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

It's a good Good Friday

I went to write with Gordon today and it was SOOOOOO good to see him. There's never enough hours in the day when we are writing together :) But today was great because it gave us a chance to reevaluate everything we worked on earlier this year. I still have so many unfinished songs with him.... that's not unusual for me though :) I usually have a whole stash of songs I am working on that I finish at the most random times. I can try and try with all my might to finish some songs.... but with certain pieces of work - I just have to wait for the inspiration to hit me.

That's how I wrote most of the songs for "Late Night Conversations" - I had an entire digital recorder filled with ideas. And over time I finished them one by one. And the strongest ones ended up making the record.

We finished one today that I am thrilled about! I can't really talk about it yet, but you'll hear it soon enough. :) And then we have 4 others with really great starts. I'm smiling so big right now cause I am hearing them all in my head at once. They are just little infants right now... I can tell what they will look like for the most part... they just haven't fully developed yet :)

SO I have a lot of work ahead of me.

I had to cut us off to catch the last train back into the city. Gordon and I were texting lyrical ideas of one of the songs to each other. But there was an inebriated Italian fella, Fabrizio, that really wanted to talk. His English was a bit broken... which he kept apologizing for... but his English wasn't really the reason he was hard to understand.... It was probably all the wine with dinner.... if I were to guess...

He came to this country to "have experience", which he explained ummm... a few times.... and then a few more...

I can't possibly attempt to explain what he was talking about (nor could he) but the one thing he was sure of..... I have "eyes like fox." He said that over and over again. He REALLY wanted me to know that. He wanted to make sure I go home tonight and look in the mirror to check and see if "Fabrizio is full of BS or Fabrizio tell truth". He nearly missed his stop because he kept putting his hands around his eyes to make the shape of glasses and was yelling "YOU. Eyes like fox!!! Like FOX! You see! Look in mirror!" And THEN once he got OFF the train he ran to the window where I was sitting and was screaming it from the outside... and putting his hands around his eyes again. And then making the shape of a pregnant belly. (That was a whole other story... he thinks I am smart like fox and won't have "The children" until I KNOW... cause I have eyes like fox... ) Yeah. I don't really get it either. The train attendants kept staying close by. And after he got off the train one came over to me and said "We should have put that on youtube." I actually recorded a bit of the conversation onto my iphone because it was cracking me up.

But apparently I have "eyes like fox" so I guess that means don't mess with me?

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie