Rhode Island College

First outdoor concert of the year was today! You know Spring is trying to come out when the outdoor shows start getting booked. We haven't played outdoors since Ribfest in St. Petersburg this last November.

We played at Rhode Island College on their Quad for a BEAUTIFUL afternoon show.

On my way to the stage... THIS is what I saw:

"Fiddler" with an arrow pointing to the stage. CLASSIC!

Plus they had one of the LARGEST posters I have ever seen of myself up on the wall! And they had hundreds of flyers they had been handing out to the students. It takes a LOT of people to put on a great show. SO MUCH goes into planning, preparing, promoting... and attention to detail is KEY. This group knew what they were doing! Oh... and having a raffle in the middle of the show doesn't hurt either :) Someone won a $250 gift certificate to a music store!!! SO COOL!
(I loved that they handed out free hats and bandanas to everyone, too!)


We played a 2 hour set and we were only the start to the day. They had a HUGE carnival tonight, too. It looked like a LOT of fun.

Nate was our main contact. He was wonderful to work with. He called me this morning because they couldn't find part of the stage. We have requirements in our rider that he was trying to fulfill. He left me a message saying he would "go in EVERY building on campus if he had to in order to find the rest of the stage... if what they had wouldn't work" :) WHAT A SWEETHEART! What they had was fine, but they ended up finding the missing pieces anyway. Plus, Nate is going to TSU for a semester in the fall!!! He just wants to be close to country music which I think is just the coolest thing ever. Who knew that you could trade semesters with Rhode Island College and Tennessee State University!?!?


I ended up selling my very last RED Peace, Love, Fiddle, T-shirt from the first design! :) I can't tell you how accomplished that made me feel :)


George pretty much stole the show... not gonna lie.


These girls were adorable. They were dancing and singing with me the whole show.


Kristen and Sadie made it! They came all the way from Boston :)


Kristen got some great pics that she has already uploaded onto facebook :)



And my good friend Sarah got to come today, too. We ended up getting to spend a bit of time together this afternoon and again this evening. I normally am not in a city long enough to do things like that. I was so thankful to get to spend time with her!!!


And I have gotta say - James is SUCH A CHAMPION!!! He drove the ENTIRE night last night. It is currently 1am and he is JUST NOW going to bed. I at least slept a few hours in the car while he was driving. But him? Not a wink. And we ran errands this afternoon... so the time we had planned to nap (before Lost came on!) ended up getting filled VERY quickly.

But we are staying at the Biltmore in downtown Providence. It is a beautiful hotel. And it is so nice to get to stay in a really nice hotel for more than 8 hours. :) Nice hotels are by no means a necessity. But we sure do live it up when we have one!

Tomorrow? We drive to Norfolk Virginia. But we wait until check out to leave. Oh yeah.

Drumroll please. I'm going to bed!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Weird Signage

A few weeks ago someone asked at a show, "What is the strangest thing you have ever signed?"

I found myself puzzled... and laughing :)

I rattled off a few of the stranger ones I could think of... but I kept thinking of more things later. So I went through a bunch of photos and was reminded of quite a few moments and shows that made me laugh all over again. So I wanted to share!

The nipple signing at Coast Guard Day will forever go down as one of my favs


This may not have been nipple... but it was pretty dang close!


Ahhh... The skoal can


This kid was so cool. I have signed plenty of hats... foreheads... shirts... even jeans.... but NEVER sunglasses before!


Hard Hat - THAT came out of no where


And it was followed by an inflatable hammer... because... why wouldn't it be?


The biology notes have GOT to be one of the most creative and adorable things so far :)




Ah! Cowboy boots!! This made me feel WAAAAAY cool.


Let me interject something I just remembered. There were 2 guys at the Matterhorn that had me sign little wallet sized photos of their own kids. Hmmm. Not sure why... They didn't want me to address them TO the kids... just wanted my signature on the back.

Speaking of kids - the kids at the ski resort all had some creative ones.
Palms of the hands


Ski helmets and ski boots




The most recent and probably one of the coolest was the iphone:


And then there was the time when a guy at a show REALLY wanted Bridget to sign the cd... Bridget is a good friend of mine and Hootie's girlfriend.... she didn't sing or play on the cd, but dude was adamant that she sign it! Classic!


And Kelly Bell signing a Peace Love Fiddle t-shirt


Buckeye fans are CRAZY y'all. He had us sign an OSU flag and then INSISTED that we take it with us. Not sure why we needed to sign it if we were the ones who were gonna look at it. That thing stayed in the Suburban until it was driving Hootie nuts. We finally had to take it out because Hootie couldn't take the pressure anymore. "Hang on Sloopy" was on permanent repeat in his head...


