Tour Diary Video #4 Part 2

Here it is!!!! Tour Diary Video #4 Part 2!!!

To continue the craziness that ensued in Panama City Beach :)


For the facebookers... The link...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpeZx9RYnV4

For the blogspotters... the video :) ENJOY!


Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

http://www.peacelovefiddle.com

TOUR DIARY #3 Parts 1 AND 2!!!!

New Flip cam means..... NEW TOUR DIARIES!!!! James may be somewhere else.... but he's been reliving Augusta all day in editing :) Enjoy!

Part 1:



Part 2:


Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Let's Take Our Love To Mexico...

We can see Mexico!!!! Seriously - the buildings right across the way are in Mexico. It's pretty sweet. The people here in South Texas, and I mean REALLY South Texas, have so much pride for this area. They have been unbelievably welcoming to the guys and me, and they have gone WAAAAY above and beyond to help us and put on a great event tonight.

Texas is always great because it is this unique cultural pocket in the world that has a feverish excitement for INDEPENDENT country music. And even though everyone has always said it is impossible for girls to break into the Texas market... and most Texans hate "Nashville" (as in the kind of country music that comes out of Nashville) I haven't felt that way AT ALL!!! I have felt nothing but love from Texas!!! And I have given nothing but love back, which I will continue to do over and over again!

And coming this far south has been so much fun for us. The students at UT Brownsville are AWESOMESAUCE!

They were champions with load in and load out - we couldn't pack up fast enough after the show cause they had everything on the elevator so quickly!

And the show.... oh my lord.... so many cameras and cell phones a flip cams. These kids rushed the front of the stage EARLY in the set and gave us SOOO much energy. The guys and I had a GREAT show because the audience was so great. One girl, Roxy, found me before the show because she came to the show last night at UT Pan Am AND came tonight!! That rocked my world. Tonight was the kind of night we live for as musicians. We've already had quite a few of those on this trip, too - which is just incredible!

Let's keep this ball rolling! :)

The Sigma Psi Delta girls!


Fei!!! Even though we are in America, and can see the border of Mexico, Fei is here from China! :) (It was his first country concert)


The awesome student group that put this whole thing together!!


Signing the chucks!


My first Belt signage!


They found us loading the trailer after they went back and got their white chucks! She had us all sign both of them!


The GIANT basket of Mexican Goodies they gave us!


Us devouring the giant basket of Mexican goodies in the hotel room!


And we even got a private tour of the school at the end of the night which was REALLY cool. They have a gorgeous campus and really awesome facilities. It makes it so much more personal for us to really get to see the campus like that. And this campus looks more like a luxury resort than a college! It's so beautiful!

Another wonderful night down. :)

Do I really have to go do normal people stuff like pay bills right now? ;) Night y'all.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

New Year's Resolution: √

365 Days ago, I made the daunting New year's Resolution to blog every single day in 2009.

Last night, I accomplished that goal!!!

I even blogged more than once on some days :)

I just want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who reads, skims, visits, comments, and prints out my blog (mostly just Aunt Deana on the printing) every day!!! It has been so rewarding to see how much our readership has grown over the last year!

I think an Official Award needs to be given to my most specialist, Shadiest, Groviest (not to be confused with grooviest) of blog commenters.

The 2009 Peace, Love Fiddle, Blogger Commenter of the year is.....

....drumroll please....

"Natalie's Favorite Farm Boy Fan"!!!!

If you haven't... you need to pay attention to his comments on this blog. I check EVERY DAY to see what he has said on the day before... and his comments are so incredibly creative and witty. I think the way his mind works and the way he uses language is SO entertaining. It is such a high light of my day to see what "Natalie's Favorite Farm Boy Fan" has to say... about what I have said... :) He's even been known to go under cover from time to time. :)



So thank all of YOU for reading and giving me motivation to KEEP ON BLOGGING!

I promise to keep it up for 2010. We are on such a beautiful ride, and I want to share it with anyone who wants to be a part of it with us! There's SOOO much to come this year. New music, our first official Europe Tour will be this year, new website, new band members, and OF COURSE new and unpredictable adventures out on the road!!!

And to my Farm Boy Fan... THANK YOU for declaring it the year of the Nat. Today was a day filled with creative energy... it snowed.... and I ate almost an entire can of black eyed peas... it's off to a VERY promising start!!!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Good Things.

Randy Peterson's cat Patches has a foot fetish! Every time she sees your feet... she HAS to rub her face on your toes! It's awesome. They have 3 dogs and 3 cats and I LOVE it. It's just a big warm happy fuzzy family every time you walk in the door.

Today we hung out with Jaci Butler and Those Guys. Jaci is 13 and the rest of the band is 16 and 17 and they are SO GOOD. They played about 3 songs for us and then we all talked for a while and answered their questions as we shared our experiences in this crazy music industry. They are of course just starting out, but Jaci does NOT sound like a 13 year old girl when she sings. She has a very mature voice, and the band is awesome. They have SOOOO much potential and I only wish I had been working on the songs I was writing at 13 with my own band!!! I didn't start my first band until college... and my goodness. They are all going to have so much incredible experience BEFORE they've gotten to college.

Their next gig is playing for their school dance. How cool is that?? Check em out:
Jaci Butler and Those Guys

It's so inspiring to see young musicians with such passion for what they do. It makes me proud to be a part of it all. Everyone seems to be looking for the next way to get famous overnight because of tv and Idol. Not to talk smack about those avenues. I think that is awesome, too. But there is TRULY something to be said for the good ole garage band. Nothing like it.

Some of Randy's sweet neighbors invited me over tonight because their little girls really wanted to hear me play the fiddle. It was awesome. They were so adorable and they sang some Miley Cyrus for me :)


Things are just good right now. We are making so many plans for the future. We had a very positive meeting to start off the day, plus I had some great conversations with people that are becoming more permanent fixtures of Team Stovall and my American Dream. I'm so excited for what lies ahead. And I am so excited that we have time off for me to write and for us to all get ourselves organized for a much BIGGER and even BETTER year.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Daddy Bought a Boat! Miguel Bought a House! I saw a Monkey!

What a day!

I saw a Monkey in Starbucks. The people in front of me were carrying the little Chimpanzee in a pink baby blanket. She was beautiful. But it was very strange. I wanted to hug her... But I restrained myself.

Daddy bought a boat :) War Eagle.
Can you see it??? I don't know... It's kinda tough... ;)~



And Mamma has already picked out a lake house to go with the boat :) I love my parents. They still to this day will scour the town to find the cheapest gas... they've always been the epitome of "frugal". They've been saving their entire lives to get to this point - where they can drive to Virginia and buy a boat. And look at lake houses. They are also the reason James would make fun of me in college because I wouldn't buy the crackers at the corner store because they were $.35 more than the ones at the grocery store.

Miguel was pulling a bigger trailer than we have tonight! We helped him pack that thing FULL with stuff tonight. He and Jenn and Ella are moving into a new house right now! So fun!!! They are almost completely out of the apartment. But of course, we have to leave again in the morning. Poor Miguel! He's only had two days to get most of his stuff moved. It's been an intense process. I know he'll be glad to get home for more than a day or 2 at a time. But of course that won't be until Thanksgiving.

Wow. I just looked at our calendar and I didn't realize how much we are gone in the next month and a half. We are only home for 3 days total between now and Thanksgiving. Ha! What a life.


Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Kuroshio Sea

Beautiful video that's been going around online...
The song also just happens to be "Please Don't Go" by our friends Barcelona.

Kanye West even tweeted about it!!!

Kuroshio Sea - 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world




Barcelona has seen a significant spike in itunes sales since this video was posted online... which they talk about in their youtube response to seeing the video!



Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

What a Whirlwind of a Week

Man. Texas was a blast. I am now home in Tennessee for a few hours. But this whole last week feels like a blur. We were working at such a fast pace and it never stopped! We got home tonight around 11 and leave tomorrow for PA :) It is so great to get to do laundry and sleep in our own beds for a night!

I can't believe how allergic to Texas I was this week! And that's coming from a Tennessee girl!!! (The Tennessean's understand to what I am referring) But almost as soon as we crossed the state line... my eyes started to clear up. Whew. Something in the water or the pollen did NOT like me there. And it makes me sad because I love Texas. It won't stop me from going back.... Probably the fact that we did 6 outdoor shows didn't help the whole "pollen" thing. But yeah, that was crazy.

You know something that is funny? We sold less merchandise (cd's t-shirts, posters, etc..) in all 7 shows than we sold at almost every single show the last few weeks. It's not something I am upset about - just an observation. As an artist - the cd's and t-shirts we sell are our lifeline. So naturally, it is something we pay attention to. The enthusiasm of the audiences weren't down a bit. And I signed just as many or more t-shirts, cups, and scraps of paper this week than I usually do. But not nearly as much was purchased. It's so intriguing how things like that can be drastically different from show to show. But that's the fun of it :) If it were easy, everyone would do it!

Time sure is flying. I can't believe we only have 2 weeks left on this tour. It seems like it was just yesterday that we were putting the Tour posters together and gearing up for Winter driving! Now we're all sunburnt and the suburban is back to full on AC mode.

It sure is fun to look at this tour poster and think about where all we've been and how far we've traveled together!


Hope everyone is having a happy Monday! See you somewhere on the road.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Last Night in Nashville for 6 Weeks!

I had SUCH a long list of things I needed to do this week while I was at home.

I got the most important ones going.... you know... writing music!!! :) I am walking away with 3 songs finished and many more in the works. But ALL the other little things... :) they took a little back seat...

It's ok though!! I mean, really?? This week: Thursday I am opening for Josh Gracin in Mansfield PA. :) Friday I am singing for the Boston Celtics at a home game, and Sat I am playing at Cafe 939 in Boston - basically at Berklee. :) What a fun way to get this last leg of the tour rolling!!!!

Before I get back to doing laundry, packing, and realizing all the things I meant to do this week that never got done.... I have to give a shout-out to my good friend Mr. Charlie Hutto. We wrote yesterday and I finally got to catch up on all of his good news!!!

Just to remind everyone how I know Charlie: we met at Berklee, played a bunch together at school, and then when he moved to Nashville - he was in the band for a long time until we started going on the road full time.

Along with being an incredible songwriter, upcoming producer (he just produced another good friend, Jenn Bostic's record), and fantastic guitar player....
He is the Band leader and the "Riley" part of Williams Riley Band. :)
The Williams Riley Band just added their new single "I'm Still Me" to radio this week. And the video was added to CMT today!!!

Williams Riley Band   More CMT Music   More CMT Music Videos

They added the song on the same week as Keith Urban and Brad Paisley's new singles were added... that makes it even MORE difficult to get airplay as a new artist. But we can all help by requesting and spreading the word!!! :)

I'm just very happy for Charlie. They are having a blast on their radio tour right now - and we're gonna be zig-zagging along each other's paths up in the Northeast this week. :)

Hope to see y'all out on the road! We're driving to Rhode Island tomorrow. Well... getting a head start at least.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Peace, Love, and Ice Cream

Everyone that we talked to this weekend calls Stowe "The Aspen of the Northeast".

It is the home of Ben And Jerry's. And it is also home of the Trapp Family Lodge... as in the "Sound of Music".

We went to the Ben and Jerry's factory to take a tour, but it was going to be 45 minutes before the next tour AND they weren't making ice cream today. Plus, we'll have a bit more time when we come back to Stowe in March. In a 22 hour drive - we just don't have 45 minutes to sit around and wait! But our next trip up there.... we are going to do the tour (it looks like it will be AWESOME). And I hope to make it to at least go skiing one day while we are there, too. More on all this later. Now, it is bed time. :) We're somewhere a little past Rochester New York.

I was pretty excited about the "Peace, Love, Ice Cream" sign. So much that I bought a shirt!



~natalie