Filling Out The Fancy

I feel like I am in a movie walking down the hallways of this hotel. :)

There are so many performers coming and going... in and out of the rooms... you can hear The Drifters laughing and talking in their rooms. It's like a scene out of "Ray". :)

The guys are all hanging out with some of the other performers at the bar at the Holiday Inn. It's funny to have to go from one hotel to another to grab a drink! But I didn't want to get in the smoke... so I drove the boys and will just be their DD tonight.

We got to play today!!! We played the first 2 shows, but thunderstorms rolled in right before our last set. So we just had to pack up and go home. But during the first show... Miguel broke a string during "Fancy." No big deal. Happens all the time. So he picks up his other guitar and keeps playing. THEN he breaks a string on his OTHER guitar almost immediately. That has NEVER happened to him before! :) So he quickly ran behind his guitar amp and put another string on. I didn't know what was going on, and I didn't want to draw any more attention by looking... So Chris, James, and I played most of the song by ourselves. It turned out really great! Chris did an awesome job filling it out as much as possible on bass.

But Miguel got his string back on JUST in time for his solo :) And as always, rocked it out!

Well, peoples on the interwebz, I am ready for sleeping. Or maybe napping until I pick up the boys... and then sleeping. I like quiet time. I haven't been alone in a LONG time.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

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

What You THOUGHT You Sounded Like In High School

Got all the session players nailed down for recording the EP next week :) I don't think I could really emote through words just how ecstatic I am to be recording some new music finally!!!! Some of the guys I have worked with before, but we've got some newbies as well.

Greg Morrow on drums
Michael Rhodes on bass
Gary Burnette electric/acoustic
Audley Freed electric/acoustic

When Ben told Audley the rest of the band today... he said "Best Band Ever" :) It's always good when the session guys are excited about who they're playing with! They do this every day. So it's no big deal to them. Yet it is UNBELIEVABLE to me. I can't believe that I get to work with players like them. I wonder how many hundreds of millions of records have been sold that they have played on combined? I mean, I know Greg has played with Martina McBride, Ray Charles, Dixie Chicks, Trisha Yearwood, Montgomery Gentry, Sugarland, Reba, Trace Atkins, Steve Earle, ummm do I need to keep going? And that's just Greg. Rhodes has played with everyone, too. I haven't met Gary or Audley, but I have heard so much about them. Audley is the guitar player in the Black Crowes! AHHHH. SO AWESOME.

Tonight Ben described Gary Burnette's guitar playing as:

"What you THOUGHT you sounded like in high school"

I freaking LOVE that. I know exactly what he means by that, too! This EP is gonna be so good!!!

Speaking of new music...
I went to the New Faces show tonight at the Basement to see my good friend Jenn Bostic play. Her new songs sounded incredible and I can't WAIT to hear her new album! I LOVE getting to go support my friends that are working so hard at this business, too when I am home. It is so inspiring!

Tomorrow, we get a new air conditioner!!!! WOO HOOO!!! Exciting times.

College of Staten Island & Delaware Valley College

AHHH. OK. I unintentionally lied yesterday in the blog. I slept the first couple of hours in the Suburban this morning, and then I drove the rest of the way. Sooooo.... I didn't finish the rest of the blog today "in the car" like I said I would. But no worries... I'm blogging from a comfort Inn. :) Wow. I have 3 shows to catch you up on. We'll start with the 2 from yesterday. :)

We have the tv on, and Tina Fey was just on Jimmy Fallon. I LOVE her. I think she is one of the funniest women EVER. She was talking about how "you know you're a mom when.... you have to put underpants on someone who's dancing"
I'm still laughing about that.

Yesterday's show at the College of Staten Island:
Well.... I cried constantly out of my right eye when in Texas at the Los Lonely Boys show. Yesterday, I evened out the playing field. I guess coming up north helped me balance out the scales a bit. I cried out of my left eye non-stop. Why is it that I only cry out of one eye at a time on stage? I don't think anyone noticed except for me. Well... and James. Poor James.... every time something like that happens, I am constantly turning around to him, lifting up my sunglasses and asking "Am I ok?" Which he knows translates to "Is there black mascara running all over my face?"

So you know when you see a band member walk over to another one onstage, and you wonder what they are talking about? In my case - it is usually me being paranoid that my face is messed up....

The show started out a little slow. They had set up a great stage for us out on the quad and had an awesome sound crew there, too. But there weren't other activities surrounding our show... it was just a concert. So students just looked confused when we started playing. They kept looking at the stage like, "What IS this?" But they quickly realized that we were there for THEM and not just some random band that decided to jam on school property. :) Students started to gather around the area and by the end of the show there were 50 or so people hanging out.

As I mentioned on yesterday's blog... I got to sign my first skaeboard :) Hehe. That was COOL.

I saw this girl in the audience.... yeah... not intimidating AT ALL to have a classical violinist at the show. It immediately makes me more aware of my intonation.


Connie bought the first cd of the day - she bought it during the show (which I LOVE), but of course we didn't have anyone to work the merch table.... so she ended up finding the sound guys, giving them the money, found a sharpie, and then I signed it during the intro of "Fancy" :) Connie is resourceful! And THEN after the show she bought another one for her friend in Oklahoma, too!


Our self-proclaimed #1 Staten Island fan. Y'all, if I ever needed a "hype man" like they have in rap groups.... like if I ever need my own Flava Flav... this woman would be the first person I would call! She was telling people who were AT the show about how awesome the show was :) It was so great. She was SOOO excited. And she got called to go to a car accident in the middle and was really frustrated about it. She was cracking me up talking about it. We took tons of pictures, and she actually bought the last small brown t-shirt. I'm gonna have to get more!!!


Our awesome crew for the day.


Their campus has an extremely diverse student population. I met so many kids from other countries. It reminded me of Berklee.

So we quickly packed up... grabbed some lunch in the cafeteria and headed to Delaware Valley College in Doylestown PA. It took us about 2 hours to get there, and we arrived right on time. Well... we missed the exit on the turnpike so we were a few minutes late, but no big deal.

They have the most GORGEOUS little campus. It's a small agricultural school, and they were having a huge pig roast on the lawn before the show. The stage they had set up was SO great. It made me happy. Plus their entire campus was lined with beautiful blossoming trees. And the stage was between 2 huge gingko trees (which are my favorite).

These kids were on TOP of it, especially Kristen. Kristen was my "right hand woman" the whole day. She hopped into the Suburban when we first got on campus to guide us to the stage. (We're always having to drive up on sidewalks and pull through narrow passageways to get to the stages) She was CONSTANTLY asking what she could do to help and even when I didn't give her something to do, she would find something to help out with. Greatest girl EVER. We love you!!!!

This is the Student Activities Council - everyone that put on the show and helped out! Kristen is down front in the red shirt. :)


An of course our awesome sound crew! They got there at 11am to start setting up - the show started at 9. They worked so hard all day and it DEFINITELY paid off!!!


This was one of the best shows we've had in a while. The students packed the lawn in front of the stage - we were guessing there were about 250 kids there. And not 1 but 2 different people brought their couches out to the lawn! We saw two guys carrying a couch with a girl sitting ON the couch! It was so great!!! And there was a beach ball being thrown around the whole show. The dancing started on "Fancy" :) And by the end of the night everyone was on their feet. They were chanting for "1 more song" at the end, so of course we had to do a little Journey. Don't Stop Believin baby!!! Hold on to that feeeeeeeeeeeeling!

Yeah. I loved this show.



These guys were hysterical! One of the guys kept screaming "I Love You Natalie" during the show. Actually, it wasn't just the show... he continued the whole time I was signing autographs. You can't tell, but the guys have me completely lifted off the ground here.


These girls were hilarious. We had talked for a bit and had taken pictures earlier, but then they came back later and said "We brought you a fiddle player!" They had gone and gotten their friend who plays the violin to come back and talk to me.


Don't mess with these guys...


And Columbia, Tn was even represented :) A friend, Jeff Smith, who used to come to Sam Hill's to see us play, lives up here now, so he came to the show. It was great to see him and his girlfriend and so fun to have them in the audience. It took me almost the whole show to spot them in the audience, but I knew they were there :) We didn't get to talk afterwards in all the chaos, but I was so happy to have them there!

So yeah. Tomorrow we are playing at 3, so we have to leave at 7am. Another early morning. And of course... it's 3am... again. So I'm gonna try that whole "going to bed now" thing. It would probably help to have a voice for the show tomorrow :)

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Nacogdoches, TX Knows How to PARTY!!

Today was a blast. We played at Stephen F. Austin University at their Springfest. And MAN! They know how to put on an event! It was a huge outdoors festival - they had Mud Volleyball, inflatable games, BBQ, 4 different bands TONS of people - students, kids, adults, and SOOO many sweet doggies were out, too. :) It was BYOB and seriously just a freakin blast!

The bands were:
Josh Abbott Band
Rich O'Toole Band
Me :)
Casey Donahew Band

They are all really successful Texas bands. It is so awesome how Texas has a whole other level of appreciation for independent country music. You can sell out arenas and ONLY be known in Texas as an artist and only be played on Texas radio. Crazy, right? These kids knew every word to all of their songs - it was so great. And they welcomed us with open arms! It was REALLY fun to be put in the middle of all those great bands.

I had more fun playing today than I have in a while - which is saying a LOT because we have had a lot of great shows lately. But you know, it's all about the crowd. If they are giving me love, then we are all giving it right back. And then they give more, and then we give more, and it keeps escalating. The first few songs started out with only a few people up front... but the more we played, the more they came running!!!

When we were hanging out listening to Rich O'Toole - I was watching the crowd a bit. This one girl set her purse down on the ground and started pulling stuff out of it. I wasn't thinking about it at first - but normally, you'd see a girl pulling out a wallet or sunglasses or cell phone, right? Well, not this girl! She pulled out a beer, and put it in a koozie... and another beer, umm and another... and another... girlfriend pulled out 6 beers and koozies. It's all she had in there! And THAT my friends, set the tone for the day :)

You know... just hanging out with my friend the crawfish


This guy was getting the entire crowd dancing!!! And I even got to join in on Miguel's solo during "Fancy"!


Can you tell who played mud volleyball in this pic? Ya'll, the mud was up to their KNEES. It was ridiculous. There were so many people running around all day long that were completely COVERED in mud :)


My awesome Merch girl!!!


Signing the jeans. Oh yeah.


Casey Donahew was so great. They put on one hell of a show. :)


These students were incredible today. And this isn't even 1/4 of the kids that were helping out. They were so organized and there were a LOT of moving pieces to this event. I couldn't count how many games and booths there were. But they had everything under control and made us very comfortable all day.


I love Nacodoches - plus it's fun to say :)

Next stop.... Penn State in Altoona PA

Peace, Love, Fiddle,
~natalie

Raining Season Benefit

Two nights ago, I played the most incredible show at 3rd and Lindsley in Nashville. It was put together by two of the most pure-hearted, beautiful, and talented girls I have ever met - Ezra Jane. After visiting Sierra Leone, they both became extremely passionate about helping the people of that country in any way possible. They created a foundation called The Raining Season which helps put kids in schools. It only takes $130 to sponsor a child which includes tuition, books, clothes, and 1 meal per day for an ENTIRE YEAR. Only $130 can send a child to school for a WHOLE year. I think my cross country uniform was more than $130. You know? I mean, it is crazy to think that such a small amount of money could make such a HUGE difference in someone's life.
Needless to say, they were able to put together an astounding line-up for the event because everyone wanted to be a part of this. I was just honored to be in the room, much less perform for these people. I am such a fan of everyone that was playing!!!!

First of all, Point of Grace opened the show. Yup. Point of Grace - as in 26 consecutive #1 singles, Dove award-winning, Grammy-nominated POG!!!! They sang two of their new songs from their country release and then they sang one of my FAVORITE Christmas songs. "Tender Tennessee Christmas" by Amy Grant.

After POG was a songwriter round including:
Steve Williams: "Redneck Yacht Club"
Liz Rose who co-wrote every song on Taylor Swift's first album
Brian White: written for POG, 4 Him, Jaci Velasquez, and wrote "Watching You" for Rodey Atkins with the next guy:
Steve Dean who has had #1s for not only Rodney Atkins, but a few little unknowns like, you know, REBA and George Strait and
Alabama and many others.

Yeah. And then it was my turn. By myself. :) I was pretty stoked to be included in this show with such a freakin AWESOME line-up. Wow. Miguel played acoustic for me and we did 3 songs. "Even Alaska", "Whatever It Takes", and "Standing My Ground". We had driven overnight from St. Petersburg to play this show. I slept a few hours during the day, but my voice was shot from the weekend. But I had just enough juice to sing those 3 songs. :) We lowered "Alaska" a whole step so I could sing it. By the time I got off stage...my voice was so low I sounded like Nathan Stovall... ;) But none of that mattered. It was so cool.

Wylie Rose from 103.3 KDF's morning show was the host of the evening. She was so incredibly sweet with her kind words after my set! And Ezra Jane could not have picked a more passionate and giving person to host the evening and keep it rolling.

The next songwriter round included:
Barry Dean: "God's Will" for Martina... I cried. Like I always do to that song.
Jeremy Spillman: "Arlington" for Trace Adkins
Heather Morgan: who I LOVE has had cuts with Sara Evans, Terri Clark, and American Idol Kristy Lee Cook
Julie Roberts was also supposed to perform but she was sick :(

Ezra Jane then got up to perform. They wrote a song specifically for the evening that was so beautiful. They were starting to run over time so they only sang 2 songs. I wanted more!!! I was just happy to finally hear them live.

The last writer's round included
Victoria Banks: "Saint's and Angels" for Sara Evans and "Come On Over" & "Remember That" for Jessica Simpson (A-MAZ-ING)
Rachel Proctor: had her own hit with "Me and Emily" & wrote "Where Would You Be" for Martina and "Remember That" with VB
Josh Thompson: who has written with tons of huge Nashville songwriters and had some very heart-felt and emotional songs.

I could go on and on and on about each of these artists individually. Every performer was SO talented and it turned out to be such an incredible evening. Some of the coolest things auctioned off for Sponsorships were some gorgeous Tammy Wynette earrings, a signed script from REBA including her handwritten notes, and a signed golden fiddle from Charlie Daniels! It was so cool.

They ended up getting 41 sponsorships for the kids. SO AMAZING!!! Their goal is 50 before they leave on Christmas Day. If you have any interest in this organization please visit www.TheRainingSeason.org

Spread the peace, love, fiddle!