APCA Houston, Rockstar Babies, and Crazy Dreams

We're in a very stinky Comfort Inn somewhere in Mississippi. But I am so tired... I don't even care. Maybe it will inspire some crazy dreams. The other night I had a dream that Hootie and Justin were going on tour in Thailand with some music they had written together....

Congratulations to Charlie and Amy Hutto!!!!! There's a new rockstar baby in the world today - Jackson Chad Hutto. Charlie is a good friend, one of my favorite co-writers, and has been a band member throughout the years as well. Yay!!!

We played our final College Booking Conference of the year today. That's hard to believe. But next year is filling up like crazy. And it's gonna be SUCH a good year.

I love APCA and NACA because I meet SO many new people, hang with tons of cool performers, and see lots of old friends, too! There were 9 kids from UT Tyler which I just played on Tuesday - and their table was right up front during my showcase. So I had lots of friends in my corner yelling for us before they even introduced us! :) That makes such a big difference!!!

This is the lead singer of Fly Gypsy (a hip hop/ rock/ reggae band) and a beautiful poet who were both in my showcase.


AND Street Drum Corps!!!!


It was funny because it was Tim's first showcase with us. We have done so many this year, but he hasn't been with us on any of them yet. :) And he almost ended it with a splash!!! He was dangling off the edge of the stage on the last note and almost ended up in the monitor console! But whew, he got back on balance just in time.

Our next show is in West Virginia so we went ahead and got a few hours under our belt as soon as we finished up with the showcase. Tomorrow... we get to drive ALLLLLL day. :) Life on the road!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Roger Williams University

Look at what was in our hotel room when we got here tonight!!! I shall call him... Franz. The Elephant. Why? Cause it just feels like the thing to do. HE HAS GOOGLY EYES!!! LOOK AT HIM!!!!




Franz was only the icing on the cake. Actually... he was the flower icing on top of the main icing. Tonight's show went so well. We played at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island. You could really tell they had promoted it a ton. Not only were there lots of students there - they were really interacting with us and giving us great energy.

The lights were all run by students (they had a VERY impressive lighting rig) and they were REALLY into the fog. There were times where I couldn't see the crowd because of the fog. IT WAS AWESOME. There was one time that I looked back at James and he looked like he was just smoking from awesomeness. It was like he had just emerged from a cloud of smoke... as if they were introducing him in a movie and he was about to melt your face with the best drum playing you've EVER heard. :) It was pretty hardcore. :)

The show was complete with lots of "cell phone lighters" swaying in the way back on the bleachers to people knocking chairs over in he front because they were dancing so hard! Yeah. It was a good time.

So I found my downloader doo-hicky in the back of the Suburban today!!! YAY!!!! Many pictures have been uploaded on facebook and myspace today thanks to well... possessing the technology to do so.

So now I can get back to my normal way of doing things and show you come pics!

These are my dancing girls!!! I made a comment early in the show that they must be on a dance team together... ummm and they are! It was great cause one of them would start doing a move and then the rest would join in. Their dancing was getting everyone pumped up! Actually, on "Even Alaska" that whole side of the crowd was jumping up and down to the music.... which definitely made me feel like one of the "cool kids".


These guys were great. I had just gotten done cleaning off the stage, and I could only find 2 set lists. These guys came up to us and said "Hey, we found these on stage and wanted to know if you could sign them" So see?! I'm not crazy! Plus, that is way better than just reusing them for tomorrow night. I like it when people want us to sign set lists. I spend so much time writing them all out - it is cool when they get appreciated like that! :)


If I were to take a WILD guess.... probably the youngest fans of the evening!!! Meagan and Michaela


JILL!!!! Jill and I were keeping in touch ALL day, just getting details ironed out for the show. I feel like we are best friends after all that phoning and texting! She took SUCH good care of us. AND she's wearing a Peace, Love, CEN (Campus Entertainment Network) t-shirt. ROCK ON.


Boston HERE WE COME!!!

Peace, Love, Fiddle
~natalie

Band Practice in the living room!

Working on all kinds of new surprises.