Wrote a song today with people whose work I have admired for years. Then Tracy, James, and I went through 75 songs. SEVENTY-FIVE! And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, yall. This whole process is crazy.

I love that this is on Tracy’s Wall in her kitchen:

I can’t even begin to describe how delighted I am to sleep in tomorrow. Gotta have a fresh mind for more listening and writing!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

We have had SOOO many pitch meetings the last few days and listened to so many great songs!!! Ok… so for those of you that may not know, I will review what the heck I mean by that.

As well as feverishly writing new music for my the record, I am listening to songs written by the incredible wealth of songwriters here in town. There are SO. MANY. unbelievable songs in this town that have never been heard. The amount of talent and songwriters here is… well… STUPID. (As in… stupid good)

Songwriters typically write for a publishing company and then it’s the publishers jobs to know the catalog… thousands and thousands of songs… and then someone like me comes in… I try as best I can to describe what it is I’m looking for to them… and they “pitch” me songs they think I might like. I say “yes” or “pass” and thus begins my giant pile of material.

The crazy part is the tangible difference. I have had tons of pitch meetings over the last few years. But I wasn’t at a level where I was getting to hear the cream of the crop. But things are a changing, folks. I am hearing such great music right now! I mean, in some ways… there’s an upper echelon I am sure will take a while to attain. If a songwriter writes a song they think would be perfect for Carrie Underwood… they aren’t gonna play it for Stovall first. But if Carrie passes… then they might play it for me. BUT with that said… I don’t really feel like anyone is holding back much anymore. It’s been years of hearing good, but not great songs. So now my head is spinning since I keep hearing so many great songs. Not to mention that fact that my manager’s job has been to listen to songs for Faith Hill throughout her career, so I’ve gotten to hear tons of songs that were originally “Faith” holds.

CRAZY, RIGHT?!?!

Another crazy part is getting pitched songs written by my friends. I was pitched a Ruth Collins song today Hehehe. I was so excited!

I have no idea how much of this next record will be mine and will be outside songs. But honestly, I just want the best material possible. I know I will write a ton of it, but there are some songs that I just HAVE to sing… some make me cry… some give me chills… some make me want to stand up dance… and some say things in a way I have never been able to say myself. The same things music does for all of us! Speaking of… since it’s 2am and I just got home from a co-write… I better start listening before my write in the morning!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Today began the week of amazing co-writes. I am stoked about everyone I am writing with this week. And this morning set the bar pretty high. I wrote with Travis Meadows, whom I admire like crazy. His records are so honest and brutal in ways that I have yet to achieve in my own writing. And I think if James were given the opportunity, he might leave me for Travis

Travis’ sweet sweet doggie, Larry, is probably one of the best co-writers I’ve ever had.

Larry. The best co-writer. Next to @travis_meadows, that is vine.co/v/bEuLMEHBPPB

— Natalie Stovall (@NatalieStovall) May 14, 2013

Tonight was the annual Grammy Block party in Nashville. This was mine and James’ first year to attend as a VOTING MEMBERS!!! So fun. I FINALLY got to see Will Hoge play (be still my heart), Kip Moore – rawkin, and a band I had never heard of The Lone Bellow – and they were INCREDIBLE! I can’t wait to listen to their record now. They were just on a whole other level.
I’ll keep ya posted with that.

So tired. Lots of meetings and a very exciting night write tomorrow. YAY!

It’s monkey snuggle time!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Well…
Not sure business day 1 of being back in town could have gone much better.

AHHHHH! wish I could share.

Dream producers saying all the things we want to hear… listening to songs from incredible writers… going to a best friends’ show… and hanging with good friends from PCB while in Nashville.

Yup. Don’t get much better than this.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

I hope everyone had an amazing Mother’s Day celebrating the women in their lives that have given them strength and encouragement.

Though I didn’t get to celebrate with Mamma, I spoke to her on the phone. And she was delighted when she stopped at a TCBY in Birmingham on their drive home, and received a free cone for just being a mom!

We celebrated Sol’s 3rd birthday!

And went to an awesome Songwriter’s Round at Belcourt Taps with Hailey Steele, Dan Isbell (with whom I wrote “Round Here No More” & “Without You”), and Justin Halpin. So. Good.

James just made me a grilled cheese sandwich.

Life is good.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

It is so wonderful to be home.

Got up and did some voice over work while James engineered… we were both in our sweat pants. And I have not put on a stitch of make-up today.

Always so funny when we first get home and are this exhausted cause there’s never any food int he house, and neither of us are motivated enough to go to the grocery… so we just ordered lunch but scrounged up enough between the freezer and pantry for dinner.

The best though… of course… is hanging with our sweet monkey!!!

Life is good.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Arrived from NY around 3am. Left for Ft. Benning with my big sis around 7am. And we had THE BEST DAY.

Know why?

Daddy was being inducted into the OCS Hall of Fame this afternoon. He had NO IDEA we were coming, which made the whole trip even more fun. (I love surprises!) Stephanie and I had a blast riding down together… I don’t remember the last time we got to spend that much time with each other. And then Mamma and Daddy happened to be standing right in the front hallway as we walked in the doors. I heard Daddy go, “Those are my daughters!” with this really confused look on his face. It was priceless.

