a matte black and a really sharp, rich, glossy black. (I was thinking in color because one of the photo set-ups yesterday was in front of a matte black wall) Ben's mix will take my voice, put it right in your face and it will go from the flat, matte black to a beautiful rich glossy black.

If I've lost you in all this talk between mixes and potatoe skins and matte or glossy finish, I apologize. But you probably know me by now if you are reading this, and you know it is 4am :)

Miguel and Ella get home from Chile tomorrow morning!!! They are probably in our hemisphere by now :)

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
Southern Ghetto Fabulous Nat

SMRT

Sleep Deprivation + Using My Husband's Computer to work = bad idea.

I feel blonder than normal at the moment... Like not my natural color blonde... more like bleached white....

I was trying to be all productive just now... feeling really good about all the work I've gotten done today. (Man. It's amazing what you can get done when you wake up EARLY).

This evening I accidentally discovered facebook chat. It's just like ichat or aim but, it's within facebook so it shows you all of your friends that are logged in. That was fun to discover. :) I talked to friends I have made from schools all over the country. It was pretty cool. It inspired me to do a little extra promotion for my Virginia Wesleyan show on Friday.

Hmmm.... But my computer was dying... so I stole... I mean, borrowed James'. Amazingly, he wasn't on it. That poker on the iphone... had him cornered! So in my laziness, instead of getting up to dig out my charger and find an outlet... I just picked up my husband's.

This is where it all went downhill. I had started inviting people to the show about a week ago when we were in Boston. And when I picked up James' computer, he was already logged into facebook.... but I didn't really THINK about the fact that I was in HIS account. Not my own. Soooo I mosey on over to the event for the show and start inviting more "maybe attendings". (We played this show last year. It was so fun and I am REALLY excited to go back) I kept thinking people looked familiar, but I figured I recognized them from last year. I knew my account would tell me if I had already sent them a message.

Riiiight. I HAD sent them messages. But James hadn't!

So not only does "Natalie Stovall" look suspiciously like a dude who plays the drums.... I invited some of them TWICE. Once from MY profile... once from James'.

Good one Nat.

So anyone who is thoroughly confused when they go into their facebook profiles tonight... I apologize. I was only excited and trying to let you know about the show. And though my husband REALLY wants you to come to the show, too.... he would prefer that I stop impersonating him while using my name to invite people.


Other than that? GREAT Day. We got Hoot Back. Jenn and Ella made it back home to Nashville safely, and we are already in Maine. We aren't too far away from our destination, so we won't have to drive too far tomorrow.

But judging by the recent events... I should probably work on that whole "going to bed thing" before I post a blog in all Chilean slang or something.

Wait. But that would be pretty cool... I WANT that to happen. Miguel? Go in and translate all of this to make me look cool. Ok? Thanks. I mean Gracias.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Cafe 939

These days a lot of places feel like home...

The Suburban

Hotels

Toll Roads

My manager's house

Waking up in strange places is one of the most consistent things in my life right now :)

But there's something so unbelievably nostalgic about walking up and down the streets of Boston. We were walking back to the car tonight at about 2am. We were around the Berklee neighborhood. And there were TONS of people on the streets. I had forgotten how packed the streets are on a Saturday night. Everyone is out. And most everyone is college age. And it felt like home.

And even though I had never played in this venue before tonight, nor did it even exist when I went to school there - it felt so normal. The place was packed. But the weirdest part about the show was the fact that everyone sat on the floor. That was a first for me. It kinda felt like a really rocked out story-time. :)

It was Cafe 939's birthday so they were having a big bash. The first act was Liz Longley and her band. And WOW. She was unbelievable. Seriously. Her songs. Her voice. Her writing. Her band. Her arrangements. All Fantastic.
And then we went on, did our thing and had a blast as usual.
And then Gina Cimmelli went on after us. I didn't really get to hear much of her because I was talking to everyone who came to my show and thanking them all. She was adorable and the one song I did hear was her "happy" song and she totally played a kazoo solo. It reminded me of the Popeye song "He Need's Me" - which my roommates performed at a 'Love is Deaf' Valentine's Day concert... so I have heard it a lot recently.... while they were practicing.. :)

Here's Liz and her band:



These girls were at our show at the Matterhorn. And they told me they wore their scarves for me!!! YAY!!!



This couple was so sweet. They sat right in front and I figured they were Berklee students. They both look like musicians to me :) But I found out after the show that they are just country fans. She saw my add on facebook for the show and they decided to come! We recently tried buying adds for a few of the shows... and we have been curious to see if they work. And they totally DO!!!! Also.... he goes to the Harvard Business School. I just met some guys at the Matterhorn who go to the Harvard Business School. I still had the pics in my camera so I showed them to him - he totally knew them!!! How funny is that? Wow.


Kristen and Sadie!!!
Kristen and I met a few years ago but she has never gotten to come to a show. It was SOOOO good to see her. And she had ordered a cd online the day I released it. So she brought it to the show and I signed it for her. I hadn't seen one of the original cds in a LONG time!!! So cool!!!


And then we got to go hang out afterwards with Jorge and Valentina!!! Jorge is one of Miguel's friends from Chile who is currently going to Berklee. And Valentina, his girlfriend is probably one of the sweetest people alive. We always have so much fun with them!


And then... 1:30am on a Saturday night at Berklee???? SUPREME'S!!!!!! Just like old times :) I went and got my steak and cheese with mushrooms.... James got his spaghetti with meatballs... College all over again....

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Opening for Josh Gracin!!!

Our very first college show 2 years ago was in Elmira, New York, and it was an opening slot for Josh Gracin. After touring colleges and universities pretty solid ever since.... we were asked to open for him again. This time at Mansfield University in PA - only 45 miles south of Elmira. How crazy is that?!?

The show tonight? AMAZING. It flew by. The audience was packed. People were screaming uncontrollably. I felt like I was a headliner in my own little 30 minute opening slot. (which is SUCH a quick set for us!)
You want to know the craziest part? Not only did I FEEL like it was an incredible show... but I spent more time at the merch table than I ever have before. It was a solid line the whole time. How long? 2 hrs and 39 mins. WHAT!?!?!?! I could not believe how amazing these people were. I went to the table to start signing autographs and take pics after my set. I missed Josh's ENTIRE set... plus stayed until they were hauling sound equipment off the stage. But I promised to get to EVERYONE. And I did!!! It was SO FREAKIN AWESOME. I was overwhelmed by the enormity of the response to our set. People were so kind, when I was just happy for the opportunity.

And OH the food. The food was astounding. NOT ONLY did we have plums from Chile in our dressing room (which made one Chilean guitar player in my band very happy) but the salmon and the couscous. Perfection!!

We had LOTS of protection tonight :) (And good-looking protection I might add!)




I had an interview for tv and 2 newpapers before the show. :) Here's all the interviewers:




These girls asked me to sign their biology notes.


I must have looked at them a little funny because THEN they explained. They told me that they came to the show instead of studying for their exam.... I hope they do well on their exam because if they don't I would feel HORRIBLE. (I couldn't even pronounce the study points next to where I signed)


I signed a bunch of normal stuff tonight - you know - hats, t-shirts, ticket stubs. But this was the first time I ever signed cowgirl boots!!! And BOTH girls had me sign their boots. Adorable.


These ladies were at the Elmira show, too!!! We were all really excited about that.


SO I could go on and on and on with stories of everyone I met at the merch table. But I need to sleep in a bad way, so I am gonna move on to the after party. Everyone was going to a bar down the road called Changos. I was exhausted but I really wanted to hang out. Plus, I felt horrible - I never got to even see Josh or thank him for having us as an opener. Well... Josh and his guys were all going, too. And Josh had told Miguel the same thing - he felt bad that we didn't get to talk.

So we headed to Changos


When we walked in, 2 guys were singing and playing acoustic guitars ("Don't Stop Believing" I might add). As we walked into the bar - they announced "Natalie Stovall has entered the bar" and Oh MY, Y'all. The whole place started cheering! Talk about making a girl feel good!!! And then the first girl I saw was ALREADY wearing the Peace, Love, Fiddle tee she had JUST bought!!!


A few minutes later Josh walked in. And we FINALLY got to talk!!!! I think he's my new BFF. :) (Don't worry Farm Boy... no one will ever be my FFBF but you.... there's a BIG difference) He is really a great guy. He puts on a heck of a show and he was so great to talk to. We bonded over the industry and the business and just making things work. He was incredibly sweet about my band. So yeah. I love Josh Gracin. We all do. Actually, Miguel and James are downstairs in the lobby with Josh and his band right now... they weren't ready for the party to stop!!!


We had a rough time leaving. But I knew I needed to go.... we have another 7 hour drive to Boston tomorrow and it's another big day. I'm singing the anthem for the Celtics. And even though it is only one song - it is one HARD song to sing. My voice is pretty swollen just from all the non-stop talking, interviewing, and show-puttin tonight. (I WOULDN"T HAVE IT ANY OTHER WAY!) But I knew I needed to go. It's almost 4am right now... normal... but sucks when you have to get up at 7.... AGAIN.

We all tried to leave about 17 times. This was what happened when I was trying to leave.


Since that didn't work so well... James had to take matters into his own hands.



Good times. Although.... I am still not sure how Josh beat us back to the hotel. He was still inside when we left??? But he was inside the hotel when we got here. Hmmmm... He's magic.

This was even more than I hoped it would be. I had an overwhelming amount of friend requests on facebook when I opened up my laptop. What a great feeling. We're moving on up, ya'll. And it is all thanks to YOU. So THANK YOU for letting me get to do what I do. I will forever be grateful. And I will always stay until the last autograph is signed.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Mt. Ida College!!!

Mt. Ida college was a lot of fun tonight. I love ANY excuse to go to Boston and ESPECIALLY when that "excuse" is playing a show! Plus, Hootie's sister Hannah went to Mt. Ida, so we already knew all about the school before we got there! (Thanks for those directions, Hannah... we needed HELP!)

The show tonight was in this cool student area called the "Shaw Living Room" and it reminded me of the shows we used to play at the MIT Sig Ep house.... you know... "back in the day" :)

They pretty quickly turned this very old, dark wood living room area into a concert hall. You take all the couches out, hire a sound crew and put a band on stage, and it looked like the room was meant for live shows!

Miguel and I were pretty excited. There is this one little part in "Freebird" that we have not been playing perfectly together - it was only a couple of notes but EVERY TIME we play the dang medley, I would get frustrated cause I would think "DANGIT!! I forgot to talk out this part with Miguel again" Well, we remembered in the car tonight on our way to dinner. And of course, he was going through the same thing - just kept forgetting to bring it up. So we worked it out quickly before the show, and got it perfect tonight! Whew. That felt so good.

After the show we made lots of new friends, but we had quite a few old friends show up as well. :)

I met Wayne (tallest dude in back) a couple of weekends ago at the Matterhorn in Vermont. He brought 5 of his friends to the show tonight!!!! They were rocking it out in the "balcony" :) I was so glad they were able to come! It's just amazing that we met first in Vermont and then he was at our show in Boston. I love being on tour :)


These guys were from Saudi Arabia! And tonight they were at a country concert at their college in Massachusetts. Sure seems to make the world small, huh? I wish I had caught their names - twin brothers and a friend. :)



Brittany (blonde on left) and Doug took such good care of us tonight! And Doug ended up buying 3 cds because none of his friends had any money. Welcome to college.


These guys liked the "free hugs". They came back for seconds.


Mr. Nate Telow and his beautiful "honorary southern" girlfriend Lisa! Nate was my VERY first guitar player in my VERY first band, Green Line South. He was part of the band the the first summer when all the guys moved into my parents' house and we played shows all around Nashville. Good Times! Oh, and did I mention that he won the Massachusetts State Body Building Championship??? Amazing.


Miguel's friend George from Chile (who now goes to Berklee) and his girlfriend came out!!! We all went out for a drink with Paul, my manager after the show. We dropped George and his girlfriend off at the T but after we left, he called Miguel to say that the Train had stopped running for the evening. We were already almost to Paul's (where we had to drop the trailer) so then we came back to the T to pick them up, and now they are sleeping in Miguel's room tonight!!! It's like a Chilean slumber party next door :) I love it - I could hear Miguel's laugh through the wall!!!!


No one came to see Hootie. :(

(He's probably just missing Bridget)

And just because I can...


I leave you with the last shot of the evening.... My pirate husband.

peace, love, fiddle

Our Weekend in Stowe!

If you ever go to Stowe Vermont, it would be hard not to end up at the Matterhorn. It's this great little bar right next to the mountain with incredible food (the sushi is amazing!), live music, and an "everybody knows everybody" kind of feel. It's great because most of the people are from out of town and are just there skiing - but EVERYONE knows Charlie - the owner.


Charlie is the one in the Black shirt. :)

It reminds me of Sam Hill's in Columbia, TN. (My favorite bar in the world) EVERYONE knows Peter, the owner of Sam Hill's. And if you don't, you will before the night is over. :) So I felt right at home at the Matterhorn. Well.... except for the -12 degree weather.

It's amazing how quickly we adapt, though. When we were loading our gear to leave on Sunday afternoon, it was 14 outside. And I was thinking, "Wow, it isn't THAT cold today".


I had a lot of "Firsts" at the Matterhorn. :)

My first time in Vermont.

My first time to play 2 full shows in one day at the same bar! We played happy hour from 4:15-6:30 and 9-12:30. WHEW!

My first time to experience -12 degree weather.

My first time to watch a snow storm from stage.

The first time I have ever seen liquids explode from a can because of the cold. (oops. we left some sprites, waters, red bulls, and cokes in the car that were left over from our Greenroom in Peoria. I didn't know the difference!!!)
This is Hootie licking his frozen Propel....


My first time to witness a volleyball tournament in the snow.


My first time drinking out of a mug that had just been carved out of a block of ice.



My first time to help give away a snow board from stage. (Jagermeister gave one away Friday and Heineken gave one away Saturday during the Happy Hour Show)

My first time witnessing a "frozen t-shirt" contest. The way Heineken gave away a snow board was by the frozen t-shirt contest. They got 8 volunteers and handed them shirts that been dipped in water and then frozen.... the first to get a shirt on over their clothes won! It was really entertaining!

The first time we've ever stayed in a hotel where Miguel and Hootie had to sleep in bunk beds! HA! There was one full bed for James and me and then bunk beds for the guys. It was such a cute little "mountain lodge" room. :)

The first time I couldn't hear myself at all in the monitor during the last set because the crowd was singing so loud.


My first time at the Ben and Jerry's factory :)


So yeah. It was a REALLY REALLY fun weekend. Driving into Stowe just looked like Santa's village (as described by Hootie). They tried to open a Walmart and a Dunkin Donuts in Stowe and it was voted down by everyone. That's how cool and quaint this town is! I would love to try ALL the restaurants. They all look so good!

I shall leave you with a few more fun pics from the evening. ALL of them can be seen at:
www.nataliestovall.com

This is sweet Ava. She's Charlie's daughter and she made me the sweetest picture that says "You are a great singer!" Isn't she beautiful?



DAVE-O!!!! Go Red Sox!!!




These girls thought that Hootie looked just like Agent McGee from NCIS. :) And they wanted us to play a Pussycat Dolls song.... but we didn't know that one :)


These two got engaged at the Matterhorn a year ago. They had a huge party with 50 of their friends. They were all divided into teams that were competing all weekend. I was told that whichever team could convince us to come back to their lodge after the show WON. Awesome. :) But after 3 shows in 2 days, needing to load gear in 0 degree weather and a 22 hour drive ahead of us... we didn't quite make it to their cabin. But I thought that was pretty funny :)-




And this was a group of Chileans!!! They are in Stowe working for a few months in a foreign exchange program! They were all VERY proud of Miguel!



I think we ALL have come away from the Matterhorn with a BUNCH of great stories. Many I have shared. And as usual... there are quite a few that I can't ;) But I think it is safe to say that none of us will forget our first weekend in Vermont!

Peace, Love, Fiddle, and Ice Cream

~natalie