A Salute To Hoot

After 2 glorious years on the road together, Hootie is flying the nest to live life... well... NOT on the road :)

Hootie first joined the band in February of 2007. He, James, and I were at Berklee at the same time, but we did not know each other while we were at school... not until he answered our Craig's List add and auditioned for us in Nashville!

Hootie was quite the impressive candidate for the band. He was eager, excited, a SLAMMIN player, great singer, and has an incredible ear, so he learns very quickly.

And the poor guy... his first few gigs with us were QUITE the introduction to the band. I was really sick that weekend, but I made it through the first show. The second night... I completely lost my voice and could NOT sing. So the guys were left to their own devices... Charlie and Hootie were both singers, so between the 2 of them, they could cover 4 hours. But it was his second night with us!!! Yeah. I'm sure he was thinking "What the heck have I gotten myself into??"


The Story of "Hoot"

While in our first rehearsal with him, Charlie asked, "So, do you have any nicknames? What do people call you?" To which Joe responded, "Well, my last name is "Huettner" so people have called me 'Hooters'"

James immediately said "Why did you just tell me that? That's your name now, dude."

Over time it morphed into 'Hootie'... probably because I really felt uncomfortable calling him "Hooters"... you know.... every time all I thought of was orange shorts and busty women.

Hootie's come a LONG way since he first joined the band. He was engaged when he joined... he didn't put gel in his hair... he was a lot quieter...

Spinnaker was his FIRST trip on the road with us... which I shall call the BEFORE picture. (Click on it to enlarge)


There's also video evidence of this first trip! It was Spring Break and it includes Hootie's roll away bed that came with women's panties in it :)
At about 3:10 into the video.... you can see the discovery of the panties. It's quite priceless. Watching this video soooo just took me down memory lane!!



This is one of my favorite pics of him from Elizabeth City, NC when we played the Coast Guard Base last summer. This would be the AFTER pic :) After the band become his life...


Things I Will Miss About Hootie:

His "Raptor"
He would become a raptor and sneak up behind me... you know... like a raptor... claws and all... and scare me in a gas station... or wherever.
This would be Hoot raptoring ducks in the Gardens in Boston:


His endless wealth of knowledge for comic books... what will I do when the next comic book movie comes out!?!?!

His inability to be normal in a group photo:


Discussing LOST. Well... who am I kidding... that will NEVER stop. We already text about Lost...

Emo Hoot:



Singing With Hoot:


His organization. This kid would have his suitcase unpacked with everything where it needed to go before I usually had opened mine!

And well... just HIM!!! He is one of the sweetest and most likeable guys. His laugh is infectious, and his sense of humor is definitely one-of-a-kind!

I sure am gonna miss this guy!!!

We love you Hootie. Good luck in EVERYTHING you do.



Peace. Love. Fiddle. Hootie.
~natalie

E-TOWN!!!!

Today, Hootie MORE than made up for no one coming to see him at Mt. Ida in Newton. :)
We all FINALLY got to meet his sister, Hannah, his niece Sydney and his good friend, Ben. They all drove up to hang out with Joe before the show. Glenside (where we played last night) was only an hour away from our location today. Whew. What an easy drive!!! We ended up sleeping in AND getting to our hotel 3 hours early. Perfect time for hanging out with friends and fam. :)

Sydney is SUCH a beautiful baby and she is SOOOO good. Plus I have wanted to meet Hannah for ages now. I have heard SOO much about her from Joe. :)
Look at Uncle Hoot!


And I have to include this one... She looks like she is practicing her karate moves.... Mr. Miyagi would be proud :)



We played Elizabethtown College tonight in Elizabethtown, PA. We weren't sure of where to go on campus when we arrived. Sometimes it's pretty obvious, but this is a very large, beautiful campus and we had NO clue where to go.
Wanna know how we figured it out? James and I found a poster of myself that had all the information for the show on it... including the location of where we were supposed to be. How funny is that? LOVE IT.

We were playing in a really cool room with a very intricate and impressive lighting rig. They had free pretzels and a root beer keg at the show! It was so fun!!! The show went REALLY well. I <3 the new song we've started opening the show with "The Power of You and Me". It is one of those songs that just makes me happy to sing!

They asked for an encore so we did some Journey! Bangor - you started something!!! I love it when everyone is singing along with me right up in the front of the stage. It is SUCH a great feeling!!

These girls were in the front the whole night. Look at those beautiful basketball players that make me look SO freakin short!!! I even have my boots on... The two girls on each side of me actually started crying during "Angel", which made it hard for me to look at them. It gave me chills... I get choked up enough on my own on that song. It means so much to me when something I've written touches other people - ESPECIALLY Granny's Song.


Jim and Todd!!! Another great team of sound engineers. All the sound guys on this leg of our trip have made our lives so much easier on stage.


This sweet girl is a huge country music fan!!! She just fell in love with country in the last couple of years, and she is coming to Nashville this summer for the first time. I told her to come during the week of CMA Fest. Right y'all? Back me up here!


Annette! She took care of us all night and was definitely running the show. Thank you for everything!


Marilyn! Yet ANOTHER person who came for Hootie tonight! Marilyn first saw Hootie at an Irish Pub he plays in his hometown. She came out to our show in Savage Maryland in September, but I barely got to talk to her that night. So I was really glad to see her and actually get to catch up with her tonight!


And I ended the night with something I've been craving (but have resisted for a while). A Snickers Ice Cream bar. All is right with the world :)

Peace, Love, Fiddle,
~natalie

Tour Diary #1

James recently found this little camera he had bought a while back, so we took some video of one of the last road trips :)
We played Spinnaker Beach club in Panama City for 2 nights and then had to drive through the night to get to Elizabeth City NC to play for the Coast Guard. It was awesome. And after this one, we have decided to do a LOT more video blogging. :)

Hope you enjoy Tour Diary #1!!!!!