Resting the Cords

So we ended up NOT playing tonight at Spinnaker. And although I would ALWAYS choose playing a show over not playing a show... It is a very good thing I am not trying to force what little voice I have left into 4 hours of singing tonight.

I have been on vocal rest all day and the guys are always entertained by my overly exaggerated motions to silently explain what I want to communicate. James is usually my interpreter. Earlier the guys were wanting to head to the grocery. I was trying to tell them "Let me finish this sandwich... and then I'll head to the store with everyone". Zach thought I was saying, "I need more lettuce." David had NO CLUE what I was saying. And Miguel just looked at James for the interpretation. :) It is sometimes the funniest and sometimes the most frustrating one-sided game of charades... EVER. :)

I've already been on vocal rest 3 times this year. I forget how much a part of touring vocal rest is! At least at this point... when you are a national act, you get to have your own sound crew... monitors are always the same so it doesn't matter how loud the stage volume is... smoke isn't really an issue anymore... you have your own driver... and 4 1/2 hour nights aren't really in the picture anymore. :) Sometimes I feel crazy for having vocal problems... but it is easy to forget how many factors play into our current situation. However... when you are a National Act... there are other problems that come into play. So don't get me wrong. I'm not whining. I am just recognizing certain aspects so that I don't feel like a wuss!

If it were easy... everyone would do this for a living. But James and I are constantly surprised at how little "music" is of being a full time musician! At least... an independent one. It sure does keep life from ever becoming routine. Every day is so different. Like so many passion-based jobs.... your work is never done. There is ALWAYS more you could be doing. Writing... promoting... internetin'... blogging ;)

But right now? I am going to go partake in some of that spicy, yummy, curry that David is cooking up in the kitchen!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

The Stars of Bethlehem

I LOVE this picture!!! Look at Miguel's hair flying from the ROCK he brings. :)
This was in the article that came out in the Columbia paper today about the Blues benefit.



Ruthie and I wrote a great song today! That's always a good feeling :) It comes so easy writing with Ruth. If you haven't before, you should go check her out!
Ruth Collins
If you go to her page, listen to "Lottery"! That's one we wrote together :)

Tonight I went to see my brother, Joe, and his family in the Christmas Pageant going on at my church in Columbia. They all did such a good job!!! My brother was a Roman soldier... and he wasn't very happy about his man-dress. :) Cameron was an angel, McKinley was a shepherd, and Tracy was the Star of Bethlehem. Cameron was directing everyone fervently during "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" even though he was supposed to just stand with everyone else and sing it. It was pretty awesome.

This is my beautiful niece McKinley (the shortie) and her friend Katie who was also in the play!


Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

That's a Lot of Presents

First of all, I want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who came and participated in the Have A Blues Christmas Benefit Concert this past weekend. We raised $11,000 for the kids!!! That's a LOT of Christmas presents for children who wouldn't otherwise have them on Christmas morning. So THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! The event keeps getting bigger and better. :)

Jenn Bostic and I wrote together today. It was so much fun getting to catch up with her and start creating with her. It was our first write... which is in many ways like a first date. It is a sort of getting-to-know-you period. You start to figure out stylistically what the other writer leans towards and where their tendencies are. It helps with the next time, so you have a better idea of what you're getting into! We got a really good start on a song. But of course, Jenn is going on the road until the day that we leave again in January. So we scheduled our next co-write for February. hehe :)

Tonight we watched Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Tour: 30 Days in 30 Nights. I hadn't heard about it, but one of our friends recommended it, and it was awesome. It doesn't just show the comedians performing... it focuses a lot more on the behind the scenes, their stories and backgrounds, and then integrates it their acts. It is a really great look into the world of comedians and how they deal with the same things that bands deal with - audiences that react strangely, personal feelings about performance - it's fun to see the parallels. :)

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Running Out of Eggs Is Awesome

You know when you run out of eggs and it's annoying cause you thought you had more?

