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

I'm Cooler Than I Thought!

I have been to so many shows in town this week!!! It has been a very musical week :)

One of the shows I went to was at 3rd and Lindsley - Eric Paslay (who I've written with), Rachel Loy (who I went to school with) and Dave Pahanish. Oh! And a surprise and stunning appearance by Miss Sarah Buxton, who was phenomenal.

Dave Pahanish is an awesome songwriter that emailed me on myspace a few years ago. I still remember when he was about to "make the move" down to Nashville and was asking us natives for advice on the real estate market. He has since done VERY well for himself. He has had songs cut by Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Jimmy Wayne, Emily West, and Toby Keith!

I sang on some demos and played fiddle for him a couple of years ago (back when I was still in town a little more often) . And I didn't remember this... but I played fiddle on the demo for "This American Life" which you can hear on his myspace page:

http://www.myspace.com/davepahanish

Finding this out made me feel REALLY REALLY cool. Know why? "This American Life" is a song that Toby Keith cut... although you may know it as "American Ride." He wanted to change the "Life" to "Ride" and it became the title track for his latest album!!! I didn't know I was cool enough to have played on a demo that became a Toby Keith song! :)

Here's the ole Toby Keith video: Enjoy!!!


BTW: Dave, Eric, and Rachel put on a GREAT night of music! I saw friends I hadn't seen in a long time, and I enjoyed a true Nashville evening of outstanding songwriters and performances. If you get the chance to see ANY of those performers... GO!!

Peace. Love. FIDDLE!
~nat

Keepin It Real

I love working in this biz. Every day is so different. And within the same day, you have to be a business exec, creative person, accountant, web promoter, and part of the "job" is going out to other people's shows :) Man. It's a rough life. :)

I had my first co-write with Emily Shackleton today. What a great way to start the day! She's a fellow Berklee girl, although she started the year after I graduated. Last year we did a song writer's round together for the Berklee trip that comes down for spring break every year, and that is when I fell in love with her music. She is an extremely gifted writer, singer, piano player. And we wrote a great song today called "I'll Be a Fool For You"

She was PUMPED this morning. Her husband who's been out of work for over a year just got offered a dream job this morning! AND yesterday she found out that one of her songs is getting cut by an Australian country artist named Stephanie Brownlee. And she's already shot the video for the song!

The song is called "Keep It Real" and it is adorable. Here's the video!


I am so excited for her! Emily works her tail off. And I am looking forward to writing with her again. First writes can be the most difficult, but you wouldn't know it from today. It was easy as pie! (What a strange expression... pie ain't all that easy).

Off to meditate on song ideas for tomorrow's write!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Introducing the New Band Members!!

Sooo....

I have alluded to the fact that new guys were coming on board over the last little bit, but I haven't said much because there were no "final decisions" made.

Today, that has all changed!!!

We have known for a while now that David Newbould would be joining Team Stovall. David will be coming on board as an opening act/ rhythm guitar/ vocalist in the group! We are THRILLED to have such a talented guy along for the ride. :) He's a fantastic artist - singer/songwriter/guitar player/overall awesomeness and in fact... you should head on over to his website when you have the time and take a look at HIS stuff!!!

http://www.davidnewbould.com/

He originally hails from Canada (thus furthering the borders of this international Stovall band) but he recently made the move to Nashville from Austin, Texas. We even figured out that Dave Madden - my first keyboard player... plays keys for David in Austin!!! Oh what a small world it is!


And the the part we haven't known until today - our new bass player!!!
Introducing Zach Morse (no kids... not Zach Morris... though I'm a little TOO excited about introducing him to Mr. Belding) from Cheyenne, WY (a new state to grace the Stovall Team). Zach has a very rich, deep voice which I can't wait to hear more of. He's a killer bass player. And he's got crazy curly hair to DIE for! :)

You can get a sneak peek at his myspace site:
http://www.myspace.com/zachmorsebassist

We had spoken to Zach, gotten GREAT recommendations from friends about him, and stalked him a little on youtube. Shhhh. We had a great feeling about him, but you can't exactly offer someone a job without meeting them and playing with them first. Well... you can. But, you know. So we got together with everyone today, played through some songs, dug the vibe, offered him the job, and thus now we have a full band again!

Whew. I can't even begin to describe what an incredible feeling that is. New Van, new band, new sound system, new songs, new sets, new fiddles... Whoa. I didn't even realize all the newness until I just typed it out!

Miguel, James, and I couldn't be happier with how 2010 is starting!!! Let's keep it a'rollin!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

The First Lyrically Inspired Tattoo

I don't even have words.

A beautiful girl named Kaleigh commented on my myspace profile 2 days ago with this note:

"I would just like to tell you how much I love your music, especially the song Angel. I picked it out for my Granny's funeral and the tattoo of your song is now put on the side of my arm with a memoir to my Granny.
You are amazing!!!"

Thank you, Kaleigh. But THIS is what is amazing.


When I first saw this, I couldn't even speak. I teared up and had to sit down. And I still don't have the words.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

PHOTO SHOOT DAY!!!

YAY!!!! :)

Today was so much fun. Ridiculous, glamorous, hard work, pampering, and FUN FUN FUN!

We hired miss Amanda Van Sandt to shoot and Lorena Lopez for hair and make-up. Lorena had not 1 but 2 amazing helpers - miss Shaina for hair and Katie for make-up.
Here's Lo and Shaina workin on me :)


I want to work with BOTH of these ladies as much as possible. I have done many shoots before, but only a couple for myself... And I have NEVER been this happy with my hair and make-up. These two ladies are unbelievably talented individually, but put them together? Dream Team.

My good friend, miss Jenn Bostic, got her photos done for her album with Amanda a few weeks ago and I FLIPPED over the shots. James and I both knew immediately we needed to work with her and that she would be PERFECT for this record.

Amanda has worked with a lot of my friends - Kingbilly, Alana Grace, Kree Harrison plus some Huge stars here and in NY and LA.

Lorena... ummm.... where do I start? Britney. Eminem. P. Diddy.... I thought this video was fun on her website. It's just a tiny example of the hair and make-up design she has done:


And we got to shoot in the HUGE white house that you see driving down I65 at Peytonsville Rd... the one with the buffalo!!! The one I have admired since it was built... I would drive by it EVERY DAY on the way to school in Franklin. I feel like I've said this a lot lately... but again, today... I felt like the coolest kid in school.

We did a bunch of different outfits and I am freaking out to see all the shots!! (And we just wrapped a couple of hours ago.) A day like today makes the record feel like it's REALLY happening and coming together. And tomorrow... I put vocals on the final song!! WOOT WOOT!!

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

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

I Think I Won The Lottery!

Ruth Collins and I wrote a song called "Lottery". I love this song!!! It is so cute and Ruth sounds amazing singing it. This is the song I mentioned that I tried to record us doing acoustic for you guys, but umm.... my computer protested and wouldn't let me have sound added in with the video.

But the good and very exciting news is that Ruthie just recorded it and has a rough mix up on her myspace page! She also did a really cute little video blog about it and us writing it. :)

You should go listen and let me know what you think!

Click HERE to listen to "Lottery"!!!

Peace, Love, Fiddle!