Posted 2009-06-23 21:04:16

June 19th and 20th gigs in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and Winfield, Kansas Hello everyone! We just got back from a rush of a weekend! A lot of flying, and “vanning.” Other than a couple of blunders here and there as far as gear (hee hee, my bad), and a night or so of little rest, we had a great time. We left Nashville the afternoon of the 18th and flew straight into Denver. Denver airport rocks! It’s kind of space age, with a touch of European flare. We didn’t hang there long though. Being kind of sleepy from the day of travel, and ready to call it a night because we knew what lied ahead of us for the weekend, we picked up our rental van and then Eric our road manager , who’d arrived just a little bit later and were on our way to our hotel about an hour away. We got in right in time because the bottom dropped out of the clouds and it started storming! Debbie was driving and in spite of the van having a low tire she was able to pilot through the weather without a lot of trouble. Good job girl! I didn’t taste the back of a seat this time! Ha ha, long story. Anyway, we made it to our hotel, and had a 10am lobby call. We were to drive 3 hours on to “Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I always look forward to drives in such beautiful parts of the country. We woke up, grabbed some food and were on our way. Such a beautiful trip, we passed through the pines of the Rockies, many ranches and small mining towns. The sights were breath taking. We did end up pulling into a service mart to check our tire pressure on the van. One of the tires was now low enough to set off a warning light. Eric, our chivalrous road manager and soundman ended up changing the tire. While stopped, we did take a quick opportunity to take some really beautiful pictures of the scenery. Once the tire was changed, we were on our way once again and we arrived in Steamboat. It’s such a cool town and once again, we found ourselves wandering around and about having a hard time remembering that we were there for a gig and not a vacation. But it was so cool!! Debbie bought a couple of really neat souvenirs, Trenna bought a snazzy purse and I managed to pick up a Steamboat Colorado hoodie. The name of the club where we were playing was called “Ghost Ranch Saloon.” It had just opened and they were excited about having us there. There was a rodeo in town and we were expecting a lot of cowboys! They were so sweet as to allow us to stay in a downstairs apartment/band area. It was a really nice place and we were looking forward to playing. All was fine and dandy until we realized that my pedal board and gear got left at the airport. Doh. So while the others went to go do an awesome radio station interview with Debbie Duncan at KBCR. Thanks Debbie! The girls said you were awesome! I was taken by a sweet guy and former Army Sniper named “Justin.” He took me to a local music store, actually the same store who lended some gear for our gig already and I was able to hook up with some basic goods to go on and do the show with. My wireless unit bit the dust, so I have to wire up, but hey the show must go on! After sound check, the club treated us to a really good dinner. The steaks rocked! After a little bit more walking around, taking in the sights and even a visit to the rodeo being held ne

Posted 2009-05-14 17:53:58

May 9th Monticello, NY. “Thunder Bash” for Thunder 102.9 and trip to Woodstock! Hi everyone, we’re just getting back and recovering from a really cool trip up to Monticello, NY. All I can say is that there was a lot of peace and love flowing up there and we felt every minute of it! Everyone at Thunder 102.9 was so sweet to us and made us feel so welcome. We flew into Albany Friday eve and were picked up by a sweet man named “Lou.” He’s a police officer and he got us everywhere we needed to be rather quickly like a police officer would. : ) It took a couple of hours to get to our final destination for the evening, the “Villa Roma” hotel, but we were happy to be trekking! The Villa Roma was a very nice and comfy place and they really treated us well. I made an extra point to take a hot bath in the huge bathtub before turning in for the night. The next day (Saturday May 9th) was our show day. The Thunder Bash was being held at the “Monticello Raceway.” Earlier in the day, we got to go hang out at Thunder 102.9 and do a really fun interview with Sakell, Ciliberto, and the Lord Of The Trout. The “Big Cheese” for their show “Kings Of The Kitchen” joined us as well and Debbie, being the wife of a chef, made a special point to talk with him about cheese making. We had a lot of fun on air with them and afterwards we took pictures with them and the staff. Thanks for the “Silpada” jewelry! Afterwards, we got to go take a very special tour of a place that really rocked, literally! We got to go check out the location where Woodstock was held in Bethel, NY. We were greeted by a cool guy named was “Duke.” He had literally attended Woodstock and never left! We got to go see and stand in the actual area where the stage had been! It was wild standing right where Jimi Hendrix had done his famous “Star Spangled Banner.” We saw the ponds and creeks where people had bathed in while at the festival, and we walked the entire field. It was absolutely beautiful! Woodstock went down as one of the greatest music festivals of all time, with musical guests including Grateful Dead, The Who, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Santana, and Jefferson Airplane. It was a 3 day music and arts festival held in Bethel, New York on August 15th, 16th and 17, 1969. The festival was planned to have about 50,000 in attendance, but over 400,000 people actually showed up! Because so many showed up, most ended up not paying the admission fee to get in. The facilities were crowded, but there was no reported violence. The Woodstock festival is often most remembered as representing the height of the “Hippie era” and the counterculture of the 1960’s. Some who showed up for the festival were known for protesting the Vietnam War and supporting Civil Rights. We were told stories about workers and people of the festival going to the nearby farmers and buying rows upon rows of fresh corn, lettuce and other veggies in order to feed the thousands of people there. They said that they actually mixed the veggies in trash cans! Roads were totally blocked, some for 20 miles and they had to fly the performers in on helicopters. They had to call in Army choppers as well to drop supplies and assist in medical needs. The festival was supposed to end on Sunday, but ended up running over into Monday mid morning. Jimi Hendrix famous performance was on Monday morning! Some of the performers would not get on stage until paid in cash, so that left the promoters and heads of the festival knocking down the doors of local banks on weekends to get the funds need

Posted 2009-04-10 17:55:37

April 2nd 2009 Atlanta, GA. Opening of The Museum Of Patriotism, being recognized as Country Music Ambassadors.

Hi everyone! This past week we had the honor and privilege to take part in the opening of The National Museum Of Patriotism. It is a museum based around the history of America and everything that has made our country great. It captures the very essence of the spirit of America and our freedom.

Our morning started out with a series of T.V. interviews. We were to unveil a Bob Hope exhibit and then sing “Thanks For The Memory.” Also on hand for the event were Lee Greenwood and Patti Labelle. It was so nice to meet them and hang out.

After the morning activities, we had some time to take a tour of the museum. All I can say is that I was extremely touched by all of the exhibits. Some of the exhibits include: The Hall Of Patriots (recognizing both uniformed and civilian patriots), America’s Foundation (structure of our country), Defense of Freedom (military branches), One America (tribute to Sept.11th) but to name a few. My heart was full of pride with tears in my eyes. It’s so amazing how far our country has come and what America has done for so many, and all of the selfless acts. It also puts into perspective of how much things have changed over the years. Many emotions ran through me as we walked through each of the exhibits. I strongly encourage anyone to take a trip with his or her children or whoever else to see this museum, it was truly a fine display of our wonderful country.

Later that afternoon we got to take part in the official opening ceremonies of the museum, sing “The Star Spangled Banner,” and “Thanks For The Memory” live on Fox 5 Atlanta with Karen Graham. We also got to hang out some more with Lee Greenwood and Patti Labelle and take photos for media. The museum gave us really nice Certificates and we were recognized as Country Music Ambassadors for The National Museum Of Patriotism. What an honor and privilege!

We were also included in one of the exhibits where they filmed us and many others answering the question: “What is your definition of Patriotism?” Think about it and feel free to comment.

We’d love to hear what your definition is.

Posted 2009-02-17 19:00:31

Boise, Idaho Special Olympic Winter Games Feb. 13th, 2009 Closing Ceremony! Hello everyone! We just got back from a very fun filled trip out to Boise, Idaho to perform for the closing ceremonies for the Special Olympics World Winter Games. Speaking of sports, I’m sure you’ve heard of “Tour De’ France.” Well, we got to do “Tour De’ Airlines” on this trip! All I can say is “Whoa, what a weekend.” Our fun started at the Nashville Airport around 4pm. We were actually pretty excited at the fact that that we were all traveling quite light! It was only a 4 song set, no ear rack needed, I only took one fiddle, Trenna didn’t even have a bag to check in! A quick flight, with one short stop. Our hearts were jumping for joy over this because it made for such an easy trip in our mindset. Well.., I guess we were wrong. The kicker: We had one connecting flight to Chicago O’Hare via American Airlines. From Chicago, we would’ve continued onto Boise, gotten in around 10-11pm out there, checked into “Hotel 43”, a nice, swanky pad that the sweet people from the Special Olympics had booked us rooms for, gotten a good night’s rest, woken up refreshed, made production rehearsals, performed our show... an easy and fun night...... what a beautiful layout! Uh................Negative. May I pinch myself now? For some odd ball reason, the flight that was to take us out of Nashville onto O’Hare was running late. All I can say is that regardless of the beautiful, sunny day that it was that Thursday, the jet streams were just not working in our favor. Not much longer did we realize that after this particular flight being late, it was going to cause us to miss the one and only flight left out to Boise, Idaho via Chicago.., or anywhere else for that matter! As the time ticked, we were slowly watching our possibility of even making this major important show dwindle. Eric, our tour manager extraordinaire was on the phone making calls left and right and we were all scrambling at ticket counters trying to grab what flights we could out of Nashville to at least make it to somewhere out West before the day was over! It turned into utter chaos! We literally watched seats on flights disappear as Eric tried to work out the specifics with the Special Olympics committee, travel agents that they were affiliated with, our management, our travel people, God.., etc!

Ultimately, a very sweet gentleman by the name of “Scott Reeves” who works for Southwest Airlines was able to get us some flights out. All I can say is Southwest, please give that man a raise! He so hustled for us and he cared so much to make things happen for us. Thank you Scott! So, check out this layout: Nashville to Austin, to Phoenix, to Las Vegas, to Boise. Oh Lord!

We did finally get into Boise around 3:30PM Friday. We’d traveled for 24 hours! We immediately hopped on a shuttle bus that was sent from the Special Olympics and we were on our way to the venue. It was kind of funny because we did get to the venue, but between security and various directions given we spent about 15-20 minutes trying to get to the loading entrance. It was kind of like the movie “Spinal Tap” when they get lost looking for the stage, except we were on a shuttle bus. Ha! We did make it and everyone was so kind to us! Thank you Gail!

The place was a huge arena and it

Posted 2008-09-06 22:05:31