Restaurant AVA

Today. We ate.

That's the best description of what happened.

Hanging out with Randy P. is awesome - he has such awesome friends. His friend, Randall Copeland is a chef in Rockwall, Tx. Randall came to hang out with us last night and invited us over to his restaurant today for brunch. Well... we all slept in and brunch was over by the time everyone was up and moving at the same time. But Randall didn't care!!! He still invited us over even though Restaurant Ava was closed until dinner. He created PLATE FULLS of food and brought it all out, and even created a special vegetarian dish for David.

IT WAS INCREDIBLE. Absolutely incredible.

Scrambled eggs with brisket, hash browns, and all-over scrumotiousness, gourmet burgers, pulled pork with slaw (which I NEVER like the slaw but this was soooo good), fries that are WORTH eating (I can usually say no to fries... but not these) butternut squash ravioli, salads...
This is actually after we had already dove in and eaten a bunch...


It was just the coolest experience to be in this restaurant when no one else was, eating unbelievable food and hanging out with the chef himself asking him questions and talking.

So yeah. We were stoked. And none of us have been able to eat for the rest of the day because we ate way too much at lunch!

The best part... Randall kept thanking US as we were leaving!!!

Ummm... NO. THANK YOU Randall and Restaurant AVA!!!!!


Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Fantasy-Mexico-Land

So I don't really know what it up with my blogs lately - I sent a whole description that did not post along with the pic below of Mi Tierra Cafe :)

So here goes again:

Last night, we started heading North after the show, but we were all starving. We were really just looking for the first place that was open since it was after 11pm. We saw this lively Mexican restaurant and thought we'd give it a try. There seemed to be lots of action in the parking lot, and from the outside it looked like a typical Mexican place. But when we walked inside - it was like we stepped into a whole other dimension - a Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe Closet if you will...

There was a giant dessert/pastry bar when we walked in, which delayed Miguel and me for a few minutes. To the right was a giant bar that was hoppin with a mariachi band and lots of "happy" people :) To the left... it seemed endless. Room after room all decorated with a different theme.

We were in shock because we expected a "Waffle House" of you will... (I love me some Waffle House now, so I say that with affection) but our expectation was more of a stereotypical late night joint. Not a beautiful, looked like you just stepped into Fantasy-Mexico-Land.



In other, not as fun news... we had to cancel our show for this evening. It was really frustrating. We started the drive last night, and were pretty confident that we could make it to Canyon (which is up by Amarillo - NW Texas). But they have suffered really bad snow and icy conditions over the last few days like so much of the country has this week. All the traffic maps and advisories online said "DO NOT TRAVEL". We went as far as we could go until we had to make the decision whether or not we could go any further. (It was a 9 hour drive total) The roads from San Antonio to Amarillo are state highways - not even interstates... and their ability to properly treat the roads is... well... take a guess... they never have snow there... so they don't have a lot of means to get RID of the snow that falls once in a blue moon. If that storm had happened in Wisconsin, it would have been a no brainer - those roads would have been clear becuase they have the infrastructure to salt the roads and melt the ice quickly - just like they had in Iowa a few days ago. It was only HOURS after a HUGE storm had passed through causing hundreds of cars to spin off the roads. But they have so many salt trucks at hand, they got the problem taken care of quickly.

No one ever WANTS to cancel a show. It's not fun for anyone involved. The school had actually started calling us a couple of days ago, and we just thought they were being overly cautious. But once we saw the roads, we couldn't make it. I just WILL NOT put my band in that kind of danger. None of us felt good about it, and everyone weighed in on the decision. It was difficult because management and agents were really leaning on us to push through. James, as tour manager was being so unbelievably diplomatic about the whole thing. I was actually the one who was all riled up. We've already been in one major accident due to snow and ice on the road, and the outcome was one that most people aren't lucky enough to live to tell about. So yeah... I may be overly sensitive on this issue.

But something way down in my gut was telling me NOT to go. And we were all spooked from hitting a patch of ice and sliding last night. Plus something crazy is going on in the universe right now! My little hometown of Columbia Tn got over 7 inches of snow yesterday, and we've NEVER gotten that much snow. So something is up. It sucks we couldn't go. And even though there is even MORE paperwork involved and no one gets paid, and there was no show... I am 100% confident we made the right choice.

So today wasn't exactly what I would call a fun day. There were MANY phone calls that began early in the morning about the whole thing. And James had a tough job on his shoulders trying to convince everyone that we were making the right decision. But once we realized we weren't headed to Amarillo, we started heading back towards Dallas - where our awesome friend Randy Peterson lives. We got here around 10pm tonight, headed to dinner, played some shuffle board, darts, foosball, rock band, and mario kart. :) So the majority of the day was unpleasant, but the evening turned out to be great. We love Randy and Stacie P! The new band isn't REALLY the new band until they stay at Randy P's house! It's part of the induction into the band, really. :)

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Good Things.

Randy Peterson's cat Patches has a foot fetish! Every time she sees your feet... she HAS to rub her face on your toes! It's awesome. They have 3 dogs and 3 cats and I LOVE it. It's just a big warm happy fuzzy family every time you walk in the door.

Today we hung out with Jaci Butler and Those Guys. Jaci is 13 and the rest of the band is 16 and 17 and they are SO GOOD. They played about 3 songs for us and then we all talked for a while and answered their questions as we shared our experiences in this crazy music industry. They are of course just starting out, but Jaci does NOT sound like a 13 year old girl when she sings. She has a very mature voice, and the band is awesome. They have SOOOO much potential and I only wish I had been working on the songs I was writing at 13 with my own band!!! I didn't start my first band until college... and my goodness. They are all going to have so much incredible experience BEFORE they've gotten to college.

Their next gig is playing for their school dance. How cool is that?? Check em out:
Jaci Butler and Those Guys

It's so inspiring to see young musicians with such passion for what they do. It makes me proud to be a part of it all. Everyone seems to be looking for the next way to get famous overnight because of tv and Idol. Not to talk smack about those avenues. I think that is awesome, too. But there is TRULY something to be said for the good ole garage band. Nothing like it.

Some of Randy's sweet neighbors invited me over tonight because their little girls really wanted to hear me play the fiddle. It was awesome. They were so adorable and they sang some Miley Cyrus for me :)


Things are just good right now. We are making so many plans for the future. We had a very positive meeting to start off the day, plus I had some great conversations with people that are becoming more permanent fixtures of Team Stovall and my American Dream. I'm so excited for what lies ahead. And I am so excited that we have time off for me to write and for us to all get ourselves organized for a much BIGGER and even BETTER year.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Randy and Stacie are THE BEST

What an incredible day!!!

We are staying with two of our FAVORITE people in the world - Randy and Stacie Peterson while we are here in Dallas for a few days. This would be our 3rd time crashing at their place this year :)

When we arrived last night, James and I immediately went to "Our Room" to put our stuff away and I was surprised with just about the sweetest thing EVER.



AND



A framed picture (that I haven't even printed out yet) of my husband and me on the table, and a collage of Cinnamon on my night stand!!!!

These really are some of the best people in the world, and that is only a tiny example of why!

Randy had FOUR tvs set up in the game room, along with computers for Sunday Football. We haven't gotten to see a single game this season - been driving and/or playing every Sunday. But today we caught up by watching ALL of them! GO PATS AND TITANS! Plus, we spent the evening playing Rock Band and watching live concerts. And let me just say, Miguel is a REALLY GOOD SINGER! That boy needs to be singing harmony parts :)

Hope everyone else had as wonderful of a Sunday as we did. James and I even got a bunch of work done and Miguel spent part of the day practicing. So yeah. Relaxing AND productive. The BEST.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~nat

Stovall Rd.

First of all...

We went to Liza's Kitchen earlier today and the ENTIRE band (including Ella and Jenn) can't stop talking about how amazing our food was! I'm saving my left overs for lunch tomorrow :) Randy Peterson, our good friend from Beach TV here in PCB told us all about Liza's. He couldn't believe we'd never been since we play down here all the time! So today, we went. And OH MY LORD it did NOT disappoint! If you're ever in Panama City, you HAVE to stop by. It's on Thomas Drive just a ways down from Spinnaker. :) (All of our directions down here consist of relativity to Spinnaker). Plus, Liza's Kitchen commented on my blog earlier today which automatically makes them the coolest place ever in my book!!! :)

The show was great tonight! The thing I love about Spinnaker? It was a Thursday night and the place did not get PACKED until our 3rd and 4th sets which were at 12:40-1:30am and 2-2:50am! :)

So much of my family is down here on vacation and they are all taking turns coming to the shows this weekend:

Mamma and Daddy




My big brother Joe, sporting the original "Country Rocks Natalie Stovall & Green Line South" t-shirt.


His sister-in-law Andrea (who was also my sister's roommate in college)...


My sister, Stephanie, and her husband, Tony:


And this guy lives on Stovall road in Lagrange, Georgia!!


Can't wait to do it again the next 3 nights. :) PCB is awesome. And hot.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

University of Texas San Antonio

I am sitting in the front seat of the Suburban, it's nearly 2am, we're watching "Lord of the Rings" (well... James and I are listening and Hootie and Miguel are both sleeping through it) and my belly is full of Jimmy John's. God Bless JJ's for staying open until 3am. It was sure a life saver tonight! And it wasn't the first time!

Let me start at the beginning of the day to catch you up :)

We left Randy and Stacie's place this morning to head to San Antonio. I hated to say goodbye to their 3 dogs and 3 cats. They have some of the best pets ever - so sweet and friendly. We ate at a Schlotzsky's Deli. The guys had never eaten there - but I think we definitely discovered a new restaurant to add into the frequent rotation! MMMMmmmm.

We hit quite a bit of traffic in Austin.... which we expected.... but then we hit more.... and more.... We were pulling into campus RIGHT on time, but who knew that UTSA has TWO capuses in San Antonio? Ummm.... not us! So once we thought we had arrived, we figured out we had gone to the wrong place - crazy confusion with the street names and GPS. It was all good though. We still had PLENTY of time to get to our soundcheck. PLUS the soundcrew was incredible! They were there to unload the entire trailer, and they already had the entire stage set up. They put a LOT of work into this show. First to arrive and last to leave - these guys always have the longest night in the biz!

They got a great recording of the show and let me listen to a bit of it. They're gonna send it to us later :) Can't wait!

The stage was awesome. UTSA has a beautiful campus, and the festival they had going on was so much fun! Candy apples, and popcorn RIGHT in front of the stage (the aroma was amazing the whole night)

WHOA interjection: we JUST passed the Schlotzsky's in which we ate this afternoon :) Crazy.

Back to the gig. The entire quad had games, balloon animals, food, goodies, and then our big ole honkin stage. The whole area was packed the whole night. It looked more like a street festival than a college event. It was REALLY cool.

Here's the AWESOME group that put on the show!


These 2 sisters were 'cuttin a rug' the WHOLE show. They even recruited other kids in the crowd to dance, too. :)


Speaking of dancing.... I LOVE being in Texas. There are ALWAYS dancers here. People were two-stepping, line-dancing, swing-dancing, ummm... freestyle of course, too. And one kid was even doing some crazy gumby-like, almost break dancing during part of the show. The photographers went CRAZY on him :)

I had my first "Street sign" signing! It says "Mercer St." on the back... which is coincidentally her last name... probably why she bought it... you know, if I were to GUESS a reason. :)


These guys sat in front the WHOLE show. And they even busted out a lighter during "Angel".


A REAL LIFE college student :) I just love that this guy had his backpack on the whole time, and had his book in hand for the pic!


So UTSA was gorgeous, the breeze was constant so it wasn't too hot, and the people were wonderful.

On to TYLER! Only 3 hours to go!

Peace, Love, Fiddle,
~natalie

MMMMmmmm Cookies

It is officially 4 am and I am one exhausted but completely satisfied little girl. I will tell you all about today's events during my 13 hour drive tomorrow. But I must say - if this week is ANY indication of the rest of the year, it is going to be the best year of my life. And I've had a lot of really good years so far.

But before I abandon you for the comforts of a warm bed on this cold Texas night.... I must leave you with my favorite wall decoration from the Coffee House we played tonight. It was conveniently placed on the wall in front of the toilet. :)



You should have seen the size of the chocolate chip cookie I ate tonight - it was the size of my head.

Peace, Love, Fiddle, oooo and chocolate.

Texas A&M University Kingsville

We played at Texas A&M University in Kingsville last night and had one of our best shows in a long time! The audience was unbelievably enthusiastic and made us feel so welcome! It's so funny how the exact same grouping of songs can feel so different from show to show.
We played a new song that we haven't played a lot yet (The one the Uncle Corndogs Loves from Ribfet!). It's one that Charlie and I wrote called "Just Like That". I could NOT for the life of me remember the 4th line of the song. And I even sang it in sound check without thinking twice about it! I was trying to figure it out back stage before the show.... it's the line that comes before "The warmth of your touch makes me melt" so I knew it needed to rhyme with "melt". I kept trying to figure it out, and then Hootie started making suggestions for filler lines in case the original didn't come to me on stage.
The first one, which I actually used because it wasn't too bad.... for a filler...
"I'm feeling things, I've never felt" I mean.... yeah, we figured it was better than NOT singing anything!
His next suggestion, and my personal favorite "The way you look, the way you smell" :) k, yeah, not so much! LOVE IT.
I think Hootie should write ridiculous alternative lyrics to all my songs. :) Wait. He kinda already does most days in the Suburban....
So anyway, the line is SUPPOSED to be:
"You draw me in like no one else"
Da Da DAAAA! DUH!!!! Wow. Can't believe I couldn't think of that one.

We took lots of pics after the show! Everyone was so gracious and fun. I want to go back! Oh!
And Eva Longoria graduated from that school :)

CAB - the wonderful group that brought us here, took care of us, and put the entire show on. Thank you so much Nino and everyone in CAB!!!! You guys were so awesome to us!


Our awesome sound crew:


Our protector:


Some new friends next at the merch table:



A bit of Greek life that came out to the show :)
Aren't these girls adorable?


I was ok with being in the center of all these guys! (I look like I match)


So yeah. GREAT way to start off the new year. We'll have more pics posted in the slide show on myspace :)

Right now we are staying at Randy Peterson's place in Dallas. We are shooting a video in the morning and currently the guys are all upstairs playing foosball - they are getting pretty into it. We have spent the night playing a little rock band (I am TERRIBLE at the drums!) and Mario Kart.. so much fun. I'm glad hotels aren't this entertaining.... we'd never get any work done!

But now I am off to sleep... lots o' hair and make-up to get done in the morning!!!

Peace, Love, Fiddle and Good Night

Our Day off in Dallas

Can I just say that I love my band? Cause I do. Even though they made fun of me the whole way home in the Suburban.... I was laughing so hard I was crying though, so I really can't complain....

We had a really good day off today in Dallas, which was very nice after a bit of a rough evening last night.
We hung out with Randy Peterson - our friend from "Beach TV" in Panama City this evening. We filmed a couple little interview spots with him at a studio in Dallas today and then his friends threw a big BBQ for us tonight, and ummm yeah... it was pretty delicious. They gave me all the left over cookies and brownies at the end of the night so I pretty much think they will be my best friends for life. :)

Notice the glow around my hair.... you know it's big when there's a haze coming off of it....





PS Happy Birthday Boyd!!!!