Thank You "Today's Best Country Music Videos"!!!

Google alerts ROCK my world. They allow me to spy in on others that blog about shows and see what people are posting. I saw one blog yesterday from a girl that had come to the Berry College show that was so sweet. Her best friend had come into town, they walked around campus taking "senior portraits" (as in posing sillily among and around campus like they always make you do for Senior pics), and then they came to my show. And it made me feel so great to see what she had to say about the show.

Tonight... I get into bed... open up my computer and VOILA!! Today's Best Country Music Videos posted the most awesome blog about me!!!

You can go HERE to check out the full blog: http//:todayscountrymusicvideos.blogspot.com

or you can read the short-cut version here: :)

It's great to watch videos from stars like Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and Reba McEntire, but it's also very cool to watch a video like the one below from up-and-coming country superstar Natalie Stovall. Being out on the road day after day is tough on superstars, but it's even tougher on newcomers like Natalie and her band. But, as this video shows, as long as you have a positive attitude, you can make the best of any situation. Take a ride along with Natalie and her band down to Augusta, Georgia as they play at Augusta State University and then open up for Gretchen Wilson. Isn't Natalie's attitude contagious? Enjoy!

P.S. Enjoy a live performance of her song Standing My Ground in the second video.





Tomorrow, I play my first show in Nashville in over a year and a half!!! I am so excited!!! I am playing with two other fabulous artists and friends. Miss Ruth Collins and Mr. David Newbould. Show starts at 6. Hope to see you there!


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

Happy Fedorial Day!

Happy Birthday Fedora!! It's the Sonic Fedora's birthday, today. :) So we only worked a half day in the studio. But we were surprisingly productive for a half day! Wait... that sounds like I am surprised that we are productive.... But I mean.... surprised at how MUCH we got done in a short time... umm, eh, ok. Not important. :)

In honor of the Fedora's Birthday, I am putting up my favorite picture of us from recording the first record...


Awww... the Hat Factory II. I miss that place. :)

We listened down all the tracks. It's a LOT to take in. It doesn't seem real. It's been almost 3 years since I have recorded any new music. (Other than demos) It's great and crazy and ridiculous that it has been that long!

I am glad we've waited. I've written a lot since the first record, but not everything I write necessarily deserves a spot on an album, ya know? So I had to write, rewrite, and write some more. And now, I have a really solid EP going, and I already have a GREAT start on some music that I am excited about for the future as well. No more of this "playing catch up" thing.

With the first record I would write... we'd record 3 songs or so... and then I'd have to go write more music (and make more money) to go back into the studio. The first album took over a year and a half to record. This one? Probably going to take a week and a half for the whole thing. Granted, it's half the amount of songs.... but still!

Today, I got the vocals done on "Standing My Ground." It took, oh, a couple hours. With the first record? We'd spend DAYS on a song sometimes. I would punch in on the first half a word sometimes. :) It's amazing how much you learn and grow in 3 years. Plus, I've been singing these songs live for long enough that I know EXACTLY what I want on them. So that's cool.

James wasn't even allowed in the room when we were cutting vocals the first go 'round. I had completely forgotten about that! That's so funny to me now. But Ben and I were both SO SERIOUS about NO ONE ELSE being in the room when I was doing vocals. Now, I think it would be really really weird if James wasn't there.

It's a good thing we're getting this done quickly, though. I don't think I could wait that long to share it with everyone!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.

LIVE VIDEOS!!!!!!!

The day has come :)

We got the live videos back from Dallas today!!! These were shot in by our good friends at Frozen Fire Films. They are SO good at what they do! These are 3 of my newer songs that will be on the next album as soon as we get back into the studio. :)

And for everyone on the email list - you will have exclusive access to download these songs! So be checking those inboxes. I will give more details on how to go about that as soon as we have that set up! But I couldn't wait to share these videos with ya'll!

Standing My Ground


Even Alaska


Whatever It Takes



Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Y102, Slaymakers, and Cunningham's Journal

Ughhh. This internet is sooooo slow. I have been going back and forth between wifi, plugging in the ethernet cable, and using our mobile internet card. Ummm... been trying to get at least ONE to work. The Sprint card seems to be working the best now. It's just frustrating. Especially when the hour you are tryin to get things to work is 3am. It is now almost 4 and I am JUST now on the page to write this. Good LORD, Bet Western. COME ON! ;) Oh the things we get frustrated about these days... boo hoo... my internet is slow....


We are in Keanery Nebraska (sung to the tune of "Even Alaskaaaaaa") I really wanted to change the last line of "Even Alaska" to "Even Nebraska" tonight. But I didn't think anyone would get it. I totally would have if Jenn had been here. (Miguel's wife). SHE would have gotten it! Right?!

Speaking of...
Have I mentioned all the connections we have to Kearney? I think I have... but here's a recap. Jenn went to school here in Kearney. And now her sister goes to school here. Her entire family lives in Nebraska... only a few hours from here. She's from Atkinson. And Ella (Miguel and Jenn's precious little girl) was born in Atkinson.... I found out today that Ella was born in the same room that Jenn was born in. Whoa.

And completely coincidentally, Bridget, Joe's girlfriend, also went to school here in Kearney. And she is from Broken Bow. But her family is still here in Nebraska. Nope. Jenn and Bridget didn't know each other while they were here. They met in Nashville. Crazy right? Both our guys are with women from Nebraska.
So it was very fitting we played here tonight. But it was strange that Jenn and Bridget's friends and family were all here but THEY weren't...

Billy Wolf had us on the 5 O'clock Stampede on Y102. What a GREAT station!!! Billy was so fun. We talked for a bit... Miguel and I played "Standing My Ground" live in the studio... they played "Best Years" on air... we talked some more.... and then we played "Angel". "Angel" is Billy's favorite song on the myspace page, and it was really cool to hear that. He didn't even know the story behind it and it was still his favorite one!!!

They had been advertising our show all week - we were the "after party" for the Oak Ridge Boys show in town. :) They were playing at the event center and the radio station kept telling everyone to go to Cunningham's afterwards to hear us a keep the party going. That was pretty fun.

Thank you for everything Billy!


Miguel and I playing a little diddy.



The show was SO MUCH FUN. We played 2, 75 minute sets. The first set everyone was so laid back! It was crackin me up. They all seemed to be enjoying it... but they were all just sittin and starin at the stage. One couple got up and danced on "Days Go By" but that was it! We even gave em "Love Shack" and they wouldn't get out of their seats. :)

But Lordy... after we took a break and talked to everyone.... and maybe just maybe a few drinks later for everyone.... THEY WERE UP AND DANCING the second set. It was AWESOME. Plus, Jenn's family - including her brother Jesse who was turning 30 - tripled the amount of audience noise once they got there. It made me so happy.

Jesse (Happy 30th!!!) is the easiest to spot in this picture! And Ki, Jenn's mom.... ummm she had NO TIME for the picture... she must have still been doing her "Funky Music" dance....

I really wanted Miguel in that picture but we couldn't find him.... He was probably in the back of the bar with people bowing at his feet saying "we're not worthy" because of his face-melting solos.

I didn't hear about this until later. I had gotten Jesse up while we sang "Happy Birthday" to him and we gave him a drum stick to play with James'. Apparently he had a little trouble with the stick. He tried to play a cymbal, but he threw the stick instead. Awesome.

Ok. I finally got Ki to take a time out from her dancing.


I got to meet Bridget's brother, Geoff! I already knew Colin her cousin, (we go WAY back.... back to Sam Hill's!) but I had never met his twin brother Riley!!! YAY! :)
All of Bridget's men.


Kirk! This guy was so great. He was in town for the night from Vegas. He was in Kearney looking at some major properties and just ended up at Cunningham's. He kept yelling at the owner "Whatever you're paying her.... it's not enough" I thought he knew the owners and was just giving them a hard time.... He didn't. They didn't know each other. Nor did he have a clue what they were paying us :) I just thought that was funny.



This bar was really great to us. And they kept talking about their outdoor stage in the summertime. It sounds incredible... They have a big Bier Garden outside. And I was really excited when we first walked in because I saw that our good friend Scott Holt is playing here in just a few weeks!!! Another Columbia, Tn native! It was fun to see both of our names on the schedule. :)

I played until about 5 minutes after 1am. I wanted to go a bit over our contracted time to play (we were just told set lengths - no specific stop times). But in Nebraska.... bars close at 1:00am!!! I had NO IDEA!!! I felt terrible. The bartenders and bouncers had their work cut out for them when we stopped playing. The bar was really full and they had to get EVERYONE out. Whew. Stressful. I'll definitely know for next time!!! I wouldn't have played that long at all if I had known. I don't think we have ever played a bar gig in a state where they close at 1:00am. It is usually 2. Oh well. You live, you learn. (Haha... they were playing "You Live You Learn" by Alanis Morissette when we got there today) And both of the bar owners didn't seem to be a bit annoyed by that, which was awesome. But it is hard for me not to stress about stuff like that. Cause I know what a nuisance it is for the staff.

I hope we get to go back there. It was such a fun night!

But it is 5:00am now. You think it's time for bed? Yeah. Me too.

Peace, Love, Fiddle, and Cunningham's Journal,
~natalie