Happy Birthday To Me!!!! Berry College Style.

What a beautiful day!!!! In SO many ways!

It began with James wishing me Happy Birthday right at midnight :) And not long after, we drove by the bar where we know we will be going on James' and Zach's birthday!!! (They have the SAME birthday! Crazy!) And we are playing at the Georgia Fair again in October, and ALL the performers go to the same hotel bar to hang out and wind down after the day. :)

We arrived in Rome, Georgia this morning around 6am. We checked into a hotel, and they let us stay late until 1, which was amazing. I slept so hard for the first time in a long time! It was excellent. And then we got up and headed to Berry College for our show. When we walked into the dressing room, the student had these in there for my birthday!!!


They said they got me a birthday cake, but they were really embarrassed because the cake lady misspelled my name: "Natlie"
(What the kids didn't realize was that I don't really care WHAT was written on the cake. I would have been JUST as happy eating a misspelled birthday cake as a correctly spelled cake! Actually.... it's funnier misspelled!)

The weather was GORGEOUS!!! Along with the campus at Berry. Berry College has the largest Campus in the World - 26,000 beautiful acres. And they have an 8 to 1 deer to student population!! :) I was so excited to get to wear a short sleeve shirt! But as the sun went down... our audience keep migrating backwards to try to STAY in the sun. It was a pretty funny site - we were right next to a big building that was blocking the sun as it went down... and it was REALLY chilly when you were in the shade.



These sweet kiddos grew up in Alaska! So they like "Even Alaska".
Dawson and Kyndall


"Those Awesome Guys" That's what I called this group of guys. They opened for us, but they haven't exactly decided on a band name yet... but they were really good! So they are just "Those Awesome Guys" to me.


And here's the awesome students that put on this event! They REALLY took good care of us, and were just so sweet. They went above and beyond to make sure we had everything we needed. Just the best. We love you guys!


After the show, we loaded up and were gonna go to LongHorn Steakhouse... but there was such a long wait that we decided to just try the Mexican Restaurant across the parking lot. It was another excellent choice!! And they sang to me!!! Brought me free Sopapillas, and put the sombrero on me! David just sent me this picture:


SO YAY!!! Great birthday!!! I haven't even gotten to look at my facebook page, yet. But I have already gotten so many sweet messages, text messages, cards, and even an entire audience sang to me today! The guys pushed me out of the way right before we started the last song... I was really confused why they weren't letting me sing the vocal part... but it was because they told EVERYONE it was my birthday and had the entire audience sing to me. It was pretty awesome.

I am one happy and thankful girl. I feel so loved.
Thank you to EVERYONE for making today such a special one.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

The Push Down Sink Knob

You know the sinks in some public bathrooms where you have to push the knob instead of turn it... and after about 5-10 seconds the water stops?

I wonder if those faucets achieve anything other than frustration. I assume they are supposed to save water. And maybe they do by discouraging people to wash their hands for as long! But I find that I have to push the knob down a BUNCH of times to get the soap off my hands. And when I have to push it down 1 more final time for just a second or two to get the last little bit off... the water just keeps running after I am done. So really... it achieves nothing. If I could control the water myself, I would have just turned it off when I was done... and it wouldn't still be going!

Apparently the people who made those did NOT watch the Today show the morning where they said to sing "Happy Birthday" to yourself, TWICE, while washing your hands... that's approximately how long you should wash them. :)

Oh well. Just the musings of my trip to Pei Wei tonight. :)

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Happy 99th Birthday Granny!

Favorite Granny Quote of the day:

"I'm the oldest person I've ever known!!!"



Granny was in rare form today on her 99th birthday!!! She had everyone laughing all day. James and I were so happy to be there!!! We had to leave tonight, but we got to spend the afternoon with her. My mother-in-law and James' grandparents were here to celebrate, too!!! Along with my whole family, lots of delicious wedding food left-overs, and wedding flowers. Whew! It was quite a party.

She was telling a story about a an old man that gave her a BIIIIIG piece of candy in the hallway one day at The Bridge (where she lives). He really wanted her to eat it right then, but she was on her way to dinner, so she insisted that she would wait until after she ate. Once she ate the candy though, she said it was the best piece of candy she had ever had. (And Granny LOVES her candy) So she wrote him a note and slipped it under his door, thanking him. He's run around and told everyone there that Granny's been passing him notes! It's the talk of the town over there at The Bridge.

Peace. Love. Fiddle. And My Angel.

~natalie

Happy Fedorial Day!

Happy Birthday Fedora!! It's the Sonic Fedora's birthday, today. :) So we only worked a half day in the studio. But we were surprisingly productive for a half day! Wait... that sounds like I am surprised that we are productive.... But I mean.... surprised at how MUCH we got done in a short time... umm, eh, ok. Not important. :)

In honor of the Fedora's Birthday, I am putting up my favorite picture of us from recording the first record...


Awww... the Hat Factory II. I miss that place. :)

We listened down all the tracks. It's a LOT to take in. It doesn't seem real. It's been almost 3 years since I have recorded any new music. (Other than demos) It's great and crazy and ridiculous that it has been that long!

I am glad we've waited. I've written a lot since the first record, but not everything I write necessarily deserves a spot on an album, ya know? So I had to write, rewrite, and write some more. And now, I have a really solid EP going, and I already have a GREAT start on some music that I am excited about for the future as well. No more of this "playing catch up" thing.

With the first record I would write... we'd record 3 songs or so... and then I'd have to go write more music (and make more money) to go back into the studio. The first album took over a year and a half to record. This one? Probably going to take a week and a half for the whole thing. Granted, it's half the amount of songs.... but still!

Today, I got the vocals done on "Standing My Ground." It took, oh, a couple hours. With the first record? We'd spend DAYS on a song sometimes. I would punch in on the first half a word sometimes. :) It's amazing how much you learn and grow in 3 years. Plus, I've been singing these songs live for long enough that I know EXACTLY what I want on them. So that's cool.

James wasn't even allowed in the room when we were cutting vocals the first go 'round. I had completely forgotten about that! That's so funny to me now. But Ben and I were both SO SERIOUS about NO ONE ELSE being in the room when I was doing vocals. Now, I think it would be really really weird if James wasn't there.

It's a good thing we're getting this done quickly, though. I don't think I could wait that long to share it with everyone!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.

Saving Cows and Reindeer Cookies

Ahhhh. What a wonderful day of resting :)

My voice is feeling better today - not back to normal yet, but that always happens when it is THIS tired. I hung out with Cinnamon all day - we went on a walk and as always, she got ALLLL the attention :) And tonight I hung out with my parents. They both cooked dinner.... mmmm... mmmm.... And we celebrated my birthday! I hadn't seen them since my birthday earlier this month, so we finally got to hang out.... eat a little Baskin Robbins Choc Chip ice cream cake.... only the BEST cake EVER. It was so nice. It is always good to catch up with them and just hang out. :)

I had bought Cinnamon a "Dog Cookie" at the Ben & Jerry's in Vermont. I think it was supposed to be a reindeer, so it looked just like her :) And SHE was Sooooo excited. She ate part of it. And then she started looking for a place to bury it. The ONLY other treat she does that with are those Iams toothbrushes - those are her favorite. But she must have REALLY like this one because she buried it, too!!! But she only waited about 5 minutes before she dug it back out of the clothes basket and ate the rest of it :) I love my dog.


WOW. And as I was uploading that picture... She definitely just scared herself. She does this all the time and it is adorable. But she'll eh emm.... let one rip (usually silently) and then she will quickly turn around and look at her butt sooooo confused, like "What the heck just happened back there??" And she'll stare at her rear for the longest time. SO funny.

In other resting/relaxing news....

I was playing my favorite iphone game "Cowabunga" today. I hadn't played it in a while, but Hootie beat my high score recently, so I needed to make a comeback. I held the high score in the band for a long time. But Hoot is really good at saving those cows, too. :)

I had by far the best game I EVER had. I saved 223 cows. My previous record was 181. But I got SOOOO excited that I didn't save my score. I immediately clicked out of it to text James to tell him.... and then I realized what I had done. I went back in and looked at the high scores, and there were TWO that had 222.... they probably had way higher points, so I still probably wouldn't have made it on the board. But STILL. Dangit! Oh well. At least I beat my own record - even if I can't share it with the world :)

Natalie Stovall: Saving cows... 200 at a time...

Paul texted me and said it is 16 in Boston tonight with a windchill in the single digits :( Booo for that. I am going to make sure I take advantage of this beautiful Tennessee Spring weather as much as possible while I am home! Here's to a week of Sunshine and hit songs y'all!!!!


Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Birthdays are awesome.

Today didn't begin all that different from most days. I woke up in a hotel in the middle of Nebraska, we had an 8 hour drive, I did a radio interview in the car with a station in Wisconsin... and THEN we made it to Iowa. We got to James' Aunt Deana's and a whole bunch of the family was there to surprise me. WHAT AN AWESOME SURPRISE!!!!

Let me back up and talk about the first part of the day.

I had an interview with Justin Brown at WJVL - Janesville, Wisconsin.



We are playing at the Janesville Performing Arts Center tomorrow night and Justin was so great to have me on his show today! He recorded the interview and put it up on their website :)

You can go listen if you'd like! Click here for WJVL interview

I was so nervous my signal was going to get splotchy on the phone. We needed to keep trucking, but we had good service, so I was just hoping that wouldn't change!!! Whew... we made it the whole 5 minutes :)

And then... at the next stop... we went to (surprise!) Subway for lunch. While at Subway, I found out that I came in runner up for "Best Female Performer" in Campus Activities Magazine!!!! YAY!!!! How awesome is that?? So exciting! I was up against all these comedians and people that are constantly on VH1 and Comedy Central. So I am pretty stoked to be in this category! I still haven't found out who won. But they said they have attached all these fancy schmancy "silver star logos" to my name now :) Movin on up, y'all!!! Brick by brick.... inch by inch.

So at this point.... it's already a great birthday. I was really feeling the late night when I woke up, but all these fun things to do got my adrenaline pumping :) Well... and the Subway... umm.. and the cookies from Subway...

So we are staying with Uncle Tim and Aunt Deana tonight in Iowa City. They have become the official Aunt and Uncle of the band since they are always putting us up in their house!!! We walked in and so many people were here to celebrate!!! James did good :) I LOVE surprises and I had NO IDEA anyone else was going to be here. How fun. There is nothing better than getting to see family on your birthday and especially when you're on the road and not expecting it!!! I love my family. Getting married is awesome. My family tripled this last June. :)- And I LOVE it. I like for it to be "official" because James' family has felt like family to me since before we even started dating... back when we were just "in a band together."

They had food and a cake and more food.. and more food to take with us..... You'll NEVER go hungry in this family - that is for sure!


Aunt Traci told me that she made my recipe of Tortilla Soup this last week!!! Made me SO happy.

I was determined to get of picture of EVERYONE. I (well.... James...) found the timer on my camera...
Take 1:


oops.

Take 2:


MUCH better. :)

Deana had a cake made from a lady in town that is starting a new business. She is from Peru, so we all KNEW it would be good. Miguel has told us a LOT about Peruvian food and how amazing it is... he's not lying. This cake was amazing.


(James is talking in his sleep right now... it's gibberish... but it's funny)

You know what was so great about today? It wasn't a glamorous or big crazy birthday. There weren't any big gifts or grand presents. But it was a day filled from beginning to end with texts, phone calls, wall posts, emails, voicemails, comments, twitters, surprises and hugs from people I love, and it made me so thankful for all the wonderful people in my life. I am on the road living my dream and doing what I have always wanted to do. I am watching this dream come to life in bigger and better ways every day. Who could ask for more?

Cinnamon (my sweet puppy) even sent me card. It's pretty great.... not gonna lie.
Click here to see Cinnamon's Birthday Card to me.

It's funny how birthdays start to change. Miguel asked me last night if I was ready to be 27. My first response was "Can we just not talk about the 27 part?" I KNOW 27 isn't old.... But when you're little... you think 27 is "grown up". Heck you think college is "grown up" therefore, you think (or at least I did) that you'll be in this big glamorous place in life. But 27 is just getting started. And that's the beauty of country music. Most of the people I look up to weren't huge stars at an early age. In the pop world - there is a lot more pressure to "hit it big" by the time you are a teenager. But the country world tends to be a bit more realistic! I am just now starting to figure things out in my writing and in my musical journey that I would have NEVER had to offer at 16. And I am LOVING the journey I am on. I am married to an incredible man. My family is so supportive and loving. My friends... some of the most understanding people in the world. And I have fans that love my music and are almost more impatient than I am for my next record. It's an amazing thing to see my dreams coming to life. And I think 27 is going to be a HUGE year to me. I don't know why it initially sounds SO much older than 26. But maybe it is just because there are so many HUGE things on the horizon. So here's to NEVER STOP DREAMING - whether you're like my Granny and only "2 years from 100", just getting started or somewhere in between.

Peace, Love, Fiddle,
~natalie

The RATHSKELLER!!!!!

The Rathskeller is THE BEST BAR in INDIANAPOLIS!!!! If you live anywhere close to Indianapolis and you have never been - YOU NEED TO GO NOW!!! Seriously. RUN! I'll time you :)

The Rathskeller is just so cool. And the food. Oh the food... Don't get me started - I'll get all hungry again. Though I don't know how I'll EVER be hungry again after how well they fed us tonight.

Dan, the owner aka Dan THE Man... of awesomeness.... is one of the coolest guys in the world. It's not often we get to really talk to and hang out with the owner of the clubs we play in. The managers? Yes. The owners? No way! They usually aren't there! But Dan is.

When I walked in today, Dan pointed at me and said, "Tortilla Soup, right???" (Somebody's been reading the blog!!! YEHYAH!!!) I said "Ummm, yes please!!!" He said "I have some you'll LOVE. It's Shrimp Tortilla Soup"
Ok, I've put hamburger and ground turkey in mine - NEVER thought to put shrimp in. MMM. mmm. MMM!! It was so good. REALLY spicy. Just how I like it! Man, I wish I had another bowl right now.

Dan the Man (who you can see in Tour Diary #2 from the first time we played at the Rathskeller)


And then Dan's wife and her 2 best friends came back. This is a really cute story. Leslie and Jackie - the 2 beautiful ladies on the left side - came to our very first show at the Rathskeller. They met for the first time that evening. They have been best friends ever since!!! They even just went to Cabo San Lucas together! Isn't that cool? Peace, Love, Fiddle - bringing people TOGETHER!



Ok. Now for THE BEST SURPRISE I've had in a LOOOOOOONG time. (I LOVE LOVE LOVE surprises) MAMMA and DADDY came!!! They are so sneaky! I had NO idea - not even a hunch they were coming! They drove all the way from Nashville just to surprise us and watch the show. It was so exciting to have them there and share the night with them. We have so much catching up to do ALWAYS. But I won't have to catch them up on THIS show! They got to witness all the craziness firsthand! And Dan. My Goodness. He gave them the star treatment! Every time I looked up they were wisked off to meet more cool people! (And Daddy was VERY happy with eating dinner here!)


We were gonna try to stay at the same hotel, but it ended up taking us a while to get packed up at the end of the night. Plus, we were going in different directions. Plus, good ole Jeeves... trying to take us on state roads even though there was an interstate RIGHT NEXT TO US. We keep ending up having to navigate with our iphones. Dangit Jeeves! Get it together!

Karen and Pat.
Ok. These two are such wonderful people. The last time we played the Rathskeller, they came and brought me a present. Karen had made me Peace, Love, Fiddle earrings!!! How cool is that? This time... they brought a HUGE group of people with them AND they made me another design of Peace, Love, Fiddle earrings!!!! Goodness. I love them.
James was there to document the whole thing!
Me unwrapping the earrings (Did I mention that I also LOVE to unwrap things? Cds... Dvds... wrapped boxes... they don't even have to have anything in them. It is just fun to unwrap!! Seriously.)


Me showing off the earrings:


Me thinking that Karen made them again:


Me finding out that Pat drilled holes in them - so he made them too!!!


And then tonight I took a picture of BOTH pairs of earrings so you could see how adorable they are!!! The first pair is on the left and tonight's is on the right:


And the whole group they brought with them!!! How AWESOME are they!?!?



There were a few celebrities in the room tonight as well :) Along with Karen and Pat's group was their niece, Sarah Fisher - a professional Indy Car Race Driver. She's the on the right.
In 2000, Fisher became the third woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500. She went on to become the first female to earn a pole position and is the fastest woman to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 with a four-lap average of 229.439 mph. I looked it up! I mean.... I knew that off the top of my head :-)~


And then all of a sudden, all these guys with these gargantuan Super Bowl Rings seemed to appear out of nowhere! I am not sure about all of them, but I know one of the guys said he a Doctor for the team!


I didn't want to be left out, so I stuck my ring in there, too. And I thought MY ring was big.


Happy Birthday Lawana!


Jill's sons were at the venue across the street watching Mudvayne. So she came over to the country concert! She ended up staying the whole night!


The show was really fun. We hadn't played a bar set in a LONG time it felt like. So far on this leg of the trip, it has just been Colleges. We ROCKED IT OUT tonight. Once Pat and Karen took the dance floor - the rest of the crowd followed their lead, and they all stayed out and danced for the rest of the night. It was so fun!!!

Next time we go back to the Rathskeller is July 11. We'll be back out at the Bier Garden in the beautiful warm weather!!! But I will definitely remind everyone when we are going back! Thank you for everything Dan!!

Peace, Love, Fiddle,
~natalie

Memories of Opryland

Look at what showed up today!!!! As I sit here watching the first snow of the season, catching up with family, and realizing just how much I have to be thankful for, I get back to my hotel room and the first thing I see in my inbox is a picture of me from the Tennessean at age 10 auditioning for Opryland!

When I was on my honeymoon this summer, I had gotten a phone call from someone at NPR who was doing a documentary on Opryland. Because I was on a cruise, we never ended up catching up for an interview. I hate that I didn't get to contribute. Opryland was such an HUGE part of my life. It shaped my childhood and who I am as a person and performer. The people in the Opryland Kid's Club became family and they taught me how to communicate my love for singing, dancing, and playing the fiddle with the world. Especially Ms. Janet Ivey - the adult "kid" in the show. She was the best mentor any kid could ever have. It breaks my heart that the park is gone.... it was made into a mall. After spending 4 years of my life working in the Kid's Club and in a Country Christmas at the hotel, I always dreamed of going back every summer and eventually taking my kids there one day. But SO MANY share my feelings and love and longing for Opryland.
"Memories of Opryland" is premiering on WNPT in Nashville on November 30 at 7:00pm. I can't wait to see it!


This was the infamous audition where I played "Orange Blossom Special" on the fiddle. They asked me to sing and I said, "I have never sung for anyone before" They said "That's ok, sing anything! 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' or 'Happy Birthday'" I sang Happy Birthday, got a callback, and then got the job!!! Best thing that ever happened to me. Of course I had just made the team in gymnastics. I remember Mamma coming in the gym to tell me I got the job. I couldn't contain my happiness! I NEVER expected to get that job! I did 13 back handsprings in a row, ran around a few times, and then cried cause I realized I had to quit the team. But I think I made the right choice!

This picture was in the Tennessean. Plus they interviewed me after I got off stage for a tv show... This is where it all began, folks...

Natalie Stovall, 10, right, auditions for the Opryland Kid's Club Show at the Roy Acuff Theatre. Young performers will be cast for the first time in the Opryland theme park's 21-year history for the musical variety show. Stovall was chosen from the tryouts to return for a later audition. (Nina Long / The Tennessean) 4/6/1992

For more pictures and stories:
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=DN&Date=20081126&Category=FEATURES01&ArtNo=811260806&Ref=PH&Params=Itemnr=52