Heavenly Dolly Belle

Tonight Mamma and Daddy were out of town, so James and I were supposed to take care of their dogs when we got to the house in Columbia. I let out Annabelle and Burnadette.... but I couldn't find Dolly Belle anywhere.

I called Mamma to see where Dolly Belle was... and Mamma's response was "aww... well, she's out chasing bunnies and butterflies forever" She passed away a few days ago, but they didn't want to make me sad while I was out on the road, so they hadn't told me yet. She's been unable to do much for a while. The Vet assured us that she didn't seem to be in pain, she was just so old she couldn't hold herself up to eat anymore or go outside on her own. I knew it was coming... but that never makes it easy. I've had Dolly Belle since I was about 12 years old. She was a really great pup and I loved her so much.

This picture is so great - she was the only dog I ever trained to do "Road Kill". Instead of "play dead" I tell her Road Kill, and she'd lay flat on her back and be still until I gave her the signal to get up. She was so awesome :)


So even though it makes me sad, I am so glad she is in doggy heaven right now. She was way too frail to live a full life on earth anymore. Daddy buried her up by Kitty Belle in the yard. Perfect.

Peace. Love. And Heavenly Pups.
~natalie

Have Some Pics of A Blues Christmas

I left my camera in the car last night among the craziness, so I had to wait until today to get the pics up online. (Sorry, Bay!)

I was SOOOOO excited because my awesome, rockstar of a niece, Bailey, got to come. She brought her friend, Blair, and they were there to support me during the show.
I have to brag on Bay for a sec. She just started taking guitar and after only 3 lessons, she can sing and play all of "Our Song" (by Taylor Swift) among other songs that she is teaching herself!!! It is so awesome!!! She's a natural. I can't wait to get her up on stage to play with me!
Bailey, Me, Blair, and my sister, Stephanie


We had so much fun last night!!! The bar gave the whole band some fancy, schmancy, rummy drinks. MMMMmmm. I didn't get very far with mine, but I think the boys made up for my lack of thirst. ;)


And Jenn got to come!!! Yay!!! Miguel and Jenn got a sitter so that she could come enjoy in the fun. AND my good friend, Jessie got to come, too. WOO HOO!


Last night was quite an event. It was SOOO good to play at home. We got to see some of our favorite people in the world!!


And Jessie got some pics of the jam that took place at the end of the night. It's become a staple of the "Have A Blues Christmas" Scott gets us up on stage to play with him and his band - here's a bunch of us just singing whatever he throws at us! It is so much fun to have to think on your feet and not know what's coming next (and make up lyrics if you don't know the song! HA!)


And here's Scott's beautiful wife, Buffy (in the middle)! And my beautiful sister-in-law, Tracy.


YAY!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

I Want To Go To There

We made it!

We're in GA. And we get to stay in the SAME hotel room for 6 nights. SIX NIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is monumental. I haven't stayed in the same place for six nights since we took a break in May to make the record. I wasn't even home that long when I had bronchitis this summer :)

I'm already starting to feel at home here at the hotel in Perry, GA.

And we all laughed when we got in the car today - it was only a 6 hour drive! After the drive from New Hamphsire, that seemed like a hop, skip, and a jump. Although, I got tired after driving 4 hours. The other day it was 10 hours before I needed to switch.

I'm excited about playing the fair all week. I have missed the fair that comes to Columbia for the last 4 or 5 years, but I think playing 3 shows a day for the next 5 days is more than going to make up for it!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Great Grandaddy was a Fiddle Player?!?!

Today I found out that my great grandfather played the fiddle. I had NO IDEA!!! Granny has never talked about that before. But apparently he had an amazing ear and could play anything. And his brothers all played instruments, too - banjo, guitar, and jews harp. How cool is that!?!?!

We got to Columbia around 8:30 this morning. That means we spent 23 hours in the car non-stop. I am not sure how in the world James finished it off. I went to bed about 11:30am... RIDICULOUS! But we've had a good day of errand running... still doing laundry right now, and hoping to get done soon so I can get some sleep tonight. That took a lot out of me... but we are going to play the Ga National Fair for 5 days in a row! We get to stay in the same place for 5 days! YAY!!!! We have 3 shows a day, but still... it will be nice not to have to shift hotel rooms every few minutes :)

Night night.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Monkey Of The Mountain

This is what Cinnamon does when I am gone...




I think maybe she thought if she climbed a high enough mountain of dirt... she could spot us in Put-In-Bay :)

I am happy to be home with my puppy. Even if it is only for a couple of days...

It's always a really weird feeling to think "Hmmm... I was shopping in a little store on an island on Lake Erie this morning. Right now, I am at my parents' house in Columbia, Tn."

Tim's a SUPERHERO!?!?!?

I love having so much family down here! We all ate at the largest Chinese buffet I have ever seen tonight. Mr. Don Howell, (my sister-in-law's Daddy) took us ALL out tonight!!!

This is 4 of my beautiful nieces and me!


I can't possibly begin to describe just how hot and humid it is down here. It's bad when you've sweat through your jeans BEFORE the first set... BEFORE you get under the lights... BEFORE you really do... well... anything.
I wanted to get an awesome pic of Tim's "Camaro" belt buckle... but instead we reveal his true identity. It's SUPER TIM to save the day, with his awesome powers on the bass. No. That's not sweat on his shirt. It's a "T". Because he's just that awesome.


A guy from Columbia (my home town) who has seen us at Sam Hill's showed up tonight!


We salute our Air Force Men



We still have 2 more days of this awesomeness!!! :)

The sun is officially up. I am officially done. Good Night.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Spring Break Match Made In Heaven

Couples that meet randomly on spring break in Panama City actually DO last sometimes!!! :) The proof was tonight at Schooners.

Chad and Amanda got married tonight on the beach and then they had their reception at Schooner's. I think tonight was the first time I have ever eaten wedding cake on a break during a show! ; ) They were so sweet.


Ray Tate and Renea Tate Coker grew up with my sister, Stephanie, and they saw my name on the poster for Schooners earlier in the day. They came back to the show tonight, and we figured out that we hadn't seen each other since I was 5 years old!


We had some other Columbia, Tn natives that showed up and I also met a fellow BGA Alum tonight! What a small world.

I leave you with Blair, the bachelorette of the evening... she was on quite the scavenger hunt tonight. She had to find ALL kinds of crazy items.


Tomorrow we play the afternoon beach party. Woo hoo!!!

Jenkin's Auto: The Hub of Columbia's Tour Support

How to make an upside down cookie:

Put oven on "broil" instead of "bake". Cookie will be burnt on top and gooey on the bottom. Ummm.... What? I TOTALLY meant to do that tonight ;)

My sister, Stephanie, is a personal trainer and today is the first day I have been able to work out with her in a long time. OH MY LORD. She kicked my boootay, in the best possible way of course :) I am already sore.... actually I was sore before I left her house! How's THAT for a workout? I'm pretty excited , though. I feel like I need to work really hard on keeping up with everything she showed me today, so I can be a good example of one of her clients. :)

James and I were really hoping to get in bed early tonight.... NOT happening :) But what fun would that be? We are heading down to Columbia to get the trailer and it is 3am - our primetime. But we got a LOT accomplished tonight. Miguel and I recorded acoustic demos of all the songs for my session on Monday. Miguel is going home to Chile, so he won't be there with us to play the songs live for the studio guys.

So I guess, I am basically saying that we recorded a bunch of songs so that we can go in and record those same songs. Did ya catch that? :)

(And of course, we squeezed in plenty of hang out/dinner time with Jenn, Ella, and Miguel!!! MMmmmm spaghetti and meatballs. And Ella figured out that if she takes the cushions off the couch, she has a trampoline. Hours of fun right there!)

When James and I got back to our apartment to pack and load up, Ben was hanging out on the porch. Of course, we all started scheming and planning for the upcoming session. We've got a good idea for what the marathon week of recording should look like!! So that was good.

AND THEN... out of nowhere... at 3 am... the BEST THING EVER happened. We have the greatest friends in the entire world. I am still beaming and in a bit of shock right now. I had left the Suburban at my friend, Keith's place. We had a few things that needed to get checked out... and just overall maintenance since she is over 115,000 miles! Keith has a great shop in Columbia - Jenkin's Auto. And I always take the 'Burb to him to get some doctorin up. Keith is basically the reason that Columbia's touring bands can stay on the road so safely!!! He keeps Scott Holt and I going... and going... and passing each other.... and going...

Not only did Keith get all the maintenance done and fix the AC... HE DETAILED THE ENTIRE SUBURBAN. She was as shiny as the day we bought her... actually, probably shinier. And the inside... oh the inside... shampooed carpets, organized, Armor Alled.
Our trip to Augusta and back tomorrow is going to be so FRESH! (and that's not new lingo. I mean, literally. I'm not cool enough to come up with "lingo")

It was one of the more ridiculous things he's ever done for me, and he's done a LOT. He's probably one of the most "on-call" mechanics. I can call him any time with ridiculous questions about "What to do". Keith Throneberry rocks my world. Now the only problem is... it's gonna take me even longer to fall asleep because I need to think of a great way to repay him for this fantastic surprise.

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

Whoa. I'm on a Milk Carton :)

As I sit here working on a song and realizing I only have 2 more days until we go out for our final leg of the tour (our longest venture yet - 6 weeks without coming home) I can't BELIEVE how long it has been since I have played at home. It is so weird when I think about how just 2 years ago I only played shows in Nashville and Columbia... and I didn't even own a Suburban....

Now I have gone through 3 Suburbans and living on the road is a way of life.

All of this was rubbed in this morning when I awoke to an email that had me laughing out loud.



OK! OK!!! :) I GET IT!!! I PROMISE we will play a show here at home very soon. And I promise to make it worth the wait. There are SO many good things in the works right now and I have a lot to process before the next big Nashville show. :)~

I do however, think that was the cleverest and sweetest way for a fan to get his point across :)

Just give us this 6 weeks out on the road... (which is 27 shows... I just counted... there's a few 2-a-days in there) And I promise to have lots of fun surprises when we're back. We'll do it up all country-rockin style and have a big party when we get to come home! There will be LOTS of reasons to celebrate.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Wild Wings was WILD!!!

We're back in TENNESSEE!!!!!!!!!

We've had some good Wild Wings shows over the last year, but this one topped them ALL. The one in Knoxville is great to begin with. The stage is really nice and the room is very open with lots of good partying room :) Plus there is a huge deck with a little pond outside, so it is a beautiful place.

Tonight? STANDING ROOM ONLY. It was amazing. And we had TONS of groups that came out. We had a BLAST on stage tonight and really let loose. Miguel freakin played with his TEETH tonight!!! I have only seen him do that a few times, but he did it the longest I have ever seen him do it tonight. He broke a string during Sweet Child of Mine and had to play the ENTIRE solo with a broken string and would you have ever known if you hadn't seen the string flopping around? NOPE. He didn't miss a beat. He's a monster.

I walked right past some friends the first time I took a load in to set on the stage. I didn't even notice them at the table. Well, a few minutes later - I saw some of THEIR friends walking in the door. Kenny and Debbie Green drove ALL the way up from Columbia to come to the show tonight. And they were all decked out in their Peace, Love, Fiddle gear. Their friends (who have made it out to Sam Hill's on many an occasion) brought their daughter and son-in-law. Plus, Jennifer (Miguel's wife) came up, and she brought our friend John Anderlie. (Who coincidently used to work with Debbie and knows Kenny and Debbie quite well!)



After I saw this crew, I noticed a whole table of people from the Christmas party we played in December. And ummm... then I saw another table of people from the party.... and then another....
Here's Leslie and some of her peeps :)


When the guys, Jenn, and I sat down to dinner... I saw a couple that looked very familiar waaaaay across the room. At first I wasn't 100% sure because I thought, "What are they doing in Knoxville?" But then I saw them looking at me, too. We waved across the room and it WAS them!!!! It's Keith and Susan from my church at home! FUMC unites in Knowxville :) (They stayed until the very last note!) AND they brought friends.


Ok. Now it just seemed to get crazy. This place is 4 hours from my home town, but it was starting to feel like Columbia just because there were so many familiar faces!

The next person I saw was Caroline Marsh from BGA. We went to high school together, and I have not seen her since I graduated. She is in School in Knoxville, and this was her very sweet fiance Luke.


This group of people saw us in Panama City Beach last August, and then came here tonight, AND said they are coming back to PCB in August this year! YAY!!!


And THEN I saw Dave Evans. He had brought 3 whole tables of people, too!!! We played the music festival that he is in charge of this last summer - the Little Tennessee River Music festival in Vonore, Tn.


DJ Stan Duh Man is literally THE MAN!!! He wore his peace, love, fiddle t-shirt, he even sported a cowboy hat for me, AND not only did he play before between and after the sets - he scratched records during "Play That Funky Music" which was SOO fun!!! I have never had a dj sit in on a show before!


And this will probably go down as one of my favorite band pics of all time.


But now it is 6:30am so I should probably work on that whole sleeping thing. It's now officially Spring Break for me this week. We have a few days off, and I will finally get a chance to get some good writing done.

From JJ's BBQ to Africa

Something about a giant baked potato with the best pulled pork BBQ I know of just makes the world make sense to me. I LOVE the Pulled Pork Potatoes from JJ's in Columbia. And ummm.... most anyone who knows me knows that I am obsessed with their fruit tea as well. I even have the recipe and use it frequently at Thanksgiving, Christmas... you know... days when JJ's isn't open. :)-

After loading up on JJ's today, Jessie finally got to catch me up on the videos I had yet to see from The Raining Season's trip to Sierra Leone. It amazing what perspective does. It's heartbreaking, inspiring, uplifting, and overwhelming all at the same time to watch the footage from their trip. These children and these people have been left with so little. Their country is in ruin after a brutal civil war. Children who are suffering can't get the medical attention they need because there's always someone who is worse off. It is hard to watch. But it is beautiful to see something being done.

I am so inspired by the work the Raining Season is doing. And they are helping people brick by brick, drop by drop, and grain by grain. The people of Sierra Leone are so grateful. Seeing an entire people that know nothing but poverty, who are thankful for a bowl of rice each day, and seem so happy.... It's beautiful.

After talking and watching the footage with Jessie, I was heading back to my apartment with a quick pit stop for my sister. I went to her best friend's house to pick something up for her. Now, Stephanie's best friend Suzanne. Wow. I know her first 2 children. But I hadn't really gotten to spend time with or meet the rest of her kids. There have been 4 additions since the last time I saw her!!! How crazy is that? I had the best time talking with and getting to actually spend time with her children. Children just fill my heart. They LOVED Cinnamon and let me bring her in. They were having a ball chasing her around the house! (Not sure how Cinnamon felt, but she's pretty good at holding her own. With 7 nieces and nephews... she's gotten pretty used to it!)

This is Caleb, Annabelle, Michael, MillerAnne, Joshua, Grace, and Mallory (Mallory is "technically" a neighbor, but let's face it - she's family!)



Suzanne is such a beautiful person. She is actually going to Uganda very soon. And her 2 oldest children who are around 10 and 12 are going with her. I have just spent the last 30 minutes reading and looking at the blogs of Amazima Ministries. Amazima is what inspired Suzanne to make her trip to Africa.
Katie is a 21 year old girl who first went to Uganda at 18. She fell in love with the people, and her heart was broken as she saw so may children just sitting idly on the side of the road. She started this foundation which has grown tremendously over the last few years. Her stories are so moving. And I encourage everyone to at least read some of her stories. It will impact your day in a beautiful way.

I spent part of my night catching up on some accounting, and I found a movie about Coco Chanel which sounded like a good working/listening movie. Boy was I wrong!!! I was having trouble focusing on my work because she was such a captivating woman.

At one point in the movie, they are discussing how frustrating it is that men seem to have so many advantages (this is the early 1900's) Her friend says,"That's just the way the world is. Not like you can change the world." Coco replied with "Why not?"

Beautiful.

Here's to whatever your light is in the world - music, fashion, mission work, cooking....

Peace, Love, Fiddle, and doing what we can to change the world

Boyd, Big Byrd, and Train Ridin'

So I am a little late on this.... but I have to go back to our show in Columbia, SC at Wild Wing Cafe.

1st of all.... one of my favorite people in the entire world showed up to surprise me! BOYD!!!!!!! He ad I met at NACA a little over a year ago, and we discovered we are both from Columbia, TN - Mule Town USA!!!! We grew up 2 streets away from each other and his Daddy was always the BEST host of the Liars Contest :) That is a tradition from Mule Day - one of the most fun events of the weekend.




The show was AWESOME. The "Ruth" party :) brought about 15 of the most fun people!
It was Big Byrd's birthday. :)
What is it with these unbelievably tall people at the shows lately? I mean, I know I am a shorty, but seriously?




The night ended with a conga line to "Come On Ride The Train" - I never noticed how LONG that song is!!!! I was one tired girl at the end of the night!