The ceremony was awesome. We walked in as horns played the army theme song (So magestic!). And the highlights for each inductee were announced as they received their awards.

I loved the giant movie screen on his achievements!

Mamma even wrote a blog about the evening which explains more of the details of his service (much better than I can):

“Today my husband was inducted into the OCS Hall of Fame at Ft. Benning, Georgia. He went through the Officers’ Candidate School at Ft. Benning back in 1967. He had completed his Basic Training at Ft. Campbell and his AIT (Advanced Individual Training) at Ft. Knox. After completing these two courses, he was given the option of attending the Army OCS or going straight to his assignment, usually a tour of Vietnam, at that time. He was only one of two people out of his AIT class who opted to go the OCS school.

He completed the school and became a commissioned officer in the United States Army and stayed at the school for a year as an instructor before going to Vietnam. After four years he decided to leave the active army and join the Army Reserves from where he retired after thirty-one years. During Desert Storm, he was the commander of one of the prisoner of war camps in Saudi Arabia.

His daughters surprised him today by making the five hour drive to attend the induction ceremony and reception afterwards. We are all very proud of his achievement.”

After the ceremony, we toured around the base to see where Mamma and Daddy lived their first year there… where he ran until he threw up… those kinds of things. As we were going to see the monument his Americal Division dedicated to Fort Benning, a graduate (as of today!) of OCS stopped Daddy to talk to him and ask him questions. This kid looked at Daddy like he was the biggest rockstar on earth. And was so proud to get to talk to him and pick his brain. And it made Daddy proud to see such potential in one of our future leaders. It was really inspiring to see this exchange between these 2 men.

The monument visit was inspiring as well. Under The Southern Cross. Americal Division

Go Daddy O!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

9 weeks, 48 shows, 15 states, 1 bus and we are finally on our way home. It’s been 8 weeks since I’ve seen Cinnamon and I can’t WAIT to see her when we arrive tomorrow. It will be amazing!

It’s so funny because we are doing the exact same 14 hour drive today that we did 2 days ago… only last time we didn’t do any of the driving

We have a lot of work to do as soon as we get home. There’s so much going on and hopefully I can tell you all about our big news once we get to working while we are home. There are a few loose ends we must tie up, and then it should all be official.

I can’t wait.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

In case you’re wondering… it has not gotten old to start sentences with “On the bus…”

Today was the last day of either a 7 week or 8 1/2 week tour… it’s up for debate… how long it’s “technically” been since I was thinking the 2 days we were home in March counted as “being home”. The band begs to differ.

And we went out with a bang. In more ways than you can imagine, but probably none of the ways you are imagining it.

This morning we began back in the parking lot where the bus met us – Jefferson CC. Spring Fling. Jefferson on the wall in case you forgot where you were:

The crowd was great. Met so many new peeps on the set break… went back for set 2… made it all the way through half of “Standing My Ground” (near the end of the set), and the sound guy raced up to the front of the stage and started unplugging the speakers. At the next appropriate spot (right at the break down chorus) James hits a final downbeat, and I realize that the rains have come. At first it wasn’t visible. (Especially over the clouds of yellow pollen that keep pushing through the air), but then panic/pack up all the gear mode set in quickly.

Once we got done with all that, we headed out of town. Found a fed ex – got all the paperwork overnighted for the crazy “commercial vehicle inspection” (that James and I got pulled over for). Fingers crossed we don’t get arrested on some NY State Technicality! And then made it with plenty of time to our second show at Mohawk Valley CC.

I did something I’ve always wanted to do:
I put pink in my hair!
‘

I had tons of technical difficulties in the last show, but the audience didn’t seem to notice or care… thank goodness. We had a great show in spite of all the fiddle chaos I dealt with.

And tonight we had a little “end of tour party” in mine and James’ room with me, James, Joel, and Miguel. And some wine, Beam, and Basil Hayden. Perfect way to end the tour. In a very fancy hotel:

And tomorrow we drive 14 hours back to Nashville! WOOT WOOT!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Got back to Jerome and Trailer Swift safely this evening. That van really does feel like home. But our buscation was FANTASTIC. And I have a statement to make.

Bus sleep is the best sleep.

We had a dance party from 3am-4am last night with friends, and then had to pull out to head back up to NY. And I loved waking up, rolling out of my bunk, and walking out to this in the front lounge:

And most of the rest of the day entailed reliving last night with the guys (it really was an incredible evening), a “Friends” marathon, Field of Dreams, Forrest Gump, and just hanging.

Most of the day, if Miguel wasn’t playing his guitar… he was at least snuggling with it.

Last night I was so excited that a couple of my nieces got to come. My beautiful Shelby and Ansley!

Miguel and his girls were probably the sweetest things ever on the bus before the show. They loved seeing where Daddy got to sleep.

And the showers that we all took just now were the best things ever. The schedule was so tight that we never had a chance to go back to our homes yesterday, so we were true musicians the last couple of days

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie