I Broke A String

I broke a string tonight in the last show!!! WOOO HOO!

I'm normally not that cool. Miguel breaks strings all the time. But I hardly ever do. And the funny thing is, Amanda - who has come to see us at Whiskey River a bunch up in Macon, came to the first show on Wed night. She asked me if she could have the next string I broke on stage. I told her I hardly ever break one. It's only happened a few times in my whole life. And then TONIGHT. She came back to tonight's show. Lo and behold, guess who broke a string!?!?! SO yeah, she got to keep it!


And these wonderful people, I met on the ferry coming off of Put-In-Bay. I blogged about their awesome doggies - they have a standard, toy, and miniature poodle. I told them at the time that we would be at the fair, and they came!!! It was so cool to see them. It didn't register who they were at first. I felt so bad, becaue I had other people talking to me, and I was a little scattered, but as soon as I realized who they were, I got SO excited!


Alright folks. I think I am gonna go have a drink with Barney Fife. Cause how many times in your life do you get to say you've done that??

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Introducing Chris Griffiths

Randolph College, formerly known as Randolph Macon College for women, is completely opposite of where I went to school.

They have a HUGE gorgeous campus whereas Berklee had a huge city surrounding it. And the ratio of girls to guys is pretty outstandingly women!

We played their Welcome concert this evening - we did a big original set of my tunes first, they had a big dance party on our break, and then we continued to dance party with a big long party set afterwards! It was really fun.

We played this crazy outdoor amphitheater with lots of levels to use for the stage - we were all on different levels of the stage and moved more up and down than we did side to side today :) It was a nice little change from the norm. It was Chris Griffiths' first show with us as an official member of the band! He filled in for us in Put-In-Bay, and now he is taking Tim's place for us on the road for the rest of the year. Tim is involved in a band that has some big exciting things in the works, but I'm not sure how much I can talk about. :) But we are all really excited for him right now, even though we were sad to let him go!!! Chris is yet ANOTHER Berklee guy (3 bass players in a row!) and one of our good friends for years now. We are REALLY happy to have him with us right now! And he is the KING of putting songs into other songs. He was the one who suggested (way back when) "Hey, you should put "Enter Sandman" in the middle of "Devil Went Down To Georgia"! That one has been with us ever since!

Here's MAB - the Board that put the event together: They were so sweet and helpful!


My awesome 2-Steppers! They would circle the entire dancefloor of hundreds on the outskirts with their two-step!





Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

I Love The Interwebz

I had such an awesome surprise in my email tonight!

On the ferry ride back from Put-In-Bay the car in front of us said "Poodles" on the license plate. I got excited because I could see lots of doggies in the windows :) I got out and went to meet my friendly ferry neighbors. They had a toy poodle who was 2, a miniature poodle who was 9, and a standard poodle who was 6 months: Penelope, Prudence and Bernie
Penelope, the Standard Poodle was HUGE and she still has a lot of growing to do. But I loved how she acted as though she were a lap dog just like the other two. I'm used to thinking of poodles having the traditional "show-dog" hair cuts, and I did not realize how awesome their hair is just natural!!!! It was as massive as my own - which is probably why we bonded so well.

The couple and I talked a bit about our time on the island and I told them I had been performing at the Beer Barrel. Well... low and behold, they found me online and sent me the sweetest email tonight!!! They even attached a picture of "my newest fan" Penelope:


She's so fun! And I am so happy to have a picture of her, now!

Speaking of Penelope... I HIGHLY recommend the movie "Penelope" with Christina Ricci, Catherine O'Hara, and Reese Witherspoon. It was a smaller film, but was quickly added to my list of favorites after seeing it on my cruise to Alaska last year! I love Christina Ricci and Catherine O'Hara always does such a great job in the "psychotic mom" roles :) The scenery is beautiful - very storybook. It's just a good heart-warming film. Nothing mind-blowing. Just downright good.

Peace. Love. And Penelope (GO WATCH IT! NOW! I'll time you. Run)
~natalie

Monkey Of The Mountain

This is what Cinnamon does when I am gone...




I think maybe she thought if she climbed a high enough mountain of dirt... she could spot us in Put-In-Bay :)

I am happy to be home with my puppy. Even if it is only for a couple of days...

It's always a really weird feeling to think "Hmmm... I was shopping in a little store on an island on Lake Erie this morning. Right now, I am at my parents' house in Columbia, Tn."

Put-In-Bay

Before this gig I didn't even know that Ohio had an island.

But on Put-In-Bay, Ohio....

There's 400 people that live here in the winter... but on any given Saturday in the summer, there's 28,000.
Everyone rents and drives a golf cart on the island instead of cars.
The really crazy people drive their cars on the ice on the frozen Lake Erie in the winter time.

The Beer Barrel Saloon where we play...

Has the longest bar in the WORLD.
They have 3 bands a day EVERY day in the summer.
Are only open April -October

Tonight went WAAAAAY smoother!!! We had a chance to rehearse this afternoon. That made this little girl feel a lot better about everything that was going on.

I have already met so many fun people!


The sisters that were here last night and tonight


The Niagra Falls peeps! (Darren and Rita were celebrating 25 years together!)


These kids were getting DOWN!


Miguel and Leann are from Chicago and they are coming to our next show at the Ballydoyle!


My new sorority sisters that danced all night with me to Mustang Sally's set!


YAY!
Alright. I need to sleep now...

NIGHT NIGHT!
Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie