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

Maine Maritime Academy

Wooo Hoo!!! Maine Maritime Academy :)

1st of all - GORGEOUS up here. Wish we could stay...

2nd - they know how to put on a show!

The kids from NESCOM that we worked with at Husson University were running sound again. :) It was so good to see them! When we were loading our stuff up onto the stage, they were playing music through the giant speakers... and all of a sudden... I hear US! They had a live recording of the show from Husson :) It was so fun.


Meg Allison was hosting the show. We played with her last year at Virginia Wesleyan (which we're playing again on Friday). Meg was on Nashville Star and she is fantastic! She is an incredible songwriter and singer. I was excited to hear her play live again. We had her cd in heavy rotation in the Suburban last year! To listen to her music click here: Meg Allsion
This was us backstage during Hot Day at the Zoo's set.


Hot Day at the Zoo is a bluegrass band from Boston. They were all great players. They had a fun, high energy set. If you are a bluegrass fan, you should definitely check them out! Hot Day At The Zoo



This was a very professionally run show. I was extremely impressed with the students and their attention to detail. The catering was fantastic! Yummm.... I wish I had more right now.

Right after this picture was taken, one of the students pushed Miguel around on that wheelie thingy... :)

Nate was our escort around campus. He REALLY took care of us!!! THANK YOU NATE!



This was my front row man! He was right up front and sang along and played air fiddle and guitar with us all night! I LOVED him! And everyone applauded when I hugged him after the show. AWESOME.



Hank's mom came!!! One of our really good friends, Henry, went to school with James and me at Berklee. I haven't seen enough of that guy over the past few years. But his mom came to the show!! And she's a drummer. How awesome is that?!!?! Awww man... and I just realized that in the shuffle I didn't get a picture with her :( BUT let me tell you more about Hank. He's in a band called Apache Stone that is based out of New York. I really love their music. Their lead singer is in the show Rescue Me with Denis Leary which is just a cool little fact.




My new friend Wade. I LOVED his shirt!



These 3 were at our Husson show. They had a copy of that show and said they jammed out to it the whole way to Castine today! :) And they had me sign it. SO cool. Rachael, Rachael, and Jake!



They had on-campus housing for us! It reminded me of staying on an army base. It had the same vibe to the room that bases usually do. They gave us keys to 6 different rooms and told us to take our pick! Not gonna lie... that was pretty cool. The rooms were great this afternoon to get ready in... but we don't get to enjoy them tonight. :( We play in Providence tomorrow at noon, and we have to load in by 10am.... so tonight is an all-night drive. We are an hour into the drive and watching 30 Rock :) it's about 2am already.... James is a champion!!! But luckily, we havent' had to do too many of these lately. So it isn't nearly as difficult as when there are LOTS of overnight drives!

We'll have time to sleep tomorrow after the show :) We thankfully we have the day off Thursday to drive to Norfolk.

Happy Tax Day!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie