UT Tyler and Tyler Junior College opening for the Los Lonely Boys!

Y'all. I think I am allergic to Texas. That is NOT cool. I don't even sound like "me" anymore. The schedule hasn't helped... but LORD! I've got the whole itchy eye / crazy head cold thing going BAD. Tonight - at the second show, I felt like such a dufus. My right eye was watering uncontrollably. I REALLY wish I had worn my sunglasses - just to cover it up. But I had no way of knowing that would happen. I kept having to wipe it when I could get a long enough spot where I wasn't playing and singing both... But I figured I was smearing my eyeliner all over my face... luckily I wasn't :) Whew. I didn't look like I had a black eye. Thank goodness for waterproof mascera!!! Right girls?

We arrived at our hotel in Tyler this morning at 6:15am. We had to leave around 9:30 so we didn't get much sleep.... but those couple of hours of laying down... man, that was good stuff.

But once we were up - we were right back to it! We played an outdoor show at University of Texas, Tyler at noon. It was a gorgeous day AGAIN. They had a stage set up in front of their brand new student center. The volleyball nets were next to us and a scenic lake was behind us. Beautiful.

This is Jenn :) She was our coordinator and the girl who made stuff HAPPEN! She was awesome and took great care of us!
We love you!


And this is Samantha. Girlfriend did her research before she came to this show!!! First thing she asked - "Will you PLEASE do the baby cry for me?" SO FUNNY she knew about that! I was quite impressed. And THEN she asked me if I would sign her Red Bull can :) That was a first!


And of course John - our hard working sound dude!


So we quickly got packed up, grabbed some Subway on campus and then headed on over to our Los Lonely Boys show. :) We were really excited. The stage was a monster.... and apparently... that thing is a SEMI truck unfolded. Not sure how that works exactly, but the wheels were underneath and everything. I think the cover is part of it too... or maybe a separate one? Who knows. What I do know is that I was impressed!


The show was awesome. Well... minus the whole crying profusely from my right eye thing. But it is always such a treat to play on such an enormous stage. The fun part is that I feel like we have done these types of shows more often lately. It's really encouraging! And it's the only time Miguel really gets to crank his amp the way he wants to. :) Which makes him happy which in turn makes ME happy!

It was funny though - there was a building at the opposite side of the field... maybe 100 yards away. And WOW! The sound would hit that and bounce back a half second later. At parts of the show I had to concentrate like I was back in an arena or football stadium singing. The closer the crowd was to the stage - the less THEY heard that. But it definitely called for some extra concentration. (Although, I will admit that MOST of this show I was concerned with how black my face look due to mascara running....)

We went on at 5:30 and were asked to play a 45 min set. And then the Los Lonely Boys were supposed to go on right after us... They were supposed to have soundchecked by the time we got there at 3. But the whole day everyone was really nervous because they weren't sure where the Lonely Boys were. The school was on a time crunch since there's an early city noise ordinance around 8:00pm. But the Boys didn't arrive until 7:30. They were still playing when we were packing up at 8:10, so who knows what happened with the noise restrictions. They were really good, and I wanted to get to meet them, but we HAD to go eat. We were all about to keel over.

But I hope everything worked out for all parties involved. That is a rough situation for ALL SIDES. It was pretty educational to watch the event staff. Some things can't be avoided. But it is a wonderful thing to be able to observe and learn from every experience. I have gotten such an incredible education (and continue to every day) by just listening to what the college students and staffs have to say about the acts they have worked with.

As always I met tons of amazing people after the show. I took a BUNCH of pics before I could make it to the merch table to get my own copies of them! But I still snagged a whole bunch of my own :)

Talk about getting thrust into a new position as President! What a "first event"!


This kid was CUTTIN a RUG on "Devil Went Down To Georgia" I could see him from stage and was SO happy he came over to meet the guys and me!


I signed quite a few shirts on my way over to the booth, but this guy came back to get it re-traced. The first time was with a pretty thin sharpie, so I went back over it with a normal one after this pic for him to make it show up better :)


I could go on and on, but I must stop here. We have another very early morning, and it is already 1am... where does the time go?! 1 more show in Texas! So sad. I love Texas. But I love PA too, and that is where we are headed next.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Jessica Simpson's Breakdown

I am a bit fired up at the moment. Normally I don't say things like this, especially publicly, but something about this just really struck a nerve with me. A few nights ago, I heard about the "disastrous" opening Jessica Simpson had for Rascal Flatts in Grand Rapids, Mi.

Let me start out by saying:
I was so excited when I heard that Jessica Simpson was "going country" because I thought it could be a good thing for country music. She's just the kind of person that could take country to an even wider audience for people who may not have given us "southern folk with our simple talk" a shot. Jessica is one of those people that I think has an incredible voice. I do get a little frustrated sometimes with how she uses it, but she has a natural gift and range that is undeniable.

When she started, her ability to belt out a song was impressive to me. And as a teenager who was also saving myself for marriage - I fell in LOVE with her. The song she wrote at the end of her first record for her future husband (before she knew who he was gonna be) was so beautiful.

I have loved many of her songs along the way. And her country songs are even better. "Come On Over" Good Lord. Adorable. Hooky, catchy, fun to listen to. (but not easy to sing!) The writers she got to co-write with for her her record are people that I have looked up to for years.

The reports of the Rascal Flatts concert talk about her forgetting lyrics, letting her background singers take over for her, mouthing "I'm sorry" into the video monitors, sulking around on stage, being visibly flustered, and even crying in between songs. Part of me didn't want to believe someone as talented and successful as she is would ever act like that, but the part of me that was tweaked wanted to see it for myself. I decided to do some research and try to find actual video footage from the concert.

The thing that makes me crazy? It's not that bad! Yeah, she was having a rough vocal night, but if she wouldn't throw her arms up in the air in the middle of a chorus and just STOP singing.... you'd never know she was having so much trouble. There are so many things she could have done to cover up her rough vocal night. In the chorus of "Come On Over" she is obviously having problems hitting the high notes. So what? That's not the worst thing in the world. Just DON'T SING THE HIGH NOTES... take the melody down... OR hold the mic out and let your fans help you sing it...

If she could have let go and had a good time, she still could have had an amazing show. It's such a shame. It breaks my heart, actually. As a fan and someone who is rooting for her, it disappoints me. It makes her seem so self-centered (even if she isn't). Like the show is "all about her". It's not about having a perfect voice. There are singers out there that have had MUCH worse vocal nights, but they knew how to play it off so the audience didn't know. You guys in the audience understand that we aren't perfect. If you can't cancel the show, you just find a way to make it work. No matter what's going on backstage, onstage, or at home, there is no excuse to give up on your audience like that.

As another performer who is far from perfect, I have performed sick, thrown up between sets... songs... done 5 hour shows with so little voice - all I could do between sets was cry... broken down backstage because of boyfriends... And it's not because I'm so cool... God knows I'm not... It's just what you have to do as a performer. There's a responsibility that comes with being blessed enough to do this for a living. And the really funny thing? Those shows weren't even for 9,000 people.... not even for 900... Sometimes not even close. The only thing that matters is that, no matter how many of you there are, YOU GUYS don't know how sick or upset I am during the show. If you find out later, fine. But I will do my very best while I'm on stage to give you everything I've got, even if its not as much as I want it to be. Why? BECAUSE IT'S MY JOB. And I love what I do SO much. When it comes show time - it's not about me anymore. It's about making sure you are having a good time. And if I am lucky enough to get the point where I am so famous that the media is printing lies about me or "fat pictures" (though I can't imagine how upsetting that would be), I hope I never lose sight of what really matters.

I'm human, my band can attest to that... There are times where I have had to remind myself of all things I have said here. All the things I wish I could have said to Jessica right before she went out on stage.

You know what's amazing, though? When performers get out of our ego-centric little worlds - it is AMAZING how much better we do if we just rely on you guys. The audience is what helped me make it through one of the biggest and most difficult shows of my life. We had our National showcase for NACA in St. Louis last year... I had been in the ER for flu 14 hours before the show in Nashville. It was awful. I was so sick and I had such a thin little voice. I was throwing up in the bathroom 15 minutes before the show listening to some girls talk about how they heard this "Natalie" girl can play "Devil Wen Down to Georgia" and that they hoped it was good... I was laying down on the cement off stage until the moment they introduced me. We were even doing "Sweet Child of Mine" in that set - and Sweet Child is one of my toughest songs even when I'm 100%. It was FAR from perfect. I had a coughing fit in the middle of "If I Run To You Now... But with all that stuff going on, all I had to do was look out and see the audience up in the front, jumping around and screaming. It kept my adrenaline pumping and kept me on my feet. And I know way too many performers that would have done the exact same thing.

You guys expect us to do our job for YOU because you are doing your job for US. That's why when I hear about this whole Jessica thing, it gets so frustrating - for all the people out there who haven't "made it" yet that would never act like that. It doesn't matter that she had a bad night. I just can't believe someone I've liked as much as her gave up like that and let her audience down...

If you come to my show - there's a reason you're there. Sometimes I may need to lean on you for a little support. But no matter what happens, I won't ever give up during a show. I may not be in tip-top vocal condition every night, and I may not always be able to hit the most impressive notes. But I promise you won't care and hopefully not even notice because I will give you my all... Every time. I promise.