Resting the Cords

So we ended up NOT playing tonight at Spinnaker. And although I would ALWAYS choose playing a show over not playing a show... It is a very good thing I am not trying to force what little voice I have left into 4 hours of singing tonight.

I have been on vocal rest all day and the guys are always entertained by my overly exaggerated motions to silently explain what I want to communicate. James is usually my interpreter. Earlier the guys were wanting to head to the grocery. I was trying to tell them "Let me finish this sandwich... and then I'll head to the store with everyone". Zach thought I was saying, "I need more lettuce." David had NO CLUE what I was saying. And Miguel just looked at James for the interpretation. :) It is sometimes the funniest and sometimes the most frustrating one-sided game of charades... EVER. :)

I've already been on vocal rest 3 times this year. I forget how much a part of touring vocal rest is! At least at this point... when you are a national act, you get to have your own sound crew... monitors are always the same so it doesn't matter how loud the stage volume is... smoke isn't really an issue anymore... you have your own driver... and 4 1/2 hour nights aren't really in the picture anymore. :) Sometimes I feel crazy for having vocal problems... but it is easy to forget how many factors play into our current situation. However... when you are a National Act... there are other problems that come into play. So don't get me wrong. I'm not whining. I am just recognizing certain aspects so that I don't feel like a wuss!

If it were easy... everyone would do this for a living. But James and I are constantly surprised at how little "music" is of being a full time musician! At least... an independent one. It sure does keep life from ever becoming routine. Every day is so different. Like so many passion-based jobs.... your work is never done. There is ALWAYS more you could be doing. Writing... promoting... internetin'... blogging ;)

But right now? I am going to go partake in some of that spicy, yummy, curry that David is cooking up in the kitchen!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Hank Fm, Liza's Kitchen, and Ms. Suwannee River

Minus the confusion with the timing of it all... our interview and performances with Melissa this morning on 103.5 Hank fm were so much fun!!!! I nearly overslept.... Shhhh.... I must have hit my alarm to go off instead of snooze... which I haven't done in a LONG time. :) But that's the beauty of radio... Can you say up-do???

Melissa Miller and everyone at Hank Fm are so sweet! We performed 4 songs, talked a bunch, and she played it all during the drive time hour. Plus she is going to play the new record on Saturday as a "Pre-concert" for the show! That will be AWESOME!

We went to Liza's Kitchen for lunch today - our FAVORITE place to eat lunch here in PCB. Some of our friends that always come to our shows, Amber and Brittany, joined us for lunch. And then we rehearsed until 4am for our shows this weekend. We needed to brush up on the 4 hour show since we rehearsed it all in January, played one 4-hour gig... and then haven't played ANY of those songs since! Everything sounds really good and I am so excited about playing tomorrow night. It's gonna be a bit chili, but from what I hear, that hasn't affected the crowd one bit!

This is what will be happening Saturday night:


Pretty Exciting.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Live On 103.5 Hank Fm!!

Sooooo...

Tomorrow we are gonna be on the radio for ALL to hear!!! And you don't have to live in Panama City, Florida to tune in. :) They have live streaming on the website!!

We'll be on www.1035Hankfm.com at 11:00am Central Time with Melissa Miller. We'll play songs from the new record which is officially in production now, YAY!!!! And maybe you'll even hear sneak peaks of the new tracks... who knows. :)

Miguel will even be debuting my new Gold Tone Mando-tar which he has never played before. But the guys and I just got done rehearsing our acoustic versions of the songs, and it sounded so good!!! I LOVE having 3-part harmony back in my life. :)

Melissa is awesome and has been so great to us when we come down to play shows in PCB. And for those of you that do live in PCB or are near enough to make the trip... we'll be at Spinnaker Friday and Saturday nights this weekend. Spring Break Season has just begun down here. So it should be a party!

Click on the link and it will take you right to Hank FM so you can hang out with us in PCB... even if you are FAR away from the beach and 60° weather!

www.1035hankfm.com

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

I Made It!!!

Whew. We've had ummm 15 or 17 shows in a row with no break... I can't remember right now and I don't have the energy to go count. This whole year I have seen this stretch of shows on the calendar and it was the leg of touring I was the most concerned about. If they were all college shows, it wouldn't have been a problem. But when the book ends (3 days on the front and 3 days at the end) are at some of our longest club nights... well, I just have to be extra careful with my voice.

But yay!!! I made it! I won't be speaking tomorrow at all on the drive home. Give my voice some rest. We won't sleep much tonight - it's already 6:15am and we need to be out of here by 11. But hey, at least I am not singing tomorrow!!! I can always handle little sleep. but when you pair little sleep with lots of singing... it can be rough.

I love Spinnaker. I really do. I went to the beach this afternoon before the show. And James and I just stood up on the balcony at Spinnaker before we packed up and took in one last look at the ocean.

It's been really fun having Justin back on this trip. He is an incredible singer and an extremely charismatic performer - he knows how to get an audience all riled up! I'm gonna miss him!

Heading to bed. And tomorrow I head to my own bed for a few nights! WOOO HOO!!!


Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

You Need To Calm Down, Boy

Tonight...

I broke my E string while playing "Standing My Ground".

I broke the tip off my really nice (aka expensive) violin bow from using it like a drum stick on James' cymbol.

And something I have NEVER done before....
I called a guy out OVER THE MIC!

It takes a lot to make me angry... but in between every song this one guy would scream a the top of his lungs in a very angry and rude voice "PLAY MERLE HAGGARD GOD D!%^*#"

Don't be that guy. That guy is NOT cool.

After ignoring him for a long time... I couldn't take it anymore. I'm not a fan of "GD" anyway.... but especially when someone is screaming it AT me. He genuinely seemed angry that I wasn't playing the things he was screaming at me. I have never called someone out on stage before. But I said " You need to calm down, boy. I heard you the first 16 times you yelled that at me. But right now, I'm gonna play a song that I want to play."

Now let me clarify by saying that I love me some Merle. But I'm not the right girl to do Merle Haggard justice. I'm not sure what part of my show he was actually watching...

My compromise was to have Tim sing Hank Jr.

But that didn't satisfy him. He moved on to screaming "PLAY CCR."

I was a bit on edge because a lot of things were going wrong tonight and my voice was shot. Yet I was still trying to give everything I had to the show.

I felt bad... that is.. until on the set break he very condescendingly started saying things like, "Why don't you play Chris Knight? Or (insert cool indy Texas artist here)" "Do you even know who they are?" (Mind you.... he's having to scream this over blaring hip hop beats while people are grinding next to us on the dance floor) But it's funny, he wouldn't give me a chance to answer. So I gave up on trying to actually have a conversation and just said "Well, because I don't." And had to walk away.

I don't like feeling mean.


The show was still great though.
I wouldn't let the one stupid boy ruin it for the hundreds of really cool people that were there!!!







Anothony Orio and Chris Griffiths and Elliot came out tonight!!! Which was way cool cause they played for 9 hours today at Tootsie's!




Peace. Love. Fiddle. and Don't Be That Guy.
~natalie

I <3 Spinnaker

I think my favorite thing in the world is looking out and seeing nothing but a sea of people. It's what I've always reamed of. And what I still dream of. And it NEVER gets old.















Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

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

Bloody Band House

Last night, I wrote my blog well after midnight, not knowing the evening had just begun :)

The guys went to hang out at Spinnaker after our show, and I didn't go because I was trying to save what little voice I have left. I have had a rough past few weeks vocally for a number of reasons... and I've just not ever had quite enough time to heal. After a weekend of solid singing, I'm mute. But that's all part of the job. I sure am thankful I don't have this problem as much as I used to!

I went and picked the guys up later in the evening, brought them back to the band house, and they were all fired up and having a good time. :) They were kicking the soccer ball around (thanks to Miguel) and all of a sudden Tim notices there is blood all up and down the hallway of the band house. "Oh good Lord" I think to myself.

Now this band house is well... eh em... not the cleanest of places. I can only imagine what goes on in there normally... ESPECIALLY when it is not MY band. But regardless of how clean or dirty it is, I am always going to treat it like my own house.

Tim shouts, "Who's bleeding?" Miguel emphatically says about 6 times "It's not me, It's not me" And then we all see the huge pool of blood soaking into the couch under his foot. Miguel, in very Chilean soccer-player mode, did not even realize he had stepped on a shard of glass in the band house (Yeah, I know... why was the shard there? Who knows) and cut his foot pretty deeply.

I grab my keys and head straight to Walmart to get to hydrogen peroxide, and heavy duty cleaners, towels and scrub brushes. I must say that I was enormously impressed. By the time I got back, the guys... even though they may have been falling over a bit to do so... had almost all of it cleaned up! I'm not sure what they used??? But everything I got at the store took care of the rest.

You would have never known it... except for the fact that NOW there are about 16 beautifully sparkling clean spots throughout the house that show up worse than the blood did... ;)

After cleaning Miguel's foot with the hydrogen peroxide, I put liquid bandage on it. I felt SOOOO bad because that REALLY REALLY hurt him. He spent about 20 minutes solid screaming and punching his heel over and over again. He even asked me to punch it for him for a while... But I do think we made sure it wasn't going to get infected, which was my biggest concern.

Between Miguel limping everywhere, and me mouthing my orders in the restaurants to James for him to interpret to the cashier... I bet we were quite the sight, today.

The party don't stop when you're in my band!

Peace. Love. Fiddle. And Clean Spots.
~natalie

Sunset Cannon Shoot

Yesterday a band called "Stainless Steel" opened for us - a steel drum and a singer/guitar player. :) That was a first!

Today we played the afternoon beach party at Schooners. I kept looking to my left - where I could see the ocean. It starting POURING rain during the second set... but the bet part? It was pouring if we looked to our right and when we looked to our left, it wasn't raining at ALL!

We finished our last set 2 hours tonight before we normally even start playing at Spinnaker... which is so funny. I can't believe we are already done. :)

We met some other Nashvillians tonight:


Schooners is known as the last "local" beach club. Every night at sunset, they shoot off a cannon to celebrate. EVERY night ;)




Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

A Salute To Hoot

After 2 glorious years on the road together, Hootie is flying the nest to live life... well... NOT on the road :)

Hootie first joined the band in February of 2007. He, James, and I were at Berklee at the same time, but we did not know each other while we were at school... not until he answered our Craig's List add and auditioned for us in Nashville!

Hootie was quite the impressive candidate for the band. He was eager, excited, a SLAMMIN player, great singer, and has an incredible ear, so he learns very quickly.

And the poor guy... his first few gigs with us were QUITE the introduction to the band. I was really sick that weekend, but I made it through the first show. The second night... I completely lost my voice and could NOT sing. So the guys were left to their own devices... Charlie and Hootie were both singers, so between the 2 of them, they could cover 4 hours. But it was his second night with us!!! Yeah. I'm sure he was thinking "What the heck have I gotten myself into??"


The Story of "Hoot"

While in our first rehearsal with him, Charlie asked, "So, do you have any nicknames? What do people call you?" To which Joe responded, "Well, my last name is "Huettner" so people have called me 'Hooters'"

James immediately said "Why did you just tell me that? That's your name now, dude."

Over time it morphed into 'Hootie'... probably because I really felt uncomfortable calling him "Hooters"... you know.... every time all I thought of was orange shorts and busty women.

Hootie's come a LONG way since he first joined the band. He was engaged when he joined... he didn't put gel in his hair... he was a lot quieter...

Spinnaker was his FIRST trip on the road with us... which I shall call the BEFORE picture. (Click on it to enlarge)


There's also video evidence of this first trip! It was Spring Break and it includes Hootie's roll away bed that came with women's panties in it :)
At about 3:10 into the video.... you can see the discovery of the panties. It's quite priceless. Watching this video soooo just took me down memory lane!!



This is one of my favorite pics of him from Elizabeth City, NC when we played the Coast Guard Base last summer. This would be the AFTER pic :) After the band become his life...


Things I Will Miss About Hootie:

His "Raptor"
He would become a raptor and sneak up behind me... you know... like a raptor... claws and all... and scare me in a gas station... or wherever.
This would be Hoot raptoring ducks in the Gardens in Boston:


His endless wealth of knowledge for comic books... what will I do when the next comic book movie comes out!?!?!

His inability to be normal in a group photo:


Discussing LOST. Well... who am I kidding... that will NEVER stop. We already text about Lost...

Emo Hoot:



Singing With Hoot:


His organization. This kid would have his suitcase unpacked with everything where it needed to go before I usually had opened mine!

And well... just HIM!!! He is one of the sweetest and most likeable guys. His laugh is infectious, and his sense of humor is definitely one-of-a-kind!

I sure am gonna miss this guy!!!

We love you Hootie. Good luck in EVERYTHING you do.



Peace. Love. Fiddle. Hootie.
~natalie

I Spilled The Sweet Tea

Well dangit!!!

I forgot my camera uploader thing a ma doogie. SO I can't upload any of the great pics from the weekend so far!!! I have a couple from my iphone from yesterday, though.

TONIGHT?? AMAZING. Hot, sweaty, full of rock, packed with people. The way it's supposed to be!

NO WRECKS ON THE WAY IN EITHER!!! YAY!!!!

I spilled sweet tea all over my jeans during dinner. It also spilled all over the set lists I had just written out.... which actually made them stick to the floor better and not blow away :)

But Jenn & AJ had to take Ella back to the band house after dinner, so Jenn brought me some extra jeans to change into after the first set. It made me SO happy!

You know what's funny, though? The conversation we were all having at the band house was about wardrobe changes in shows. We were talking about how it's not very "rockstar" to change your wardrobe a bunch of times in a show. I mean, the girl in me thinks that would be so fun. Wear ball gowns for the big ballads... crazy rockstar outfits for the more uptempo ones... But I have to agree with the guys on this one. I mean, that's what the award shows are for. I am REALLY girlie. I'll never get away from wanting to curl my hair, wear dramatic eye make-up, and over-the-top ballgowns when I can get away with it. But for my regular shows? Yeah... one outfit. The show isn't about what I am wearing... it's about the music. As long as I wear something that allows me to move my hips back and forth and dig my heels into the ground... I am good to go! Tom Petty wouldn't change outfits... or Steven Tyler... or Mick Jagger...

Anyway. I thought it really funny that we had JUST talked about that... and then I go changing jeans for a Spinnaker show. I mean, I had a valid reason, but it seemed quite ironic to me. :)

Here's our view from stage:


And here's the guys setting up onstage. They look so summery in their colorful shirts!


May I just interject that the morning news just came on?? :) Yeah... this schedule is hilarious.

We had lots of repeat customers tonight - people from Macon Georgia, and people who have seen us previous times at Spinnaker. I had a blast onstage tonight. I let loose even more than normal and the crowd was incredible. I sure do love my job. I haven't felt that sweaty/rockstar in a while. I think it came with the change of clothes :) After I felt comfortable? I let it all go.

Can't wait to see what tomorrow is like!

Night night! Or Morning Morning? :)

~nat