That little event - running out of eggs - made me SO HAPPY TODAY!!!! Do you know how long it has been since we have run out of something because we ATE it all??? You know.... instead of throwing it out because we were only here long enough to eat a little bit and then it was out of date by the time we got back. Yeah. That feeling of not wasting our food was AWESOME.

I have spent the last few hours going through all my songwriting ideas I have jotted down, or memos I have recorded on my phone. I can't believe how many great ideas I have that are just sitting there!!! I really thought I would be able to write more on the road this year. But with everything going on, it just rarely happens. At least so far that has been the case. The addition of some of our new band members for next year may change all that! WOO HOO!!!

But I am pumped to get back into the swing of writing. My good friend Jenn Bostic and I are writing tomorrow. It is our first time writing together. She is an incredible singer and songwriter. When I was at Berklee - I was the "country" girl that sang all the country songs in the showcases. After I graduated - Jenn arrived and she was the token "country girl" :) So tomorrow... the "Berklee Country Girls" UNITE. Watch out.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~nat

Remedy

We went to see The Black Crowes tonight at the Ryman.




Good Lord.

It's amazing when you have such a dedicated fan base that you can play almost two hours and not play any of your biggest songs. But if you like what they do, then you don't have to know ANY of their songs to enjoy the show. They only did 2 tunes from their Greatest Hits record. But that's also part of their charm. That's why they are such a COOL band. And one of the reasons that their fans love them so much. I'm not that cool. And I never will be.

Chris Robinson has such a fantastic voice, I could listen to him sing anything.

It's so inspiring to go to other shows. I got so many great ideas tonight! From songs ideas to merch ideas... not that it takes much for James and me to brainstorm on merch and ways to make the show better. I feel like that's all we ever talk about sometimes. But it's so fun. And right now it feels like so much that we've worked for is coming together. Idea-wise, show-wise, record-wise, visually... it's all starting to click in ways that it only can after being on the road for a couple of years.

I'm pretty excited. And I can't wait to have my own audience like the one that they had tonight. Night... after night... after night.


Peace. Love. Fiddle. And Big Dreams.
~natalie

If You're Ever in Jonestown, PA...

The guys and I drove for 16 hours today.... we stopped about 95 miles short of Scranton. Scranton was our goal - it was where we wanted to sleep tonight. (Plus, it makes me feel cool to stay where The Office is supposed to be set :) )

But this RIDICULOUS snow storm started. It is gorgeous - huge puffy, beautiful flakes - the kind that you yearn for as a kid and the kind that DEFINITELY gets schools closed in Tn. But also the kind that is NOT good for driving. As we were trying to make it to a gas station, a few trucks passed me in the left lane and when they'd go by, I couldn't see the road. It was ALL white. So, yeah, we decided to stop for the night.

We're in Jonestown PA and the first hotel we came to was a Best Western. Now, normally I really like Best Western's and this one looked brand new. But this one is not on my "favorites" list. (And for some strange reason I feel like I know a thing or two about reasonably priced hotels... hmm wonder why??)

First of all they keep the door locked this late at night. No big deal, but there was no where to ring a bell or pick a phone to let someone know you are standing outside in the freezing cold. I walked around 3 times trying to find a way to notify the night attendant, and then the automatic doors closed ON me. Umm.... how does THAT happen??? Then, when I finally was let inside the second set of automatic doors, the man inside abruptly said "We don't allow oversized vehicles". I know I looked at him strangely. I mean, REALLY!?!?! It's a Suburban pulling a 5x8 trailer.... And I guess, yeah, that would be considered "oversized" but it only takes up one extra parking space. Plus out of ALL the hundreds of hotels we have stayed at over the last few years traveling, no one has ever refused us a room because of our vehicle. It's not like it is a semi. But whatever. It probably wouldn't have irritated me as badly if I hadn't just been slammed in by their door and battling the crazy blizzard outside. I get it's not his fault or policy. And I wasn't rude or anything. I was just very frustrated.

So then we went down the street to the Days Inn. SCORE!!!!!! This place is AWESOME!!!! And the guy at the front desk, John, wiped away all my frustration. He was overly accommodating and just so friendly. After I checked us in, we started unloading the car. Right before we got in the elevator, he let us know that he had just gone up to our room and turned on the lights and the heat. WHO DOES THAT!!?!? That was THE NICEST thing in the world he could have done for us. What an thoughtful man. And the room... It's a business suite, so it has a full kitchen, two beds, a pull out couch (so Hootie and Miguel don't have to snuggle tonight) and a whole little office area.

See? Everything happens for a reason! I am SO glad we aren't at that grumpy Best Western.

Plus, this place inspired some good music! I know it may seem strange, but I come up with a lot of good song writing ideas in the shower. I came up with a really cute one tonight. It's one of those that I can hear almost the whole song - I just need to work out the details of the lyrics. But I know what I want it to say :) So after I showered, I got all bundled and went out to the Suburban to have some quiet to record my ideas. (I say that, but really what I mean is that I get embarrassed about recording song ideas in front of the guys so I have to go somewhere else) But yay!!! So that's ummm over 10 songs that I need to finish now??? Good Lord! That's a whole album! How awesome would it be if they were ALL album worthy!?!

So now I must sleep. We have to leave early early. It's 2:30am and we have to be at soundcheck tomorrow in Maine at 7pm. With all this crazy snow... who knows how long it's gonna take us.

Whew. Life on the road is crazy.

The moral of this story? If you ever get stuck in Jonestown PA - stay at the Days Inn.

Hoods and Back Doors Flying Everywhere!

It was a good day today :)

I finally fell asleep somewhere around 7am. Didn't sleep very hard because I was so worried about waking up on time. :) Got up at 9:30 and headed to my writing session. On the way there.... my trunk flew open on my jeep... It's a Cherokee so the "trunk" is really just a back door. I was driving down the road and all of a sudden I could hear the cars and semi's WAY too loudly :) It's happened before... and gear has fallen out in the middle of the road... but thankfully, there was nothing in it today. I safely was able to pull over and get it latched quickly. Thank goodness I had already gotten off the interstate!

What happened was:
When we got in early this morning - I tried to open the back door to load the sound system into it. But the door was frozen shut. We realized we were probably taking the sound system on the next trip so we decided to leave it in the trailer. When I tried to open the door, it must have come unlatched... just enough. Even though I body slammed it (I was suspicious of it opening since it's happened before), and LOCKED it.... that all proved futile this morning while I was driving. Apparently my body slam isn't quite as ferocious as one might think. Once the door unthawed - it was open for the whole world to see!

That's much better than the night the hood flew up and covered my entire windshield on the interstate. I had given James' car a jump and I guess I didn't slam the hood down all the way. Once I picked up speed and the wind caught underneath it.... the hood flew up, rendering me completely blind to the road. I couldn't even see to get over. I was in the right lane though, and James helped talk me through getting to the shoulder. It all happened so fast. It was one of the scariest moments of my life. I was on the way to a show that night, too. I was so shaken when I got there. Man, that was JUST the beginning of that night. But that's a whole other blog :)

So today was my first writing session with a lady named Angela Lauer. I am a big fan of her writing and we had such a great first day together! We have a lot more sessions on the books, so I'll have a lot of music to share with you soon :)

I came home and did an interview over the phone for our show at Bates College for next week. I am excited to go play in Lewiston, Maine! My very first guitar player at Berklee - Mr. Nate Telow is from Lewiston. He was in Green Line South and lived at my house with the band the first summer we played around Nashville. He has gone on the be the Massachusetts State Body Building champion!!! He used to train me back in my "buff days"... :) So I have been to Lewiston before, but never played at Bates!

And then I did a very monumental thing. I went to the grocery store!!!!! WOOO HOO!!! We are here for a few days, so I actually got to go get food to cook at home. It's such a rare occurrence. It makes me feel all normal and stuff. :) But alas.... it's 3:30 in the morning... and I am just now thinking about bed. So I guess I am back to being all weird and musiciany. But who am I kidding? I like it that way. :)