I had to sign the shirt for a "bachelor" who was in Panama City beach at our show. I had to sign it and give him instructions for something to do during the evening - I ended up writing "pick up a fiddle player"


And he did!


And I'll close with this one cause it made me feel like a rockstar... Scott Holt, the guys from Gov't Mule, and well... just a whole lot of really cool people + me signed this guitar. I don't remember how much it was auctioned off for - but it was to raise money to buy Christmas presents for children in Maury County. So it was really cool.


My job is so fun.

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

RIBFEST highlights

RIbfest was AMAZING!!!!!! I wrote a huge blog in the car on my phone during our ridiculously long overnight drive from St. Petersburg to Nashville last night.... But it vanished! It never sent and it never showed up as a draft or anything :(

But it's all good! I'll just write a new one now!

It is really messing with my head right now that ummm... just last night I played a show at Ribfest. And I have already played a show in Nashville tonight. Weird. Not much sleep has been involved in the last week. But Lord, it is worth it! 

Here's some of the highlights from Ribfest this weekend.

During our show Friday night we could see the spaceship that launched. We had just finished "Whatever It Takes" when Hootie said - LOOK! There it is! And you could see the big trail of fire from the back of the rocket. CRAZY!

Saturday, we played a show to about 6,000 people as one of the opening acts for the Doobie Brothers!!!!

If you count the National Anthem as  "opening" *wink wink* (just roll with me here....) then technically you could say that this weekend I "opened" for Styx, the Doobie Brothers, and Asia. : )-

It started raining during our rock medley and "Devil Went Down To Georgia" a the end of our set on the main stage and the audience didn't leave!!!!!! It was awesome because looking out into the sea of people - they weren't scattering outward like you would expect, they just went vertical!!! Umbrellas, chairs, anything to put over their heads. But they all stayed! It was pretty much the most epic end to a show I have ever played.

One guy kept screaming "Natalie Stovall - better than CORN DOGS!!!!!" during my show on Sunday.

Jenn and Ella got to come on the road with us for the first time this weekend!!! (Jenn and Ella are Miguel's girls if you didn't know!) They even made it on the big screen a few times from out in the audience during our set!!!

Backstage, I had my own RV with my name on it again this year to hang out in and it was stocked with drinks and snacks. (that makes me feel really cool)

One little girl said "Now that I have seen you play 2 years in a row you knocked Kelly Clarkson our of my top 3 list. It is now: 

1. Natalie Stovall 2. Taylor Swift 3. Carrie Underwood". 

Can you imagine how amazing that feels!?!?!? Yeah, that little girl is my BFF now. :)

Right before my show started on Sunday, I saw 2 awesome, yet very unexpected things. 1. A DOLPHIN!!!!!! It was RIGHT next to the stage in the water. 2. The lady from "I Dream of Genie"!!!! How cool is that? She's still gorgeous.

We had the most incredible food all weekend!!!! Ribs, chicken, pulled pork.... and ohhhh that cornbread.

I dedicated the show on Saturday to Mr. Billy Brooks. He's a veteran from the Vietnam War who has been battling cancer for the last 3 years due to his exposure to Agent Orange. He is truly an inspiration. And I was so happy he was able to come out to the show. As I was talking to Mr. Brooks afterwards,  another veteran came up to the tent. He shared some very emotional stories ad thanked me for my show and for recognizing our soldiers and veterans. He gave me a dog tag with an American flag on it as his thank you. He thanked ME. How crazy is that? A man who risked his life to serve this country thanking me for simply doing what I love to do. Wow. Yeah. Amazing.

And ALL of this was for an incredible cause!!!! Every person working at Ribfest is a volunteer from the Northeast Exchange Club in St. Petersburg. This year there were records set each day for attendance. I can't wait to see the results of how much money was raised!!! They donate the money to many wonderful children's charities, and last year, they donated over $1,000,000 to All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg. I am so honored to have been asked to be a part of this event again this year. Everyone all weekend was incredibly gracious and hospitable! It was such a memorable weekend! THANKS RIBFEST!!!! Hootie, Miguel, James, Jenn, Ella, and I love you guys!!!!!

peace, love, fiddle

(please let it send this time)

My view from stage

I know it's dark and hard to see but this is my view from stage. Solid
sea of people. Amazing.