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

Maryville. All Rained Out :(

What a bummer!!!!! I was really excited to play in Tennessee today - it's so seldom we get to play this close to home. We arrived safely in Maryville around 6:30 this morning after a long overnight drive from South Bend. Grabbed a few hours sleep - just enough to rejuvenate and get all refreshed for a show!

We got to the school and this awesome singer songwriter - James Trimble - was playing an acoustic set. We unloaded all of our gear from the trailer (with LOTS of help from the students! THANK YOU!) got it to the stage... and then the dark clouds came a-rollin in.

After waiting a few minutes to see what would happen... we rolled all the heavy gear and amps back into the trailer and put the instruments close by under a roof. We headed in doors to wait out the rain. It got to the point where the radar looked like we were in the clear and the rain had stopped so we headed back outdoors. We unloaded the trailer again. Got everything onstage, started unpacking... and Guess what?! Even BIGGER drops started coming down.

We started packing up our gear and rolling is back to the trailer like a pit crew!

At this point the stage was all wet and there was just no way to set up electrical gear :( The inflatables all came down because the generators have to be shut off with the rain. Ughh. It was so sad. The students were SO sweet and helpful. Maryville College is on a gorgeous campus in Tennessee near Knoxville. BUT... no show. Oh well. Hopefully we'll get to go back sometime and ACTUALLY play.

They said they haven't had this event outside in 5 years. And this morning was gorgeous with a tiny chance of rain. BUMMER.

But the students ordered us food from this local restaurant called The Tomato Head. It was UNBELIEVABLE! I hope we get to go back sometime soon. One of the best sandwiches I've ever eaten! It was called the "Oh Boy!" And there were TONS of options for David, too. Normally he has to find whatever dish has the least meat and ask them to leave it out. But today he had as many or more options as the rest of us!

Now we are on I-40W headin home!!! We'll be there less than 24 hours, but hey! I'll take what I can get! We have just enough time to get some laundry done... drop off Miguel to welcome his newest child into the world, and pick up our sub guitar player for the next couple of weeks!

Yee HAW!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Hang On Sloopy

Ohio State University, Mansfield. Small Yet MIGHTIEST audience ever. :) These kids were AWESOME!!!

We played in a really cool intimate auditorium. I believe the auditorium was built to project sound - speakers, lecturers, that kind of thing. So playing with amps and electrified music provided a challenge. :) We had an extended sound check and still fought with the sound the whole show. HOWEVER... a rock show is supposed to be loud, so I guess that worked out well in our favor tonight! ;)

And the auditorium was intimate enough that the audience and I were able to talk between songs - I could hear them clear as day!! :) It was a good show. Standing ovations in the middle of the set make for a very fun night for the boys and me. :)

CAB!!! Y'all rocked our world. Thank you for everything.


Jamie!!! Thank you for helping us out so much today. AND for paying for everyone's cd's! You've got 5 I.O.U.'s coming. :)








Mark and Janice surprised us! I knew we were in their territory (only an hour from their hometown) but I didn't know if they'd try to come or not. But they did! And they came out to eat with us afterwards. We went to Cheddar's. It's a restaurant I have seen a BUNCH of times, and recently a lot of people have told us to try it out. Tonight the students convinced us to go. It was excellent! I will be going back. :) Soon.


Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Joust!

We've been flinging a LOT lately :) 'Tis the season!

Today's Spring Fling Concert was at Indiana University Southeastern.

Alas, it was raining... again. But as always, everyone makes the best of the situation! The inflatables, the stage, the food, the cotton candy and popcorn and the students all moved inside for a little more indoor kind of fun. :)

The best part was that behind the audience was where the jousting inflatable was set up. So the entire time we were performing... people were jousting and knocking each other down. Entertainment for the entertainers! :)

I have to pause, though and say a big GET WELL SOON to beautiful Zyriah. The sweetest little girl - that was WAY into our sound check (and especially my amp since it has a Z on it). She was playing in one of the bouncy inflatables and broke her wrist :( Her mother texted one of the organizers from the hospital because Zyriah wanted a signed poster from the band. Isn't that just the sweetest thing??? HOPE YOU'RE FEELING BETTER ZYRIAH!

The guys raided the inflatables after the show. I didn't quite get to the jousting in time for pics... (but James and Miguel duked it out and it was quite funny) BUT I caught the guys at some of the other places. :)

David... in the boxing ring... alone... with oversized gloves... after he tackled Zach and ran off Miguel... he wouldn't stop bouncing, so the pic is blurry :) Only adds to the awesomeness.


James and David played basketball... I played skee ball... I LOVE that inflatable skee ball exists.


We drove 6 hours up to Bowling Green, Ohio tonight. It feels so good to be in the hotel early!!!! It's only 12:30. So amazing. PLUS it's the best hotel ever. There's a Starbucks, Chipotle, Waffle House, and Jimmy John's all within walking distance. Upon discovering this, Miguel let out a giant AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO? WE'RE GONNA HAVE TO EAT EVERYTHING!!!!!!!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Mt. St. Mary's University.... Older Than Chile

Seriously... it was founded in 1808 and Miguel said they are celebrating the Bicentennial this year in Chile!

Mt. Saint Mary's has a gorgeous campus, located atop a beautiful hill... and it is the oldest independent Catholic college in the U.S. Their spring fling had to be moved indoors today because of rain... but it was no less exciting! Inside the cafeteria, they had a big ole stage for us, mechanical bull, flavored oxygen, old timey pics.. it was awesome!

We were really happy to arrive this morning. We arrived at the hotel around 11:30am after driving all night long. James and I make such a good driving team. We each took a couple shifts and managed to get enough rest while the other was driving to take over again after a few hours. It ended up being about 13 hours total.

The show was awesome - the students were all right up at the front of the stage and I sold OUT of my first cd! We have more ordered, but tonight the last of the most recent batch was sold. Always a good feeling :)





Signing the headphones!


The school is located really close to Camp David - The President's Retreat. We're on Season 4 of the West Wing on DVD in the Van right now, so that was really cool to find out!

It's time for some relaxing with the guys... bed time later is gonna be amazing.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

La Guapa

I just played my first show with my NEW AMP today!!!! It was amazing.

I bought a Dr. Z, surf green Maz 18. She shall be known as La Guapa! (We've been quoting 3 Amigos all week... David's been doing the El Guapo dance... it just seems to fit!)

I really thought originally that I was gonna get an Orange Amp or one of the hand wired White Vox's... but nope! Dr. Z won out in the end. It was a no-brainer. Plus, this store exclusively has the surf green.... can't get it anywhere but Ft. Oglethorpe, GA at Humbucker Music!!!



As Kiwamu - one of my former guitar players - put it, my never ending search for the perfect tone has just begun!!! :)

La Guapa's first gig was very much a success at Ga Highlands College in Rome! It was our 2nd time at this campus... but this time we didn't get put in jail :) (The students put us in jail and people had to pay $10 to get the whole band out last year. Fortunately it was for a good cause, so someone ponied up the dough)
I had to dig WAY back in the archives for this one...


Thank you HIP for bringing us to campus and helping us out today!!!


I raced a few of the HIP girls in the inflatable obstacle course... got quite the battle scars to prove it, too!!! Miguel said I look like Ella - my whole arm is scraped from the velcro. It was worth it! I won that race! I didn't win the next one, though... she was undefeated... and I just barely came in second :)

And thank you John!!! John has always taken good care of us :)


We play at Ga highlands Campus in Cartersville on Friday night at 7pm. If you're around the area, come on out!!! It will be a great event with food, games, and of course we'll make sure the music is played :)

Coming to you from the Super Laundromat in Rome, GA...

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

We Rock the "G"

We rocked Georgia Northwestern Technical College so hard.... that we rocked the "G" off the wall. OOPS!


The Head of the Rome Campus came in after the show, asked "Did I miss the WHOLE thing?" And Brandy and Dione told him it was so crazy I smashed my fiddle and broke the "G" on the wall. I think as soon as he looked at me, he knew that wasn't true :)

Dione and Brandy... our awesome peeps the last couple of days!


Thanks for all the help David!


We had a lot of fun playing for 2 of GA Northwestern Tech's Campuses. And they even gave us CHOCOLATE BARS today!!! Woo hooo! (I'm a cheap date)

Looking forward to GA Highlands tomorrow!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Interpretive Dance To Kings of Leon at Winthrop University

I knew tonight was gonna be awesome. We were working with Boyd and the DSU Entertainment Crew at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC. Most days we have no idea what we are walking into. But when you are working with Boyd, you KNOW you will be taken care of!

Boyd and I met at a NACA conference a few years ago. I didn't know it at the time, but Boyd is legendary in the college world... as in, there's an award named after him that is given out each year! :) When we met we quickly figured out we were from the same hometown - and his parents lived 2 streets over from mine. SMALL WORLD!!! His Daddy, Wimpy Jones, was always the host of the Liars Contest during Mule Day every year and was ALSO legendary for his storytelling. And Boyd's father remembered me from a fiddle contest I played in when I was 8 years old.

Yeah...

And tonight I played at Winthrop University for the second time in my life. How cool is that?

Boyd is known for his GIANT Bear Hugs and Stinging High Fives :)


And Boyd sure knows how to pick the students for his Entertainment Board! They helped so much with load in and load out, and even had my merch table up and going without any instructions on how to do so! AMAZING!



Plus this is the VERY LAST SHOW EVER for the Dinkins Student Union. They are getting a new building, new name, new members, new logo - the WORKS! SO they had Eric O'Shea and myself for their final event.



Eric is HILARIOUS. Seriously, had me rolling. And it is really a great pairing to have a comedian warm up the crowd - he gets 'em laughing, we get 'em rocking. It's a great combo that we hope to do a LOT more of!
Just so I can share... I found a short clip on youtube for ya :)
He does this bit on what songs should go to television commercials...
(Plus he does a great Elmo, Family Guy, etc.)


Maybe because Eric got em going... or maybe because it was the last night, or who knows? Maybe just because they are awesome... these brothers broke out the worm, clogging, snake, sprinkler, acted out ALL of "Devil Went Down to Georgia" and even did a little interpretive dance on Kings of Leon. :)


Thank you so much for choosing us to be your last event! We now have a close friend now in Eric - who has stayed up and hung out with us all night tonight!





I haven't written a blog at 6am in a long time! It's time for some shut-eye :)

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

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

Or A Big Ole City

Thanks for the prayers Farm Boy! Lord knows we appreciate em!

We drove through the night last night to get to Ga State University. We got here at 9:30 (our load in was at 10)... James was quite the champion driver!!! He drove the whole way here.

But even though we arrived 30 minutes early... we made it to the venue 30 minutes late. The students had a hard time explaining where we should go. It's not an easy thing to do, ESPECIALLY in a big city like Atlanta. Plus... the equation of one way streets + a 14 foot long trailer = CHAOS. But we eventually got to where we needed to be (Whew), and got all set up. We had a GREAT couple of guys running sound for us - Coi and Ben. They were so helpful in getting us up and running speedily! We didn't have enough time for David to open. And THANK GOODNESS Jessie drove down from Nashville to help me with my merchandise! I'm not sure I would have even had time to set it up had she not been here!!!

The way the event was set up - food, games, streets performers, and dj's... they wanted us to play a 30 minute set with a 30 minute break and then another 30 minute set. It is so funny how trying to program a 30 minute set is more difficult for me than programming a 90 minute set! :) I guess that's not really a "problem" per say. Plus I like a good challenge. The show worked out great. AND I got quite the sun tan in the process. :)

Parking in a big city is always a challenge. ESPECIALLY when you have an oversized vehicle and trailer. Our hotel doesn't have any way to accommodate us, so the school had to get creative on where to have us park! But they were so helpful. James and I were double parked... moving... then double parking again... as we were waiting on instructions where to go. After about 3 1/2 hours, though, it all got figured out. And YAY!!! The lobby had free food, beer, and wine in the lobby when we got back. Could there have been a better surprise than that? Don't think so. Just what we all needed!!!

Jessie and I even hit up the all night diner on the next block after Lost, which was an excellent choice. And then I have spent the last few hours finishing up some good ole tax work. Yes. I realize what day it is. Yes. My accountant LOVES how much I procrastinate. :)

And Yes. I can barely keep my eyes open. Goodnight!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

King College: The Quintessential College Gig

Man. The name of our current tour should be "beautiful College campuses of America". Seriously.

King College is in Bristol. TN - right on the VA/Tn border... so in the mountains. We played tonight at 7, so we got to provide the soundtrack for a gorgeous Appalachian sunset.

This gig was the quintessential College gig. They had a huge, nice stage set up for us right in front of the campus' pond. (complete with fisherman and all) They were grilling out hotdogs, hamburgers, a whole separate table for brownies, cookies, and Rice Krispies treats... There were groups throwing around a football. The baseball team came down after a game, the soccer team came down after practice... other kids were hanging out on blankets... and a mechanical bull championship was in full throttle. :)

S.L.A.C.K. set up our greenroom in the Hall of Fame which was awesome. They printed out directions from the school to the hotel on mapquest for us :) And we had the cutest mini coke cans in our cooler!


We left about an hour ago from the hotel after a quick nap to leave for Atlanta. (It's currently 4am) We play an afternoon show at Georgia State tomorrow. :) And in keeping with my slow internet... I'm not able to upload the photos from the event tonight. But as always, they will be on facebook as soon as I am able to get to internet...

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Emory and Henry College Sadie Hawkins Dance

We played our first Sadie Hawkins dance tonight at Emory and Henry College. :)

It was a BLAST! There was a DJ to get the kids dancing for a while before we took the stage. When David took the stage to open the show.... we were all a tad nervous about the fact that these kids came to DANCE. It's a completely different mindset to play a show as an artist rather than as a "provider of dance music". But we went with it.

Turns out... the students? Couldn't have asked for a better group! When David started, they all left the dance floor... grabbed chairs from the tables, and set the chairs on the dance floor to sit and listen!!! SO COOL! And then when I came out, they all started moving the chairs back and started dancing to the full band. We had so much fun. And I even got out on the dance floor with them during "This Time". There was a couple in front doing an awesome dance to my song. I hopped down... started doing the step with them, and within seconds the ENTIRE dance floor was all doing the same step! It was just like a movie!!!!

Emory and Henry College has a beautiful campus. And we were playing on a lawn, under a giant white tent... again.... just like a movie. I have always thought parties under tents looked so classy and fun. :) And now I've gotten to play in one.

Some of my fellow dancers:








After the show, we were excited because we heard that a Huddle House shared the parking lot with our hotel. That made dinner a really easy choice. Ummm.. that is until we walked into the Huddle House and they said - sorry!!! Grill just closed. Midnight -2am only thing available is biscuits, gravy, and waffles. Well... on to iHop 20 minutes away...

Turns out, it was well worth it. David got pancakes filled with nuggets of cheescake. Panther got a country fried steak, eggs, and pancakes.... And by the end the guys were making the syrups talk to each other. What does that mean? I have no idea, and I was there....
LOOK AT THAT MEAL!


Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Pied 3 guys, Played 2 Shows, 1 Day of Awesome

We played 2 shows in Virginia today and they were BOTH at beautiful campuses on a beautiful day, lots of awesome bands, and we worked with WONDERFUL students at both!!!

Some of the awesome things that happened today.


It was the first time anyone ever came up to me in the middle of a show and said "Hey, I love you guys! Will you pie me in the face?"

Yeah...

I pied not 1, not 2, but 3 guys in the face. :)




As a result, I spent the beginning of soundcheck at the second show cleaning pie off my fiddle. :) There was some left on my fingers when I started playing "Devil Went Down To Georgia" oops...

A professor at Lynchburg College gave EXTRA CREDIT to any of his students that came to the show tonight.

Seriously. That happened.

At first I assumed we was a music teacher or something since he was so supportive. But nope. Business of Law. He told me he had been playing videos of mine from Youtube at the first 5 minutes of class for weeks now to promote the show. He saw posters, looked up the music and became a fan.

And to add to Professor Kelbaugh's awesomeness... he's retired from the CIA, and he gave me a CIA pin at the end of the show!!! What an honor. He said that the show touched him and that he wanted to show his appreciation.


Lynchburg College had the most amazing group of hula hoopers I have ever seen. If a "hula hoop" team existed... these girls would ALL be on it. They were doing tricks and flips with hula hoops that I have never seen before. It was quite impressive. I'm pretty decent at hula hooping... but the normal, stale way. I was too intimidated to get out there today!

We had a capella groups open for us at BOTH shows today! Not something that has ever happened before and then it coincidentally happened at BOTH shows. At Longwood.... it was an excellent student group from the school. And then tonight at Lynchburg it was Ball in the House - HANDS DOWN the best a capella group I have ever heard!

We FINALLY met Llyod Dobler Effect (as well as Ball in the House) tonight! They both played the show with us at Lynchburg. It was ARI-FEST 2010! :) We are all 3 with the same agent. And I feel like I know Llyod Dobler Effect because our posters are always hanging next to each other's in venues. And finally today we got to play a show together!!!

Plus, Ohio Avenue, Saving Jane, and Sister Hazel were some of the other bands at Longwood earlier today at the first show! We met Ohio Avenue 2 days ago at NGCSU. :) So cool to see them again. :) We have met such cool people lately! I wish we could spend more time with them, but it's awesome to just continue crossing paths.

Dangit! I don't know what is up with my internet not letting me upload pics lately... :( I keep trying and apparently 3 is my limit tonight. But yet again... as soon as the internet starts working, I'll have pics up on facebook!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie