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

Weird Signage

A few weeks ago someone asked at a show, "What is the strangest thing you have ever signed?"

I found myself puzzled... and laughing :)

I rattled off a few of the stranger ones I could think of... but I kept thinking of more things later. So I went through a bunch of photos and was reminded of quite a few moments and shows that made me laugh all over again. So I wanted to share!

The nipple signing at Coast Guard Day will forever go down as one of my favs


This may not have been nipple... but it was pretty dang close!


Ahhh... The skoal can


This kid was so cool. I have signed plenty of hats... foreheads... shirts... even jeans.... but NEVER sunglasses before!


Hard Hat - THAT came out of no where


And it was followed by an inflatable hammer... because... why wouldn't it be?


The biology notes have GOT to be one of the most creative and adorable things so far :)




Ah! Cowboy boots!! This made me feel WAAAAAY cool.


Let me interject something I just remembered. There were 2 guys at the Matterhorn that had me sign little wallet sized photos of their own kids. Hmmm. Not sure why... They didn't want me to address them TO the kids... just wanted my signature on the back.

Speaking of kids - the kids at the ski resort all had some creative ones.
Palms of the hands


Ski helmets and ski boots




The most recent and probably one of the coolest was the iphone:


And then there was the time when a guy at a show REALLY wanted Bridget to sign the cd... Bridget is a good friend of mine and Hootie's girlfriend.... she didn't sing or play on the cd, but dude was adamant that she sign it! Classic!


And Kelly Bell signing a Peace Love Fiddle t-shirt


Buckeye fans are CRAZY y'all. He had us sign an OSU flag and then INSISTED that we take it with us. Not sure why we needed to sign it if we were the ones who were gonna look at it. That thing stayed in the Suburban until it was driving Hootie nuts. We finally had to take it out because Hootie couldn't take the pressure anymore. "Hang on Sloopy" was on permanent repeat in his head...


I had to sign the shirt for a "bachelor" who was in Panama City beach at our show. I had to sign it and give him instructions for something to do during the evening - I ended up writing "pick up a fiddle player"


And he did!


And I'll close with this one cause it made me feel like a rockstar... Scott Holt, the guys from Gov't Mule, and well... just a whole lot of really cool people + me signed this guitar. I don't remember how much it was auctioned off for - but it was to raise money to buy Christmas presents for children in Maury County. So it was really cool.


My job is so fun.

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Tour Diary #1

James recently found this little camera he had bought a while back, so we took some video of one of the last road trips :)
We played Spinnaker Beach club in Panama City for 2 nights and then had to drive through the night to get to Elizabeth City NC to play for the Coast Guard. It was awesome. And after this one, we have decided to do a LOT more video blogging. :)

Hope you enjoy Tour Diary #1!!!!!