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

APCA Houston, Rockstar Babies, and Crazy Dreams

We're in a very stinky Comfort Inn somewhere in Mississippi. But I am so tired... I don't even care. Maybe it will inspire some crazy dreams. The other night I had a dream that Hootie and Justin were going on tour in Thailand with some music they had written together....

Congratulations to Charlie and Amy Hutto!!!!! There's a new rockstar baby in the world today - Jackson Chad Hutto. Charlie is a good friend, one of my favorite co-writers, and has been a band member throughout the years as well. Yay!!!

We played our final College Booking Conference of the year today. That's hard to believe. But next year is filling up like crazy. And it's gonna be SUCH a good year.

I love APCA and NACA because I meet SO many new people, hang with tons of cool performers, and see lots of old friends, too! There were 9 kids from UT Tyler which I just played on Tuesday - and their table was right up front during my showcase. So I had lots of friends in my corner yelling for us before they even introduced us! :) That makes such a big difference!!!

This is the lead singer of Fly Gypsy (a hip hop/ rock/ reggae band) and a beautiful poet who were both in my showcase.


AND Street Drum Corps!!!!


It was funny because it was Tim's first showcase with us. We have done so many this year, but he hasn't been with us on any of them yet. :) And he almost ended it with a splash!!! He was dangling off the edge of the stage on the last note and almost ended up in the monitor console! But whew, he got back on balance just in time.

Our next show is in West Virginia so we went ahead and got a few hours under our belt as soon as we finished up with the showcase. Tomorrow... we get to drive ALLLLLL day. :) Life on the road!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Ft. Polk: Woo Woo!!!

Today we played at Ft. Polk in Louisiana and it felt like a hot summer day!!!

The last few weeks... every time we have played in the deep south... we have FROZEN OUR LITTLE TOUSHIES OFF! So today, I was all excited because I finally had a chance to wear the cute long sleeve shirts I ordered for the next time we played outside in the cold.

Didn't actually think to check the weather.

Smart. I know. BUT I had good reasoning! It's NOVEMBER. And consistently, every show we've played outside for the last month has been SO cold. So I wore a long sleeve shirt. Now, the top of my neck, my hands, and my forehead are red. But everything else was covered! :) Poor Tim only got burned on ONE side of his face.

It was like playing at the fair today! There were funnel cakes, LOTS of games and tents, rock wall climbing, typical fair stuff... but the one thing that was unique? Periodic firing of artillery. They were blanks... but still... you don't normally see a tank with people showing you how to operate it at the fair.

BOSS (Better Opportunities for Single Soldiers) and the band!


We had the sweetest kids hanging out at the show!!! They were an enthusiastic bunch that were dancing and living just to touch the front of the stage. I've seen a lot of unique names over the years, but today was the first time I ever signed a cd for a "Woo Woo" :) Which I thought was pretty adorable.

One soldier bought a cd, and then came back later to buy another. He asked me to make it out to his friend and wanted me to say "Sorry it didn't work out between us" :) Which again, I thought was pretty awesome. I asked if it was gonna get the guy in trouble, and he assured me it wouldn't. :)-

Soldier of the day:


Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

APCA Northeast

So, I have to share this. Mamma showed Granny the picture of Kaleigh's tattoo today, and Granny said that it made her feel like a celebrity! :) I though that was awesome.

We had another great conference today at APCA Northeast in Verona, NY. It was the first time we've played a showcase where the exhibit hall/marketplace (which is where all the agents' booths are) was in he same place as the showcase room.

Doing 15 minute showcases is always such a weird thing. At least for us artists. It's a lot of fun now that I feel like we have gotten more of a hang of it. After showcasing at different regions over the last 3 years, we have really started to get a better rhythm with it.

But you've only got 15 minutes to go out, impress impress impress, and then you're DONE. Well... and then you go stand in your booth and hope and pray for bookings. There's a LOT of hurry up and wait between soundcheck, the actual show, and then your time at the market place. Normally I get a HUGE adrenaline rush, and the whole thing is over before I know it. But for whatever reason today, I felt like I was in slow motion. Everything was moving at the same pace, but the whole atmosphere was different. You just never know!! That happens sometimes with regular shows, too. But it was a unique experience for me today. Miguel said he shared in that experience with me, today.

The booth was CRAZY today. I hope they don't ban me from giving out cookies. The carpet looked as though I had thrown cookies down on the floor and stomped on them. The booth was absolute chaos the entire marketplace. :) The way I like it!

We are staying in a crazy Comfort Inn in Mansfield, Ohio right now - It has "Splash Lagoon" in it. It's basically a really awesome indoor and outdoor pool with waterfalls and slides and stuff. The crazy thing? We've stayed here before. And last time we checked in really late and were just gonna have to get up and go in the morning. One day, I will go play in the Splash Lagoon!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

The Morning News Is On... I'm Going To Bed

Well... when you arrive at your hotel at 5:00am after driving through the night... the last thing you want to hear is that they have no record of your reservation AND that they are sold out. Boooo...

But no biggie. We found another hotel down the road that did have rooms. And even though they have about 60 mattresses lining the parking lot and outside of the rooms... there ARE mattresses on our beds as well. Hallelujah!

We just got a text from the guys saying they are switching rooms because the curtains just fell off their window in their room :)

Oh the journey we're on!

Sorry not to have more insight on life right now. But it's 5:22am. And I'm sleepy. Night night.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.

~nat

My GPS Wants Me To Go Home

This morning we checked out of our hotel room only to check right back into the same room. :)

It was pretty ridiculous. It's a long story... we thought we were gonna go to another hotel, but we couldn't get in touch with anyone. So we just stayed here! And they put us in the same room since we JUST checked out of it.
This hotel is great - it is a Hampton Inn and the first night they had Beef Barely Stew, tonight they have nachos, and EVERY night they've had cookies. This place wins.


Pic of the day:


I LOVE this picture!!! This was taken by Danielle Barden at Penn Tech. Look at the height Miguel gets! That's impressive.

And this morning... I woke up to an email from Jeeves, my GPS. He said:
"A fan just sent me this picture they took at a retail store near Music Row in Nashville."

I think Jeeves is just trying to make up for all those wrong turns earlier in the year. But lately, he's been pretty good about not getting us lost :) I do love that he put eye drops in there - to help battle my crazy watery eyes :)


I took Hootie to the car rental place, and we got lost on the way since the location wasn't actually called "Enterprise". He got to go home tonight to see his Dad and sister and sweet little niece. Miguel and I went to a really sketchy laundromat - where NO ONE showed up except for us... And then James, Miguel and I went back to that Mexican Restaurant where everyone was dancing and cheering last night after hours. It was every bit as fun as we imagined!!! They had an incredible food and this awesome Mariachi band serenaded us at the table - Miguel requested a song for us. :) It was so fun!!!

Tomorrow, we go back to work :) See you at Albright College!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie