Maine Maritime Academy

Wooo Hoo!!! Maine Maritime Academy :)

1st of all - GORGEOUS up here. Wish we could stay...

2nd - they know how to put on a show!

The kids from NESCOM that we worked with at Husson University were running sound again. :) It was so good to see them! When we were loading our stuff up onto the stage, they were playing music through the giant speakers... and all of a sudden... I hear US! They had a live recording of the show from Husson :) It was so fun.


Meg Allison was hosting the show. We played with her last year at Virginia Wesleyan (which we're playing again on Friday). Meg was on Nashville Star and she is fantastic! She is an incredible songwriter and singer. I was excited to hear her play live again. We had her cd in heavy rotation in the Suburban last year! To listen to her music click here: Meg Allsion
This was us backstage during Hot Day at the Zoo's set.


Hot Day at the Zoo is a bluegrass band from Boston. They were all great players. They had a fun, high energy set. If you are a bluegrass fan, you should definitely check them out! Hot Day At The Zoo



This was a very professionally run show. I was extremely impressed with the students and their attention to detail. The catering was fantastic! Yummm.... I wish I had more right now.

Right after this picture was taken, one of the students pushed Miguel around on that wheelie thingy... :)

Nate was our escort around campus. He REALLY took care of us!!! THANK YOU NATE!



This was my front row man! He was right up front and sang along and played air fiddle and guitar with us all night! I LOVED him! And everyone applauded when I hugged him after the show. AWESOME.



Hank's mom came!!! One of our really good friends, Henry, went to school with James and me at Berklee. I haven't seen enough of that guy over the past few years. But his mom came to the show!! And she's a drummer. How awesome is that?!!?! Awww man... and I just realized that in the shuffle I didn't get a picture with her :( BUT let me tell you more about Hank. He's in a band called Apache Stone that is based out of New York. I really love their music. Their lead singer is in the show Rescue Me with Denis Leary which is just a cool little fact.




My new friend Wade. I LOVED his shirt!



These 3 were at our Husson show. They had a copy of that show and said they jammed out to it the whole way to Castine today! :) And they had me sign it. SO cool. Rachael, Rachael, and Jake!



They had on-campus housing for us! It reminded me of staying on an army base. It had the same vibe to the room that bases usually do. They gave us keys to 6 different rooms and told us to take our pick! Not gonna lie... that was pretty cool. The rooms were great this afternoon to get ready in... but we don't get to enjoy them tonight. :( We play in Providence tomorrow at noon, and we have to load in by 10am.... so tonight is an all-night drive. We are an hour into the drive and watching 30 Rock :) it's about 2am already.... James is a champion!!! But luckily, we havent' had to do too many of these lately. So it isn't nearly as difficult as when there are LOTS of overnight drives!

We'll have time to sleep tomorrow after the show :) We thankfully we have the day off Thursday to drive to Norfolk.

Happy Tax Day!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Husson University: Bangor, Maine

Favorite conversation from the car today:

I was driving and I asked if anyone else was hungry or ready to eat.

James: "Sure, I could eat"

Miguel: "Oh yeah, I could eat"

Hootie: "I have a mouth"

Yup. That's Hoot. :)

Last night when we got back from our very short venture into Boston (I had just enough time to get a Nutella Smoothie.... really my only request when we get into the city), there were two little girls waiting on a "concert". :) We were staying at Paul's house (my manager) for a couple nights in Newton. And his sweet little girl Gracie and her friend, Madison, who is VERY musical, were wanting a show! We were all set up in the living room from rehearsing the night before and earlier that afternoon. So really, it was a great opportunity for us to run through our new songs with an audience! It was perfect. :) Gracie and Madison both grabbed some guitars (I believe Madison brought her own) and "jammed" with us!



Today we drove to Bangor, Maine. I had some friends from Bangor at Berklee, but I have never ventured that high up into Maine until today! As soon as we crossed over the border into Maine, something seemed to change. It felt like I stepped into a painting of every New England winter scene I have ever seen. The rivers and ponds are completely frozen with the rocks covered in snow and ice. And the landscape is so distinct. It's just beautiful. I really am getting to see a lot of snow on this trip!!!

Husson University was a huge success tonight. Our show was packed with a very enthusiastic and appreciative audience. And I think we had the largest sound crew we've ever had!!! It was actually a class of students from NESCOM (New England School of Communications) and they picked our show as one of their projects to run. My attention was immediately caught by the mic on my stand. They had a Neumann KMS 104 on it!!! Ok. I know that is probably gibberish to most of you, but that is a REALLY REALLY nice live microphone!!! And I have NEVER played a show where they have supplied Neumann's! I have one myself, but I have never used someone else's before. Crazy. And the board they had - they purchased after it had been used in the Beijing Olympics. So yeah we got spoiled rotten with equipment tonight. The students did a great job, too. They were each taking turns riding the faders during the show. And I believe they are sending us a recording of the show as well. We've been on a streak of the sound guys recording our shows for us lately! It's really great "tape" for us to listen to... Kind-of like watching "tape" in football.... it's good studying for us!

Here's our Largest Sound Crew EVER.


Becca Loebe and Jenn Grinels came to our show!!! Becca went to Berklee and we have been running into each other on the college circuit randomly for the last few years. She is one of the sweetest and most genuine girls in the world. And she is a fantastic folk singer. So heartfelt. And Jenn. Wow. Tonight was the first time I ever met her, but I really want to see her live now, too. Her music is SO great on her myspace page.
Becca and Jenn both played an afternoon show at Husson, and then they went to the University of Maine to play a show tonight. THEN they drove all the way back to Husson to catch the end of our show. Such sweethearts!!
Go check out Becca:
http://www.myspace.com/rebeccaloebe '
And Jenn:
www.myspace.com/jenngrinels




After we talked for a little while, Becca said "Oh! I have a present for you, Natalie! I was looking at you onstage and thought - 'she just doesn't look like she belongs here'" (You know, southern girl up in Maine). So she gave me some hand warmers to keep me all warm and cozy in the Northeastern Frigidness. I'm just glad I wasn't here when it was -45 a few weeks ago!

The top one is in English and the bottom one is in spanish - so I guess the top hand-warmer is mine and the bottom one is Miguel's :)

Greg!!! He was the man in charge tonight who took VERY VERY good care of us. Plus, he had on an Anchorman shirt which made me want to be friends with him immediately.


Courtney!!! She was our contact at the school. She was SO sweet from the beginning. She gave us directions all day, helped me take pics at the merch booth, and stayed until the very last piece of equipment was loaded. And yeah. She has a nursing exam in the morning. We didn't get out of there until after midnight. Courtney's a champion!


These girls grabbed their front row seats well before sound check. They were right up front all night, singing along and making me feel so great!


Let's just say... I felt pretty safe at this show


These girls were CRACKING me up. Rachael, on the far left, came up to the table and said "Ok, we've scrounged enough money together to buy a cd" She had coins and dollars and it was adorable. So all 4 of them were sharing the one cd. I love it!


They made such cute shirts for this event, too. It was the big concert in the middle of their "Winter Week". I love when we get t-shirts at schools. It's such a great way to remember where we played. And I REALLY like it when they put us ON the t-shirt. Although, James and I have been "matching" a little too often lately. :)~ We never mean to, but we keep wearing the same shirts for bed. If you saw how much we have on the same outfits, I am not sure whether you'd find it endearing or creepy. We can't decide, either.



You know what is so cool? Before I even got back to the hotel - there were already pics of the show uploaded to facebook from people who were there tonight. I love the internet. It really blows my mind!
I have to thank Cam Smith for providing this next photo!



And I have to thank everyone who came out tonight. The show was packed and it was a very appreciative audience. They even got us to do an encore!!! It was so much fun! I made everyone get out of their seats for the encore, though. There is NO WAY you can sit down for Journey! :)

Thanks for EVERYTHING tonight Husson! I hope to do it again sometime!!!

Peace, love, fiddle and yee haw!

~natalie