That Guy is So Nashville

It's funny what the term "Nashville" means.

As in - that guy is so "Nashville".

I hear people saying that more and more these days to describe someone. Typically it is used to say that someone who is extremely well dressed... probably networking you for something... has the talk down, the right hair cut, and looks like they could be playing with Rascal Flatts... You get the picture.

The funny thing about that is, most guys in town that are the REAL deal... the guys who've been on something like 40 million records or more... look a lot more like your neighbor... Or maybe the guy you would see behind you in Whole Foods. :)

True story: A few years ago James got the chance to go to lunch with one of his all time drumming idols, Greg Morrow. Greg has been one of, if not the most recorded drummer in Nashville for a while... Like probably 50 million+ records... Big time.

Well, James met Greg at a Captain D's fish place down on 8th Ave. Greg showed up in typical comfy studio clothes: Sweatpants... high-top Chucks... Cut-off Tshirt. They sat and chatted for a while. At some point in their conversation Greg trailed off and paused a second. He looked at James and asked, "Who is this on the radio right now?" "It's Carolyn Dawn Johnson" James replied... "Who played on this?" Greg asked. "Ummmmm. You did..." James said. "Oh good... I thought someone was trying to steal my stuff..."

Are you kidding me? How nutty is that?


It was Carolyn Dawn Johnson's "Complicated" which was #5 on the Billboard Charts at the time. :) RIDICULOUS.

What made me think of all this is that Dan Dugmore came in to put steel on my songs tonight. Before tonight I definitely knew OF Dugmore... but I had never had the privilege of meeting him. There couldn't be a nicer guy in the world. He has a farm. With horses. His wife has a Yorkie rescue. He's so soft spoken, but hilarious... He seems like a guy that would have a nice farm.

After he had completely floored me with his playing.... I sat in awe and tried to connect the mild-mannered man sitting in front of me with the stories of hanging out with Keith Richards and the night that "Jackson Browne" ended up driving him home after a Linda Ronstadt after party in the Hollywood hills. Yeah... ridiculous. His resume is astounding... everyone from Stevie Nicks and James Taylor to Keith Urban and Reba. Hmmm. And I got him on MY record! That's right!!! :)

Here he is in action:


I am so very fortunate to be able to hear my music realized in such a way.
Yeah. Recording is fun.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Cameron University!!!

Tonight was one of those nights that I will never forget. It was a great day from start to finish!

We got up this morning somewhere in Arkansas and only drove for 6 hours to get to Lawton, OK. The drive went by in a breeze... I got a lot of work done... and we were able to check into the hotel before the show.

I LOVE being able to check in for an hour or so before show time. My hair is so massive, that it is just nice to be able to fix it before I am unbelievably rushed after a soundcheck. Plus, it means I will actually get to hang out with the people that book the shows instead of running around trying to get "show ready."

So Robin - our contact for the show. ADORABLE. The girl is just a burst of energy and she goes so above and beyond what she needs to do to help us out. And included in our snacks and drinks.... oh yeah... she got me Keebler Fudge Shop Cookies. HOW DID SHE KNOOOOOW?? I've been on a little Keebler Fudge shop kick lately. And there weren't any at the gas station last night. :) Oh but I got my fill for today!
And RYAN!!! What another sweetheart. Ryan was there from start to finish as well. He and Robin both helped us get all packed up and loaded in. It made things go so much quicker!!! Plus, Ryan and I met at the very first NACA I ever played in Little Rock, Arkansas. :) He took videos all night and is going to edit them all together. I can't wait to see what all that video includes!


There was an energy in the room from the moment we were introduced and hit the stage. Our sound guys tonight were SOOO good. They just ran sound for Rascal Flatts and Brad Paisley... ummm.... yeah, so you know we were in good hands.

This was Cameron University's big concert to kick off their homecoming week. (They don't have a football team so they do homecoming during basketball season. And yeah... I know.... NO football team at a college in OK... something just not right about that! It's a touchy subject... they didn't want to talk about it) But their basketball team is doing GREAT this season, which always makes homecoming THAT much more exciting!

The show was amazing. It was like we were in a packed arena - these kids NEVER stopped yelling and hollerin and getting ME pumped up. The Lambda Chi Alpha Guys were all in the front and were keeping everyone clapping.... The cell phone lighters were up and in full swing.... and there were girls running up and down the aisles dancing, two-stepping and cheering. It was such a fun party! I had a lady bug in my violin case when I first walked out on stage - so see they really are good luck!!! It was a GREAT omen for the show. :)
By the end of the show - everyone had left their seats and come down front. There were some many cell phones up taking pics and videos - Miguel was a freaking ROCKSTAR and was throwing picks into the audience (the ladies were LOVING him tonight) and people were reaching out to touch us when we'd walk to the front of the stage. I think it is safe to say we ALL had a great time tonight - Me, The Band, AND the audience. :) Right y'all??
When Hootie and I came in on the vocal intro for "Devil Went Down To Georgia" - it was like the video on Youtube at Ft. Benning when the soldiers were singing so loud I couldn't hear myself! The audience was SO LOUD singing along. It was so great.
And THEN they chanted for an encore. I LOVE that. So ummm, "Don't Stop Believing", anyone??? Mr. Belding!!! You started something!!! And Husson - You started the consistent encores! LOVE IT!

So yeah. And that was JUST getting started. I remember laughing SO much tonight at the Merch table.

The Lambda Chi Alpha guys.... ok... they were HILARIOUS. We had taken one pic, but then they wanted me and the guys to sign their shirt. So we had a re-do of the pic WITH the signed shirt.
They were VERY specific. They wanted this EXACTLY:
To My Biggest Fans - Lambda Chi Alpha
Peace, Love, Fiddle, "Sweet Thing"
Love Natalie Stovall


And the Sorority Girls were out, too! They were SO sweet!!!! And they sang me their theme song :) Or One of them at least:)



Bobby!!! Shake N Bake, boy! :) Bobby sang EVERY word of "Devil Went Down To Georgia" with me. Right up in FRONT!



I signed my first construction hat. Why am I wearing it?


Signing my first inflatable hammer. Do you think I will EVER sign another?


Miguel signing HIS first inflatable hammer...


And my second signed construction hat... I have GOT to stop wearing stuff with my own signature on it.


Did I mention that Miguel is a Rockstar??? He had a line of people who wanted him to sign his guitar picks for them. He only has 4 left!!!


PAC!!!! This is the group responsible for putting on the show. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!


Sweethearts :) These 2 are engaged and getting married this June!!! They were so cute!!!


These little girls were adorable. They were so patient and waited in line just like everyone else! Doesn't this look like a family photo?? :) Their Mom - The Dean of Students was refusing to be in the pic too because she had her glasses on.... which was so cute.... I asked them both what they wanted to be when they grow up and they both said "Ballerinas" I told them that I lived with 2 ballerinas in college. I am not sure they believed me.... but IT'S TRUE!!!!


Sam!!! Sam was our bodyguard tonight. (Because the students at Cameron are just SOOO scary... obviously...) Sam and I met at NACA and we took a pic where I was grabbing onto his ring... umm... just like you see here.... recreating it just seemed like the right thing to do :)


You know what is really crazy?? I could keep going for a LOT longer. I have so many fun pics and great stories from tonight!!! But a complete album of ALL the pics are uploaded on facebook and they will soon all be up on the myspace page as well.

The guys and I were starving after the show cause we hadn't had a chance to get dinner. At this point it was past midnight, but luckily there was an Ihop right next to our hotel. (Heeeeey. I like ihop. - Jim Gaffigan, anyone?) It was so much fun just going back and talking about the show. And somehow we got off on reminiscing about past shows and some of our favorite stories. I was laughing the WHOLE time. And then I would make a funny noise-laugh and they would laugh at the way I was laughing... ummm which would only make me laugh harder. I love nights like tonight :) And just in case you don't know about it - the guys have their own blog filled with crazy quotes, ridiculous pics, and many of our favorite random gas station trinkets. :)
natalieband.blogspot.com

It's 5am and we play in Chickasha tomorrow. It would be time for me to peace out for a little bit o shut eye. Thank you for an amazing day, Cameron University!

Peace, Love, Fiddle

Jessica Simpson's Breakdown

I am a bit fired up at the moment. Normally I don't say things like this, especially publicly, but something about this just really struck a nerve with me. A few nights ago, I heard about the "disastrous" opening Jessica Simpson had for Rascal Flatts in Grand Rapids, Mi.

Let me start out by saying:
I was so excited when I heard that Jessica Simpson was "going country" because I thought it could be a good thing for country music. She's just the kind of person that could take country to an even wider audience for people who may not have given us "southern folk with our simple talk" a shot. Jessica is one of those people that I think has an incredible voice. I do get a little frustrated sometimes with how she uses it, but she has a natural gift and range that is undeniable.

When she started, her ability to belt out a song was impressive to me. And as a teenager who was also saving myself for marriage - I fell in LOVE with her. The song she wrote at the end of her first record for her future husband (before she knew who he was gonna be) was so beautiful.

I have loved many of her songs along the way. And her country songs are even better. "Come On Over" Good Lord. Adorable. Hooky, catchy, fun to listen to. (but not easy to sing!) The writers she got to co-write with for her her record are people that I have looked up to for years.

The reports of the Rascal Flatts concert talk about her forgetting lyrics, letting her background singers take over for her, mouthing "I'm sorry" into the video monitors, sulking around on stage, being visibly flustered, and even crying in between songs. Part of me didn't want to believe someone as talented and successful as she is would ever act like that, but the part of me that was tweaked wanted to see it for myself. I decided to do some research and try to find actual video footage from the concert.

The thing that makes me crazy? It's not that bad! Yeah, she was having a rough vocal night, but if she wouldn't throw her arms up in the air in the middle of a chorus and just STOP singing.... you'd never know she was having so much trouble. There are so many things she could have done to cover up her rough vocal night. In the chorus of "Come On Over" she is obviously having problems hitting the high notes. So what? That's not the worst thing in the world. Just DON'T SING THE HIGH NOTES... take the melody down... OR hold the mic out and let your fans help you sing it...

If she could have let go and had a good time, she still could have had an amazing show. It's such a shame. It breaks my heart, actually. As a fan and someone who is rooting for her, it disappoints me. It makes her seem so self-centered (even if she isn't). Like the show is "all about her". It's not about having a perfect voice. There are singers out there that have had MUCH worse vocal nights, but they knew how to play it off so the audience didn't know. You guys in the audience understand that we aren't perfect. If you can't cancel the show, you just find a way to make it work. No matter what's going on backstage, onstage, or at home, there is no excuse to give up on your audience like that.

As another performer who is far from perfect, I have performed sick, thrown up between sets... songs... done 5 hour shows with so little voice - all I could do between sets was cry... broken down backstage because of boyfriends... And it's not because I'm so cool... God knows I'm not... It's just what you have to do as a performer. There's a responsibility that comes with being blessed enough to do this for a living. And the really funny thing? Those shows weren't even for 9,000 people.... not even for 900... Sometimes not even close. The only thing that matters is that, no matter how many of you there are, YOU GUYS don't know how sick or upset I am during the show. If you find out later, fine. But I will do my very best while I'm on stage to give you everything I've got, even if its not as much as I want it to be. Why? BECAUSE IT'S MY JOB. And I love what I do SO much. When it comes show time - it's not about me anymore. It's about making sure you are having a good time. And if I am lucky enough to get the point where I am so famous that the media is printing lies about me or "fat pictures" (though I can't imagine how upsetting that would be), I hope I never lose sight of what really matters.

I'm human, my band can attest to that... There are times where I have had to remind myself of all things I have said here. All the things I wish I could have said to Jessica right before she went out on stage.

You know what's amazing, though? When performers get out of our ego-centric little worlds - it is AMAZING how much better we do if we just rely on you guys. The audience is what helped me make it through one of the biggest and most difficult shows of my life. We had our National showcase for NACA in St. Louis last year... I had been in the ER for flu 14 hours before the show in Nashville. It was awful. I was so sick and I had such a thin little voice. I was throwing up in the bathroom 15 minutes before the show listening to some girls talk about how they heard this "Natalie" girl can play "Devil Wen Down to Georgia" and that they hoped it was good... I was laying down on the cement off stage until the moment they introduced me. We were even doing "Sweet Child of Mine" in that set - and Sweet Child is one of my toughest songs even when I'm 100%. It was FAR from perfect. I had a coughing fit in the middle of "If I Run To You Now... But with all that stuff going on, all I had to do was look out and see the audience up in the front, jumping around and screaming. It kept my adrenaline pumping and kept me on my feet. And I know way too many performers that would have done the exact same thing.

You guys expect us to do our job for YOU because you are doing your job for US. That's why when I hear about this whole Jessica thing, it gets so frustrating - for all the people out there who haven't "made it" yet that would never act like that. It doesn't matter that she had a bad night. I just can't believe someone I've liked as much as her gave up like that and let her audience down...

If you come to my show - there's a reason you're there. Sometimes I may need to lean on you for a little support. But no matter what happens, I won't ever give up during a show. I may not be in tip-top vocal condition every night, and I may not always be able to hit the most impressive notes. But I promise you won't care and hopefully not even notice because I will give you my all... Every time. I promise.