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

Recording My EP on Music Row

Today was bananas. In the BEST possible way.

Remember when you were a kid and you'd go swimming ALLL DAY long on a hot day with your friends? And at the end of the day you'd realize how exhausted you were, but it didn't matter because you had so much fun playing Marco Polo, Sharks and Minnows, and doing flips off the diving board?

That was today. Only the pool was the studio.

It was an entire day of eyes bugged from being so focused...
Heart racing from adrenaline pumping...
Ears buzzing from amps blazing...
And brain spinning from quick decision making...

I was "Mayering" all day. Definition of Mayering: Tweeting all day about recording an album. :) I liked that one. John Mayer has officially become a verb. :)

I knew today would be amazing. But I didn't REALLY know all at the same time.

This time I am coming from such a different perspective. We recorded the first record before we had a band and were playing out very much. So playing with the musicians was the first time I had heard the songs with a full band. But THIS time, we have been playing these songs for a while. I know them all so well. So hearing the new ideas and approaches the session players bring makes me feel like a kid in a candy store.

I can't wait to go in and listen to everything tomorrow.

You know what was crazy, though? The only cover song we did - "Devil Went Down To Georgia" was by far the hardest one of the day! That REALLY threw them (and me) for a loop! I wasn't expecting that at all. We have played that song for so long I almost forgot how tricky the form is. But it's not at all like the typical "verse, chorus, Verse, chorus" form. So you have to KNOW it to be able to play it. Michael Rhodes told me he was glad we did that because he had never had to play it before! And Gary said that he doesn't even think he has ever listened to the whole thing.
Everyone studying/ writing/ rewriting/ trying to understand their "Devil" charts


You know it's the REAL DEAL when 7 out of the 9 people involved in the session are wearing Chucks.


This was a puuuurty room:
Rhodes Basses & Audley's guitars


Gary's guitars - same room, other side... the one on the chair reminds me of a Vans Sneaker. Remember those?


Everybody! (Well, CJ, the studio manager, was taking the pic)
Left To Right:

James you know... Bavendam :), Audley Freed, Gary Burnette, ummm... me, Greg Morrow, Ben Strano, Scott Velazco, Michael Rhodes

The 1/8 note I found on the pavement in front of the back door of the studio :)


And just so you know... THIS is what you get when you pay for a high class studio on Music row:


I can't believe today just happened.

Peace, Love, Fiddle,
~natalie

Birthdays are awesome.

Today didn't begin all that different from most days. I woke up in a hotel in the middle of Nebraska, we had an 8 hour drive, I did a radio interview in the car with a station in Wisconsin... and THEN we made it to Iowa. We got to James' Aunt Deana's and a whole bunch of the family was there to surprise me. WHAT AN AWESOME SURPRISE!!!!

Let me back up and talk about the first part of the day.

I had an interview with Justin Brown at WJVL - Janesville, Wisconsin.



We are playing at the Janesville Performing Arts Center tomorrow night and Justin was so great to have me on his show today! He recorded the interview and put it up on their website :)

You can go listen if you'd like! Click here for WJVL interview

I was so nervous my signal was going to get splotchy on the phone. We needed to keep trucking, but we had good service, so I was just hoping that wouldn't change!!! Whew... we made it the whole 5 minutes :)

And then... at the next stop... we went to (surprise!) Subway for lunch. While at Subway, I found out that I came in runner up for "Best Female Performer" in Campus Activities Magazine!!!! YAY!!!! How awesome is that?? So exciting! I was up against all these comedians and people that are constantly on VH1 and Comedy Central. So I am pretty stoked to be in this category! I still haven't found out who won. But they said they have attached all these fancy schmancy "silver star logos" to my name now :) Movin on up, y'all!!! Brick by brick.... inch by inch.

So at this point.... it's already a great birthday. I was really feeling the late night when I woke up, but all these fun things to do got my adrenaline pumping :) Well... and the Subway... umm.. and the cookies from Subway...

So we are staying with Uncle Tim and Aunt Deana tonight in Iowa City. They have become the official Aunt and Uncle of the band since they are always putting us up in their house!!! We walked in and so many people were here to celebrate!!! James did good :) I LOVE surprises and I had NO IDEA anyone else was going to be here. How fun. There is nothing better than getting to see family on your birthday and especially when you're on the road and not expecting it!!! I love my family. Getting married is awesome. My family tripled this last June. :)- And I LOVE it. I like for it to be "official" because James' family has felt like family to me since before we even started dating... back when we were just "in a band together."

They had food and a cake and more food.. and more food to take with us..... You'll NEVER go hungry in this family - that is for sure!


Aunt Traci told me that she made my recipe of Tortilla Soup this last week!!! Made me SO happy.

I was determined to get of picture of EVERYONE. I (well.... James...) found the timer on my camera...
Take 1:


oops.

Take 2:


MUCH better. :)

Deana had a cake made from a lady in town that is starting a new business. She is from Peru, so we all KNEW it would be good. Miguel has told us a LOT about Peruvian food and how amazing it is... he's not lying. This cake was amazing.


(James is talking in his sleep right now... it's gibberish... but it's funny)

You know what was so great about today? It wasn't a glamorous or big crazy birthday. There weren't any big gifts or grand presents. But it was a day filled from beginning to end with texts, phone calls, wall posts, emails, voicemails, comments, twitters, surprises and hugs from people I love, and it made me so thankful for all the wonderful people in my life. I am on the road living my dream and doing what I have always wanted to do. I am watching this dream come to life in bigger and better ways every day. Who could ask for more?

Cinnamon (my sweet puppy) even sent me card. It's pretty great.... not gonna lie.
Click here to see Cinnamon's Birthday Card to me.

It's funny how birthdays start to change. Miguel asked me last night if I was ready to be 27. My first response was "Can we just not talk about the 27 part?" I KNOW 27 isn't old.... But when you're little... you think 27 is "grown up". Heck you think college is "grown up" therefore, you think (or at least I did) that you'll be in this big glamorous place in life. But 27 is just getting started. And that's the beauty of country music. Most of the people I look up to weren't huge stars at an early age. In the pop world - there is a lot more pressure to "hit it big" by the time you are a teenager. But the country world tends to be a bit more realistic! I am just now starting to figure things out in my writing and in my musical journey that I would have NEVER had to offer at 16. And I am LOVING the journey I am on. I am married to an incredible man. My family is so supportive and loving. My friends... some of the most understanding people in the world. And I have fans that love my music and are almost more impatient than I am for my next record. It's an amazing thing to see my dreams coming to life. And I think 27 is going to be a HUGE year to me. I don't know why it initially sounds SO much older than 26. But maybe it is just because there are so many HUGE things on the horizon. So here's to NEVER STOP DREAMING - whether you're like my Granny and only "2 years from 100", just getting started or somewhere in between.

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