I'm Going Global

Chile supports Peace. Love. Fiddle.



Do you?

This drummer probably would. :) If you haven't seen this video yet (tons of people have been posting it on facebook) you need to watch it. WOW is seriously all I got. This gets me all giggly. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItZyaOlrb7E



Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

We're on the news!! Sort of... ; )

Tonight was another wonderful night at The Rathskeller... Cool venue, great food, a club owner that has one of Steven Tyler's microphone stand scarfs... What more could a country girl ask for? ; )

In other exciting news today... I logged onto my facebook page today and saw that someone had uploaded a video from the Gloriana show the other night. (While we were playing I saw a guy down in front of the stage with a fairly industrial looking video camera, and now I know why) :)

Robert, I found out after some Facebook investigating, is a recent Army vet who is enrolled at WIU for Broadcast. He put together a news story about the show on campus (Maybe for class, maybe for campus news... That I don't know) But what I do know is that he did an awesome job and that it was really fun to watch, so I decided to share with all of you. :)

Now, it's a Facebook video so I can't just include it in the blog like I can with videos on YouTube, but if you click on this link you should be able to see it. (with any luck...)

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=378309560698&ref=mf

Isn't that cool?!? Good luck Robert! I hope you're able to make many more!

Anyway, as always thank you Dan and the rest of Indianapolis for showing us such a great night!

Until next time...

Peace. Love. Fiddle. And delicious tuna sandwiches at nice German restaurants...

~natalie

LOVE YOU Karen and Pat for always bringing a crowd!!!

TWO MORE AWARDS!!!!

We have been in the car all day All day! :)

And after ...

"Dumb and Dumber"
"The Big Lebowski"
"Forgetting Sarah Marshall"
Miranda Lambert's "Revolution"
And
Tom Petty's Live "Anthology"...

...we are in Boca Raton, Florida. It is amazing you can drive for 12 hours and still be in the same state. :) Especially when you aren't in California or Texas! But going from the Northwest part of the pan handle down to the southeast part of the panhandle takes a while! There are so many Dunkin Donuts down here!!! I think it is because of all the snowbirds from the Northeast... they have to make them feel like they are at home. it is pretty awesome.

So for those of you not on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, or Reverbnation who read this blog....

I have some more very exciting news! (I've posted a status on the aforementioned places)
I won TWO MORE AWARDS!!!!

Campus Activities Magazine posted their Awards for the year and we won:

Best Female Performer
and
Best Music

SO EXCITING!!!

I can't believe all this! It's just amazing. So yeah. That news rocks my world. :)

Good stuff is a happenin, y'all!!!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
and
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMMA!!!!!!
~natalie

CryingWife.com

Thank you for all the comments here on the blog and of course on the automatic posts to facebook about my sweet Dolly Belle!!! You all are so sweet
#1 For reading
#2 For caring enough to say something. :)

Since I shared something that was a bit sad yesterday... and there's not much to report since we spent most of the day in the car....

I will share something I find to be funny and adorable.

It is called CryingWife.com

The video below is from a girl who just finished watching Star Wars for the first time. She cries at the end of happy/sad movies and the tears are 100% genuine. Her husband started filming her because he thinks it is so adorable. And he had to add subtitles because you really can't understand her through her tears! According to the website they NEVER expected to get so much attention from the videos on YouTube, but they've gotten nearly 400,000 views. She even cries at the end of "Back To The Future"!!! It is so adorable. And I COMPLETELY understand. :) You can suggest movies for her to watch on their site.

Watch and enjoy!!!



Click here to visit the site!
CryingWife.com

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Little Nat Fiddlin Pic

This was posted on facebook today from a friend. :)

Thanks Bryan!!! Bryan's mom - Mrs. Bone, used to ask me to come in and play violin and perform for her 4th grade class. :) I was working at Opryland at the time... and I jumped at the chance to perform for anyone who would listen.

So here I am... 4th or 5th grade, myself :)



Check out those stirrup pants. That was the hotness!

Peace. Love. And Itty Bitty Fiddles.
~natalie

Dancin In The Georgia Rain

Wanna know why I think the kids at Armstrong Atlantic State University are the coolest?

When it started raining today, they didn't all run and hide under covers (well, some did) but instead? They ran out and started dancing IN the rain to our music!!! It was so awesome, and only made the show even more memorable.

The way the stage was set up, we were under a covered area, but our speakers were out front. And the members of the Campus Union Board that were sponsoring the event, ran to our rescue!!! We were in the middle of "Even Alaska" so, they just took the speakers off the stands and set them up on stage with us! It was perfect!

Thanks for the photo Shaun! (I stole it off of facebook just now :) )


CUB :) Thank you for everything! Especially the golf cart rides :)


The Pike Boys were grilling hot dogs for Rush, right across from the stage. It smelled SOOOOOO good! :) Thanks for the free smells, guys.


Ummm... definitely my first "Human Anatomy and Physiology Book" signing!


CUB had me sign this poster that had been written on before the show :) They presented it to Josh DURING the show. He was so embarrassed, but it was pretty awesome.


Zerik - one of my favorite dancers from the day!


I have the rest of the pics up on facebook. For now? I'm going to bed!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Pshh... 80's Hair's Got NOTHING On ME!

In case you missed the awesome photo Tim posted of me after the Fort Gordon gig on facebook...

Picture of the day:


This pic is from SFA in Nacogdoches, TX - just popped up on facebook. :)

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

SMRT

Sleep Deprivation + Using My Husband's Computer to work = bad idea.

I feel blonder than normal at the moment... Like not my natural color blonde... more like bleached white....

I was trying to be all productive just now... feeling really good about all the work I've gotten done today. (Man. It's amazing what you can get done when you wake up EARLY).

This evening I accidentally discovered facebook chat. It's just like ichat or aim but, it's within facebook so it shows you all of your friends that are logged in. That was fun to discover. :) I talked to friends I have made from schools all over the country. It was pretty cool. It inspired me to do a little extra promotion for my Virginia Wesleyan show on Friday.

Hmmm.... But my computer was dying... so I stole... I mean, borrowed James'. Amazingly, he wasn't on it. That poker on the iphone... had him cornered! So in my laziness, instead of getting up to dig out my charger and find an outlet... I just picked up my husband's.

This is where it all went downhill. I had started inviting people to the show about a week ago when we were in Boston. And when I picked up James' computer, he was already logged into facebook.... but I didn't really THINK about the fact that I was in HIS account. Not my own. Soooo I mosey on over to the event for the show and start inviting more "maybe attendings". (We played this show last year. It was so fun and I am REALLY excited to go back) I kept thinking people looked familiar, but I figured I recognized them from last year. I knew my account would tell me if I had already sent them a message.

Riiiight. I HAD sent them messages. But James hadn't!

So not only does "Natalie Stovall" look suspiciously like a dude who plays the drums.... I invited some of them TWICE. Once from MY profile... once from James'.

Good one Nat.

So anyone who is thoroughly confused when they go into their facebook profiles tonight... I apologize. I was only excited and trying to let you know about the show. And though my husband REALLY wants you to come to the show, too.... he would prefer that I stop impersonating him while using my name to invite people.


Other than that? GREAT Day. We got Hoot Back. Jenn and Ella made it back home to Nashville safely, and we are already in Maine. We aren't too far away from our destination, so we won't have to drive too far tomorrow.

But judging by the recent events... I should probably work on that whole "going to bed thing" before I post a blog in all Chilean slang or something.

Wait. But that would be pretty cool... I WANT that to happen. Miguel? Go in and translate all of this to make me look cool. Ok? Thanks. I mean Gracias.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Fun Stuff to Wake Up To

I love this world of internetin' and blogging. Not only do I get to post my own thoughts and pictures about each show and adventure on the road, but I get to wake up every morning and see what others have posted. I wake up to new pictures, videos, comments, and messages every day. It is one of the most rewarding feelings! There have been all kinds of fun things posted lately, so I have to share with you some of my favorites...

An incredibly talented photographer named Danielle Barden and her husband Jared came to the Josh Gracin show in Mansfield. I am so thankful they did!!! She posted some incredible pics of the show the next day, and I have been using this one as my main photo on facebook and myspace the past week. :)



She also wrote a blog about the show which includes a lot more pictures here:

Danielle's Blog

If you are in the Mansfield PA area and need beautiful photos taken - you should call Danielle! Her portfolio is really impressive. Thank you for letting me use your awesome photos Danielle!!!
Barden Photography Website


And THEN I saw ANOTHER blog posted by a Barden. :) Her husband posted one because he uploaded some videos from the show. :)
It is such a cool thing to see the show from the audience perspective!! Here's the cool vids he posted:

This is a clip of Miguel and me playing a bit of Freebird :)



Oh you "Devil" you.


And this one is another that showed up that I thought was pretty cool. :) I think someone from the school posted this video.


We made it to New York tonight. I am heading out to Long Branch tomorrow to do a bit of writing with Gordon Brown... no... not the Prime Minister... but this Gordon is JUST as cool! He's one of my favorites to write with! So help me channel good songwritin vibes for tomorrow! :)

Peace, Love, Fiddle,
~natalie

Husson University: Bangor, Maine

Favorite conversation from the car today:

I was driving and I asked if anyone else was hungry or ready to eat.

James: "Sure, I could eat"

Miguel: "Oh yeah, I could eat"

Hootie: "I have a mouth"

Yup. That's Hoot. :)

Last night when we got back from our very short venture into Boston (I had just enough time to get a Nutella Smoothie.... really my only request when we get into the city), there were two little girls waiting on a "concert". :) We were staying at Paul's house (my manager) for a couple nights in Newton. And his sweet little girl Gracie and her friend, Madison, who is VERY musical, were wanting a show! We were all set up in the living room from rehearsing the night before and earlier that afternoon. So really, it was a great opportunity for us to run through our new songs with an audience! It was perfect. :) Gracie and Madison both grabbed some guitars (I believe Madison brought her own) and "jammed" with us!



Today we drove to Bangor, Maine. I had some friends from Bangor at Berklee, but I have never ventured that high up into Maine until today! As soon as we crossed over the border into Maine, something seemed to change. It felt like I stepped into a painting of every New England winter scene I have ever seen. The rivers and ponds are completely frozen with the rocks covered in snow and ice. And the landscape is so distinct. It's just beautiful. I really am getting to see a lot of snow on this trip!!!

Husson University was a huge success tonight. Our show was packed with a very enthusiastic and appreciative audience. And I think we had the largest sound crew we've ever had!!! It was actually a class of students from NESCOM (New England School of Communications) and they picked our show as one of their projects to run. My attention was immediately caught by the mic on my stand. They had a Neumann KMS 104 on it!!! Ok. I know that is probably gibberish to most of you, but that is a REALLY REALLY nice live microphone!!! And I have NEVER played a show where they have supplied Neumann's! I have one myself, but I have never used someone else's before. Crazy. And the board they had - they purchased after it had been used in the Beijing Olympics. So yeah we got spoiled rotten with equipment tonight. The students did a great job, too. They were each taking turns riding the faders during the show. And I believe they are sending us a recording of the show as well. We've been on a streak of the sound guys recording our shows for us lately! It's really great "tape" for us to listen to... Kind-of like watching "tape" in football.... it's good studying for us!

Here's our Largest Sound Crew EVER.


Becca Loebe and Jenn Grinels came to our show!!! Becca went to Berklee and we have been running into each other on the college circuit randomly for the last few years. She is one of the sweetest and most genuine girls in the world. And she is a fantastic folk singer. So heartfelt. And Jenn. Wow. Tonight was the first time I ever met her, but I really want to see her live now, too. Her music is SO great on her myspace page.
Becca and Jenn both played an afternoon show at Husson, and then they went to the University of Maine to play a show tonight. THEN they drove all the way back to Husson to catch the end of our show. Such sweethearts!!
Go check out Becca:
http://www.myspace.com/rebeccaloebe '
And Jenn:
www.myspace.com/jenngrinels




After we talked for a little while, Becca said "Oh! I have a present for you, Natalie! I was looking at you onstage and thought - 'she just doesn't look like she belongs here'" (You know, southern girl up in Maine). So she gave me some hand warmers to keep me all warm and cozy in the Northeastern Frigidness. I'm just glad I wasn't here when it was -45 a few weeks ago!

The top one is in English and the bottom one is in spanish - so I guess the top hand-warmer is mine and the bottom one is Miguel's :)

Greg!!! He was the man in charge tonight who took VERY VERY good care of us. Plus, he had on an Anchorman shirt which made me want to be friends with him immediately.


Courtney!!! She was our contact at the school. She was SO sweet from the beginning. She gave us directions all day, helped me take pics at the merch booth, and stayed until the very last piece of equipment was loaded. And yeah. She has a nursing exam in the morning. We didn't get out of there until after midnight. Courtney's a champion!


These girls grabbed their front row seats well before sound check. They were right up front all night, singing along and making me feel so great!


Let's just say... I felt pretty safe at this show


These girls were CRACKING me up. Rachael, on the far left, came up to the table and said "Ok, we've scrounged enough money together to buy a cd" She had coins and dollars and it was adorable. So all 4 of them were sharing the one cd. I love it!


They made such cute shirts for this event, too. It was the big concert in the middle of their "Winter Week". I love when we get t-shirts at schools. It's such a great way to remember where we played. And I REALLY like it when they put us ON the t-shirt. Although, James and I have been "matching" a little too often lately. :)~ We never mean to, but we keep wearing the same shirts for bed. If you saw how much we have on the same outfits, I am not sure whether you'd find it endearing or creepy. We can't decide, either.



You know what is so cool? Before I even got back to the hotel - there were already pics of the show uploaded to facebook from people who were there tonight. I love the internet. It really blows my mind!
I have to thank Cam Smith for providing this next photo!



And I have to thank everyone who came out tonight. The show was packed and it was a very appreciative audience. They even got us to do an encore!!! It was so much fun! I made everyone get out of their seats for the encore, though. There is NO WAY you can sit down for Journey! :)

Thanks for EVERYTHING tonight Husson! I hope to do it again sometime!!!

Peace, love, fiddle and yee haw!

~natalie

Snowballing

Miguel and both shoveled snow for the first time ever today. I know I risk many people hating me for saying this..... and I am FULLY aware that I would NOT feel this way if I HAD to shovel all the time - but as a first timer - it was fun! :)
I kept looking for more places to melt a little more - we got down to just ice and they couldn't chip it fast enough for me. Miguel had never shoveled either. Paul loved us :)



It's so good to have a day when we didn't HAVE to be somewhere. I was more exhausted when I woke up this morning than I have been in a while... it hasn't helped me to go to bed any earlier than normal... considering it is 3:00am right now. But it's nice to not have to curl my tremendous amounts of hair or put on full make-up :) We've gone pretty non-stop since we left Nashville, though. I mean, there hasn't been ANY downtime until today. It was all driving as much as possible, sleep as much as we can before we get up and drive as much as possible again to get to the next destination. We definitely don't get paid for the shows!!!! We get paid for driving to and from and loading and unloading!!! THAT's the "work" part. The performing is the relief.

I can't wait to have a ginormous stage, eh emm.... like the GRAMMYS. :) I just get so inspired when I watch shows like that. It feels so close. And in all reality - that's just "a song" away. It's amazing how that 1 magical song can launch an entire career and make millions of people pay attention to what you have been doing all along. I mean look at Taylor Swift and all that she has accomplished in the last couple of years!!! And it started with an incredible song. But the girl has the songs to back it up and the personality to carry her through a career for the rest of her life!

I have so much going on in my head right now. It kinda feels like I have a ton of creativity balling up inside me like a big giant star that's about to just come BLAZING out. And I have to attribute much of that to YOU. Yes, YOU who is reading this right now. :) There has been this unbelievable energy around my shows lately and the blogs and the myspace, facebook, and twitter sites. Everything feels like it is snowballing. There was a while that I felt like I was at a bit of a standstill. I guess it was adjusting to the inns and outs of touring and building the business side. There's been a lot to learn and I am aware that I will never stop learning. But now it has all come full circle. The creativity is BACK. And it's just a stewing and seasoning right now. :) I'm guess I'm having to let it simmer in my brain a bit before I am ready to share it with everyone else.

With that said... I am ready to let it simmer while I slumber.

night night!

~nat