Tramp Stamp!

We made it home!!! Ahhh. Another weekend of playing and beachin' it up down in PCB. We ate at our favorite McCalister's in Dothan Alabama - where they recognize us!!! WE always stop there and last time the manager got a cd from us. Man, he's done his research :) Never been to a show, but knew all about 'em!

As promised... here's some of the pics from the last night in PCB.

Looks like we may not even need to get those temporary tattoos!




What happens in PCB stays in PCB... well... and my blog. :)



YAY! Lyndsey and her giant group of fun peeps that kept the dance party happening all night long!


And Beth Beighey opened up the show. She is a fantastic singer who lives in PCB. We've known each other for a while, but last night was the first time I got to hear her sing live. She's been working for a while at being able to do music full time. And now she is!!! She told me last night that she's now officially a poor musician and she couldn't be happier. I KNOW THE FEELING GIRLFRIEND!!! SOOOOO HAPPY FOR YOU!!!! Can't wait to play another show with her. She did some of my favorite's but, she makes them all her own and so fun to listen to. She had the WHOLE place singing along and got em amped up for our show!


Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Just Call him HAIR

In case you were wondering...

This is how rockstars eat. On the floor behind the Subs onstage...


We're all sitting on the couches in the band house. David keeps falling asleep (it is 4:51am right now) and Miguel keeps saying REALLY LOUDLY, "Hey David! You're sleeping"

David wakes up every time long enough to say, "Yeah. I know" and then goes back to sleep.

Oh these boys. They keep me laughing. :) They got in an ice cube fight last night... and the puddles of water in the kitchen a few hours later were mostly mopped up by my feet and the pant legs of Panther's jeans.

I think my favorite story from tonight:
Panther went up to the bar to get a drink. He started a tab, but he didn't give the bar tender a card or introduce himself. (We're the band... they know we'll be there all night!) So the guy just called him "HAIR". That was the name written on his receipt later when he went up to pay.

I just think that is excellent. Don't know Panther's name? No worries. Just call him, "Hair" :)

Yay! So many cute girls out tonight!
Our friends Brittany and Deanna came out!



Thanks for my Peace. Love. Fiddle. Drawing!



Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

I Made It!!!

Whew. We've had ummm 15 or 17 shows in a row with no break... I can't remember right now and I don't have the energy to go count. This whole year I have seen this stretch of shows on the calendar and it was the leg of touring I was the most concerned about. If they were all college shows, it wouldn't have been a problem. But when the book ends (3 days on the front and 3 days at the end) are at some of our longest club nights... well, I just have to be extra careful with my voice.

But yay!!! I made it! I won't be speaking tomorrow at all on the drive home. Give my voice some rest. We won't sleep much tonight - it's already 6:15am and we need to be out of here by 11. But hey, at least I am not singing tomorrow!!! I can always handle little sleep. but when you pair little sleep with lots of singing... it can be rough.

I love Spinnaker. I really do. I went to the beach this afternoon before the show. And James and I just stood up on the balcony at Spinnaker before we packed up and took in one last look at the ocean.

It's been really fun having Justin back on this trip. He is an incredible singer and an extremely charismatic performer - he knows how to get an audience all riled up! I'm gonna miss him!

Heading to bed. And tomorrow I head to my own bed for a few nights! WOOO HOO!!!


Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

My Boys!!

Tim and James jammin out with Anothony Orio at Tootsie's in PCB!



Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Need a Weave?

We stopped in a gas station tonight that had "G-money" Burgers for sale... whatever that means....

And they had 2 entire walls of hair weaves, extensions, and pink sponge rollers... I'm talking 60 different kinds of extensions. CRAZY!! I really wanted to take a picture, but I was a little scared to. I'm not sure the attendant would have liked that very much. And I wasn't taking chances in this place. Plus, they turned the lights out on us before we left... I guess they close at 10? Even though it was 9:50 and they still had customers?


Tomorrow 103.5 KAT Country here in PCB will be playing us again on their lunch hour!!! They said they'll play some clips of the live performances we did with them sometime between 11am-1pm and you can listen live from their website :) They play awesome country all day, plus they've been awesome to me every time I have come down here! Melissa will be broadcasting live from Hooters tomorrow afternoon. And she's the best!

I <3 Kat Country!!!

Peace. Love. Fiddle. And Hair Weaves.
~natalie

Bloody Band House

Last night, I wrote my blog well after midnight, not knowing the evening had just begun :)

The guys went to hang out at Spinnaker after our show, and I didn't go because I was trying to save what little voice I have left. I have had a rough past few weeks vocally for a number of reasons... and I've just not ever had quite enough time to heal. After a weekend of solid singing, I'm mute. But that's all part of the job. I sure am thankful I don't have this problem as much as I used to!

I went and picked the guys up later in the evening, brought them back to the band house, and they were all fired up and having a good time. :) They were kicking the soccer ball around (thanks to Miguel) and all of a sudden Tim notices there is blood all up and down the hallway of the band house. "Oh good Lord" I think to myself.

Now this band house is well... eh em... not the cleanest of places. I can only imagine what goes on in there normally... ESPECIALLY when it is not MY band. But regardless of how clean or dirty it is, I am always going to treat it like my own house.

Tim shouts, "Who's bleeding?" Miguel emphatically says about 6 times "It's not me, It's not me" And then we all see the huge pool of blood soaking into the couch under his foot. Miguel, in very Chilean soccer-player mode, did not even realize he had stepped on a shard of glass in the band house (Yeah, I know... why was the shard there? Who knows) and cut his foot pretty deeply.

I grab my keys and head straight to Walmart to get to hydrogen peroxide, and heavy duty cleaners, towels and scrub brushes. I must say that I was enormously impressed. By the time I got back, the guys... even though they may have been falling over a bit to do so... had almost all of it cleaned up! I'm not sure what they used??? But everything I got at the store took care of the rest.

You would have never known it... except for the fact that NOW there are about 16 beautifully sparkling clean spots throughout the house that show up worse than the blood did... ;)

After cleaning Miguel's foot with the hydrogen peroxide, I put liquid bandage on it. I felt SOOOO bad because that REALLY REALLY hurt him. He spent about 20 minutes solid screaming and punching his heel over and over again. He even asked me to punch it for him for a while... But I do think we made sure it wasn't going to get infected, which was my biggest concern.

Between Miguel limping everywhere, and me mouthing my orders in the restaurants to James for him to interpret to the cashier... I bet we were quite the sight, today.

The party don't stop when you're in my band!

Peace. Love. Fiddle. And Clean Spots.
~natalie

Sunset Cannon Shoot

Yesterday a band called "Stainless Steel" opened for us - a steel drum and a singer/guitar player. :) That was a first!

Today we played the afternoon beach party at Schooners. I kept looking to my left - where I could see the ocean. It starting POURING rain during the second set... but the bet part? It was pouring if we looked to our right and when we looked to our left, it wasn't raining at ALL!

We finished our last set 2 hours tonight before we normally even start playing at Spinnaker... which is so funny. I can't believe we are already done. :)

We met some other Nashvillians tonight:


Schooners is known as the last "local" beach club. Every night at sunset, they shoot off a cannon to celebrate. EVERY night ;)




Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Schooners, PCB Baby!

Everyone has said over and over that Schooners is a more "Laid back crowd", a little older, and a little more local than Spinnaker.

Ummm.... "laid back"?? NOT so much!

Well, unless selling out of ALL of our cds (yes, all that we brought with us) during the FIRST set break, women rushing the stage to dance with Miguel, knocking his guitar over, ladies grabbing my face with BOTH hands to say "Your DRUMMER IS SO HOT", and people belting "Pour Some Sugar On Me" so loud that I couldn't hear myself in the monitors... you know... unless that is YOUR definition of "laid back" ; )~

We came back to the band house, and oh the stories. There are so many times these days that the statement is said, "I wish I could blog about THAT." But seriously.... it's just inappropriate!

But here's some of the more blog friendly pics from the night!






Can't wait to do it all over again tomorrow night!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Back in PCB!

I can't believe we're already back in Panama City Beach, Fl. I feel like we JUST left. But there's been a whole week in between. Man time flies.

Today's showings in the Suburban:

"Waiting"

"Pineapple Express"

"Any Given Sunday" (One of my personal favs)

And 2 episodes of the British "Office"



I hope we didn't keep our neighbors up... but Miguel and I had to practice a bit. We're gonna be on the lunch hour radio show tomorrow in Panama City. :) Then we set up, and play at Schooners! Can't wait to check out this club. I've heard nothing but great things.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

I <3 This Summer Tour

Tim fits in really well :) This was posted on facebook after our show Saturday, and it made me so happy!!! I love how into it we all are. This one really captures what an awesome show it was!



Made more progress in the studio on our days back in town...

Got new tires for the trailer...

Road cases for new sound equipment came....

I made some solid progress on the new fiddle search (oh yes... new fiddles SOON!)...

Adding new songs to the set...

And even squeezed in a little hang time with my best friend of 17 years...

All in all, GREAT couple of days off.

Tomorrow - BACK to Panama City Beach!!! :) I like this summer Tour.

This Is What

a long, hard weekend in Panama City... driving home from Panama City... recording in the studio... rehearsing the new bass player solid for 2 days... sorting through 575 photos... listening to new mixes...

looks like.



I seriously don't even remember laying down on the couch. (Cinnamon's UNDER the covers as well... worn out little monkey)

Mamma Rocks

We just made it home!!! What a beautiful weekend in PCB. But more on that later. :)

I'm not sure how many of you see the comments on my blog, but one of my favorite parts of writing this daily blog has become checking it the next day to see what Farm Boy and others have said :)

Farm Boy probably has one of the most creative and fascinating brains I have encountered. I don't know how he comes up with this stuff, but it always makes me smile! Yesterday, he commented on another comment ... and I wanted to elaborate.

He talked about my mamma being a writer, and he doesn't even know how MUCH of a writer she is!

Facts about Mamma:

She's a beautiful singer.

She plays piano and violin, as well :)

I learned to sing harmonies by singing along with her to oldies (especially Beach Boys songs) in the car.

She wrote for a television show called "I-40 Paradise" - it was a really cute show that I believe aired on TNN and in very TNN fashion - there was always a performance included on the show.

She's had short stories published in magazines.

She wrote jokes for Hee-Haw. Now, if you ask her about this, she will completely down-play it and say that she's not sure if any of her jokes ever aired. But I don't care. The fact that she submitted jokes to Hee-Haw is just about the coolest thing ever.

She love love LOVES word games and puzzles. She's always been way into puzzle sweepstakes and won a number of times. Her favorites are the ones where each letter in the alphabet is assigned a point, and then you are given what looks like a blank crossword puzzle. You fill in the puzzle, and the person who gets the most points wins. Sounds a LOT easier than it is. There are no clues.... so basically... any word (in whatever specified dictionary) works... so there are millions of combinations that you could use. :)

Oh and yeah, she's a retired dental hygienist. So all of that other stuff she did in her spare time while also raising 4 children.

Mamma inspired so much creativity in me and was the most encouraging and supportive person of anything I ever wanted to do.

Mamma Rocks.

This is one of my favorite pics of my sister, Stephanie, Mamma, and me:


Peace. Love. Fiddle.

Beds In EVERY Room :)

Why is it that people always take the batteries out of the remote controls for the tv at band houses? EVERY TIME!!! The band house at Whiskey River... here... ok. Well, that's only 2 but it's every time! We always spend a long time wondering why no on can work the remote and then realize that... umm.... there's no batteries in it.

Also, there's always 1 or 2 remotes that don't go to anything. :) But that makes me feel at home... so that's all good in my book.

They've painted the band house down here and it looks so nice! It's quite bachelor pad-y. THANK GOODNESS they didn't get rid of the cheetah carpet in the den. It just wouldn't be right without it ;)


And the finished off garage-turned-bedroom with the hanging Red-Dog Pool table light. Hootie has always claimed that room for himself.


But I think my all-time favorite is the laundry room bedroom :)


Somehow, no one ever ends up sleeping in there? What's up with that? :)

I'm not sure if I have mentioned this... but I AM SO EXCITED TO BE IN PCB! Beaches, here I come!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~nat

Last Day In the Studio!

Today was our last day in the studio for this record!!! Holy cow, y'all. Seriously? What a whirlwind. Ben opened up his calendar and suddenly realized that we only started this undertaking a mere week and a half (well, not even...) ago. WHAT!?!? It seems as though that is UNPOSSIBLE! (sorry kids. unpossible is not a word... yet ironically that seems to emphasize it's meaning... in my head...)

Miguel came in to record his awesome Chilean Rockstar parts today. Ella and I got some good "hang time" in while her Daddy was recording. We played outside the WHOLE time... with sticks... lots and lots of games with sticks... and Cinnamon... and earth worms... and a GIANT STICK that took BOTH of us to carry!

Yeah. Recording is fun. :)

Today is not only the last day of recording, but it is also the eve of the SUMMER TOUR!!! Again, WHAT?!?! How is that possible? I'm not sure, but I am so excited. You know what's funny? Going back out on the road actually feels like somewhat of a break! I never knew THAT would be the case. Due to our intense marathon week of recording, we have yet to design the slick and shiny version of the Summer Tour schedule, but it will be done for all to see VERY soon. So until then, just check the regular calendars here and on all my various websites!

Very appropriately, our summer tour starts off with a full weekend down in Panama City Beach, FL. at Spinnaker Beach Club. So here's to going back out on the road! (I'm holding up that imaginary Pina Colada... in my head...) And here's to big hair from the humidity... ala Monica from Friends... or the Frizz-ease commercials. :)

What in the world will Ben do without us tomorrow nagging him in the studio??

Peace. Love. Fiddle. Beaches.
~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.