Cowboy Crush on Tour

2009-06-23T22:55:00.005-05:00

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 nearby, we went on around 10pm. We did a good show and all went well. Almost immediately after the show we headed back downstairs to the suite where we’d be staying and went to sleep…., well.., maybe not. The only problem with staying downstairs in a club is.., well, even though your party ends, the party upstairs continues. And then the poor bar staff having to clean up afterwards. Not much sleep to be had amongst us, we had a 5am leave time to go back to Denver and fly out. I did manage to sleep a little, I’d brought my extra heavy duty earplugs, but I could still feel the fatique the next morning. Before passing out on the van trip back to the Denver airport, I did make sure that I did stay up long enough to see the sun rise over the beautiful Colorado mountains. It was worth it!

June 20th Winfield, Kansas The “Winfield Country Roundup” opening for Ronnie Milsap

We arrived back at the Denver airport, and I was reunited with my pedal board and gear (yay!). We flew out of Denver, straight into Wichita, Kansas. We all tried to catch sleep off and on throughout the flight and on the van drive to our venue. Our hotel was close to the airport, so after tonight’s show, we all could catch up on a little bit of needed rest after the show before flying home. We dropped some of our gear off at the hotel to make room in the smaller van and we were on our way to Winfield. Weather became a concern for us. We started seeing really low hanging clouds. Clouds you never want to see, especially in Kansas! The rain came down once again and it stormed pretty fierce, but it did stop prior to arriving at the Roundup. There were several bands slated to perform prior to us, and the great Ronnie Milsap was the headliner. It wasn’t as hot outside as we’d previously thought it was going to be, but it was humid and felt “cranky” outside, with the possibility of more severe weather. The venue treated us to burgers and steaks and a really nice camper to stay and chill out in. A lot of us made ourselves comfy and caught whatever snooze time we could. We managed to get in a quick sound check and a little later we had a nice meet and greet with fans. Prior to our show, our friends at KSOK allowed me to take part in the “pre show festivities”, which involved shooting tee shirts out of a high powered air gun. I had a blast doing that! Once I got the hang of it, I had them sailing hundreds upon hundreds of feet away! We went on around 8pm and the show went really well. I couldn’t resist once again helping out with the festivities and firing tee shirts out to the crowd with the air gun. We had one heck of an autograph line afterwards and we took a lot of pictures. With our show done, it was time of us to goof off a little bit more. They had a small NASCAR racetrack set up with remote control race cars. Immediately, Eric and I were on board with that, racing around the track, slamming into each other’s car causing miniature racecar chaos. Everyone else joined in and it really got fun! The Roundup gave us some neat shirts and we did manage to catch a little bit of Ronnie Milsap’s show prior to leaving. Unfortunately, towards the middle end of his show the clouds opened up once again and a big storm made it’s way through Winfield. Ronnie ended his set early with “Smoky Mountain Rain” which was fitting with the downpour while we loaded out just as it was starting and made it out before it got too bad.
When we made it back to the hotel, we all crashed! So sleepy. Lobby call at 8am to leave, but at least it wasn’t 5am. We had a pretty painless trip home, except for poor Eric’s wallet coming up missing back in Wichita. I did pick up a “pet tornado” at the Wichita airport prior to flying out. We’re home safe now! Talk to you again soon!

2009-06-11T21:24:00.001-05:00

Tues. June 9th Eminence, Missouri

Hi everyone! We just got back from a cool show in Eminence, Missouri for the 2009 Cross Country Trail Ride. We have done this show a couple of times before so to be back and get to perform and visit with our friends of the ride was really cool! Not to mention to take a great opportunity to pick up some cool western shirts, belts and boots at wonderful prices! I myself did partake in the huge discount sale they had going on and walked out with some really neat western shirts, and I bought my first pair of Justin “Gypsy” boots! They’re really comfy and the tops are actually pink, green and brown camo. So me! I wore them later that eve for the show and my feet thanked me.
The Cross Country Trail Ride takes place by the Jack’s Fork River. It is a weeks worth of cool music, horseback riding, taking in beautiful scenery of the Mark Twain National Forest, good food, horse shows, horse and tack sales and just a good ole’ kick butt cowboy time. Thousands show up for the event.

We arrived early Wednesday morning and pretty much had the whole morning into early afternoon to take it all in. Debbie and Trenna went horseback riding and they came back totally charged over the experience. People at the ride have always been so nice to hook us up with a couple of horses to ride whenever we’ve come out to perform and once again they did. They fitted Debbie with a Fox trotter Palomino named “Princess” and Trenna got to ride a gelding named “Jake” who was a double registered TN Walking Horse and Racing Horse/black/white/star marked like Black Beauty- both gaited horses. Princess did her own gate that was more of a “shuffle” and Jake could run walk as well as rack.
They took a beautiful trip through the Mark Twain Forrest, unfortunately some trails had been closed due to the excessive storms about three weeks ago and the high waters of the Current River. Usually you can cross the river at a fording place and hit more trails, but it was way too dangerous. Some of the trails had already had foot thick, sucking mud in some spots and limbs that had fallen that were hard to maneuver. All was well until Jake got his saddle too tight. He reared up, spayed his feet apart and rolled trying to remove his saddle. Trenna nearly escaped by jumping backwards. She was a little wary to ride him afterwards, rightly so! So they swapped horses and they were on their way. They returned the horses hot, sweaty, muddy and tired and the owners wouldn’t even let Debbie and Trenna help clean them up! Sarah did get to ride Jake as well in a cool area space they had.
After all the excitement, we had sound check and managed to get done right before the bottom fell out of the clouds shortly afterwards! It rained, and rained and rained. We were really worried that the show may get cancelled. There was a lot of lightning, and tornados hitting west of us. The opening act started a little late, but shortened their set. The weather let up and we did still get to go on and on time! We felt really welcome by everyone and it was so cool to be back at the Trail Ride. Thank you so much for having us back again!

We are now back in Nashville and we are gearing up for the world famous “CMA Festival.” From Thurs. June 11th through June 14th downtown Nashville pretty much turns into various stages of great country music entertainment. Thousands upon thousands of die hard country music fans from all over the world show up for this event ready to get autographs and see shows of their favorite country music stars and to pretty much take in the Nashville Night Life. It’s like one huge Country Music Party. We will be taking a part in the CMA Fest. We are scheduled to meet fans and and sign Saturday morning, then we hit the Sommet stage towards the early afternoon. Later that night we get to take part in another cool show at a place called “Limelight.” The radio station “KDF” will be there doing live remotes and it’s going to be one heck of a crazy time! So, we’re going to be cranking through CMA Fest weekend, but we’ll keep ya’ infoed on the happenings! Heck, if you all are not doing anything this coming week into weekend, come on out and hang!

2009-04-25T16:22:00.002-05:00

April 24th 2009 Wilmington, NC. Thalian Hall

Hello! We’re on the roll again! We just left Wilmington, NC., heading on to Clinton N.C. for our last show for this run. We had an awesome show last night at Thalian Hall. It is one of the oldest and most beautiful theatres in America. We got in around 3pm, went right to work with set up, soundcheck and showered there as well. The theatre was absolutely beautiful. We’ve always enjoyed theatres just because of the sheer beauty of them, the atmosphere, the sound, and the show setting. They will be doing some renovations on Thalian Hall this summer - painting, a new orchestra pit raise, sound gear etc. and we were one of the last acts to play there before they close for the renovation. We had a great audience, and we had so much fun with them! Thank you so much for having us, you were all so kind and made us feel welcome.
I got to see my cousin “Jason,” his wife “Allison” and their son “Killian.” Jason is in the Marine Corps. and is stationed there. I got to see little Killian for the first time in person, he is adorable! So it was really nice to visit with them.
We did manage this morning prior to leaving get to go take a stroll down to Wrightsville Beach and check out the sites and vibes. Wilmington is a very charming port city, with a lot of history that has been kept preserved throughout the years. I’d noticed while on my run to to the beach and back all of the unique vintage homes and cottages. There were a lot of people out for their Saturday outing to the beach. It has been known a hidden secret as far as it’s beauty and escape, but tourism has really kicked up in the area as people have discovered it’s cool atmosphere and gorgeous beaches and homes. I was told that a lot of filming takes place here as well. A lot of well known movies and shows have been done in Wilmington including “Sleeping With The Enemy,” “Maximum Overdrive,” “Blue Velvet,” “The Hudsucker Proxy,” and TV’s “Dawson Creek.” I wish that we could’ve stayed longer! I heard that the Battleship North Carolina exhibit/tour was a must see. We’ll just have to make sure we come back!

2009-04-25T00:25:00.002-05:00

April 24th 2009
Fundraiser for National Fallen Firefighters in Indianapolis, In.

Hey everyone! Had a fun show last night! We got to take part in a really cool event to help raise money for the Fallen firefighters. The Indiana Repertory theatre/ballroom where the event was held was absolutely beautiful. In between arrival and after sound check, since they had us staying right downtown, we got to walk around quite a bit and check out some of the cool sights and “vibes” of Indianapolis. It is a cool and catchy city and we loved The Circle Mall. Me being quite the NFL fan would’ve loved to go see Lucas Field, but I ran out of time.
The hosts of the event were sweet and treated us to a great dinner. The show was opened up by a cool rock band named “Full Turnout.” They had an auction in between the performances, auctioning off fire hats, leather coats, fire, useful firefighting gear and even a trip to Cancun! We then got up and rocked out for the cause, and the coolest thing took place to finish out the night. We did a verse and chorus of “Amazing Grace” then to be followed in by the Firefighters Pipe and Drum Core. Wow, how moving and beautiful. We signed after the show, but had to head right out and get on the road. Thank you all so much for having us! We had a blast.
We’re on the bus right now, heading on to Wilmington, N.C. to play the Thalian Hall. It’s a long trip, and it’ll be a little bit of a hustle once we get there, but all will work out fine.

2009-04-10T14:29:00.007-05:00

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.

2009-02-17T20:06:00.012-06:00

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 was a full on professional production. They had cameras, jumbo trons, and lots of TV stations were there to catch the event! They had makeup and hair ladies who were assigned to us to powder our noses and fluff our frocks. They put so much makeup on us! In the regular light we looked like 'ladies of the night' but once we were up on stage and I caught a glimpse of us on the video, it looked great!
The show was AWESOME! but not long enough! The arena was packed with thousands (literally) of cheering celebrating people and towards the back of the arena they had a huge fire torch lit. It was so cool! The sound in the arena was amazing, and the atmosphere was charging! To see and play for all of those people from all over the world.... cool!

Afterwards, the entire trip hit us like a ton of bricks. We were all so tired and spent. We left the venue and went on to what stay was left at “Hotel 43.” Once again, the time for the flights out for a few of us were staggered, but lobby call was 5:30am. I treated myself to the hottest lobster bath known to man. Trenna, my roomie for the eve disappeared with Eric, Bob (our manager) and others for a hang down at the hotel club. Ha., well, all I remember is waking up once to use the bathroom around 2:30am and not seeing the girl. I finally heard stirring around 4:45a.m. and it was good ole’ Trenna coming in. I felt really bad that I had to stir her awake at about 5:15am for lobby call. Ha! Well, we all have different ways of “decompressing.” I heard that they had a good time and Lord knows especially poor Eric needed to decompress. Kudos to that man for all of his hard work!

Eric: Fulfillment Director/Visionary/Travel Agent/Stress Reliever

Well, we all did make it down to lobby call, some present only in a physical sense, but we made it! Yay! Our trip back to Nashville was pretty easy. Thank God. No problems really, just the usual coffee and 12 peanuts.
Thank you again everyone at the Special Olympics for having us! It was so worth all the nuttiness to make it to you. You really made us feel welcome and what a beautiful opportunity. We hope to see you again soon!

--Renae'

2008-07-23T09:57:00.005-05:00

July 3rd – 7thVinstra, Norway

Hello everyone! We had a blast in Norway! We did end up getting stuck in Newark for the night (July 3rd). Our next flight for Norway didn’t leave until the following eve (July 4th). So we made the most out of our July 4th and spent the day in NYC. We got to go to Coney Island and watch the World Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest! Wow, it was amazing how many hotdogs the competitors scarfed down and actually it almost made some of us a little sick to our stomachs! Kudos to those who can attempt such an amazing feat. The champion ate a total of 59 hotdogs! After watching the contest, we went to the oldest pub in NYC called “Mc Sorley's.” The floors, tables and walls were worn with use and age and they only served two kinds of beer, “light” and “dark.” There were many old photos hanging in the pub, and the only renovation that they’d done was adding a ladies restroom. At one time only men had been allowed in there. Up over the bar, we saw a bunch of old wishbones hanging from a wire over the bar. The story was that there were a bunch of gents that used to go in there and hang out, until World War Two when they ended up having to go off to fight. They had all hung their own wishbones from the wire over the bar so each one would know that if their buddy’s wishbone was gone, that they had returned safely. Seeing some of the wishbones still hanging there to this day was saddening.
We went for a slice of “Joe’s Pizza” afterwards and then back to Newark we went. We caught our flight on to Norway!

We got into Norway the following morning (Saturday July 5th). It was roughly an 8 hour flight with a 7 hour later time difference. Our show was Saturday eve. We got into Oslo, we were happy that all of our gear made it! Even though we’ve been to Norway before and have done this festival before, it was exciting for us for the mere fact that we had Bree, Sarah and Eric who’d never been overseas before. So it was really neat to hang with them, watch them take many photos, buy Norwegian food etc. We are so tickled to have them with us.
We got to our venue that afternoon and already there was quite a neat crowd built up. We knew that we were in for a really good night! Sound check went well and afterwards we went to our hotel and ate a nice dinner. Just like the last time we were there, the sun never did fully go down! Showtime was later that night, but it wasn’t nighttime! It was a fun show and the crowd was really welcoming! Thank you so much for having us! We hope to see you again really soon!

We got up early the next morning and got to ride real Fjord Horses! It was the perfect morning to ride. The morning was so crisp, clear and beautiful. We took all kinds of really neat scenic photos. Riding the English saddle took a little bit of getting used to, along with riding the stirrips higherbut we all settled in fine. We got to wear the cool riding hats, we were rocking! Afterwards, we headed back to Oslo and spent the day. We were to fly out the following day (Monday).

We got back in Monday night, quite a bit later than planned due to airports, planes etc., but we made it back fine!

We really enjoyed ourselves and once again it was so cool to share the experience with Eric, Sarah and Bree. It was neat to see them having such a great time taking in the European Atmosphere for the first time.

2007-12-11T14:33:00.000-06:00

Monday, Dec. 11th 2007

Howdy everyone! We hope you all are doing well out there. All’s been well here, we’ve been in town, out of town and back in whether it be for holidays, gigs, etc. All of us are gearing up to head home for the holidays to be with family and friends. Things kind of slow down around this time of the year, but it kind of gives us a little bit of a breather after all of the summer touring and busyness. We did a show Nov. 16th in the beautiful “Mabel Tainter Theater” in Menomonie, WI. It was built in 1889 and is recognized by the League of Historic Theaters as one of the top ten historic theaters in the country. The wood work was beautiful and they had set up a Christmas setting to start a Christmas show for the following week. They gave a cool tour of the entire theater and we got to peek into every knick and cranny of the place.
We all had a great Thanksgiving, and took in the celebration and all of the good food!
This past weekend (Dec. 8th) we traveled just a few hours (via van) into Kentucky and played a Christmas party in Owensboro for Aluminum makers. We had fun but things really got interesting as we “tried” to find our way back. The weather was pretty bad with rain and zero visibility, so signs (what signs there were) were hard to read! It took us an extra hour or so to get back on track by time we found an open place to ask for directions. Wow! But we made it back in one piece!
We’ve been busy promoting our new single “Miss Difficult” and we’ve been having the really neat opportunity to do some radio interviews with “G. Gordon Liddy.” We took a field trip to Murphreesboro, TN. The other day to meet up with him personally to do a radio spot. There we got to meet the “G man” himself and sing the “Star Spangled Banner.” Becky got a special Watergate Hotel momento signed as well.
Well, we’re going to run for now, but keep your ears and eyes posted! And call your local radio stations and request “Miss Difficult!” Merry Christmas! We’ll see ya’ again soon, we’ll be doing a New Years Eve show along with Confederate Railroad in Traverse City, MI. at the Grand Traverse Resort.

2007-12-11T14:32:00.001-06:00

Nov. 3rd 2007 “Checkin’ in!

Hey there! Just checkin’ in! I know it’s been a little while since our last post. Just lots happening and we’ve been gearing up for a busy CMA week. It’s wild how when we get off the road, that everyone tends to just kind of scatter! We all get home and spend the next week or so catching up on home life, getting things done etc. Some of us gig in the meantime between our shows and some write and record. And then we all just tend to take in some rest and recoup time! Our last major run for the season was our gig out in “Osceola, IA. At “Terribles’ Casino.”
All travels there and back went well, except we came really close to losing Debbie at the Chicago O’ Hare airport. This particular flight had one stop at this airport. Our first plane (Nash. To Chicago) had been held up from landing for 20 minutes due to weather. When we did finally land, we were in an immediate scramble to catch the next flight to Des Moines. And this is when Debbie showed her sprinting capabilities. We stopped long enough to see Debbie go into the restroom. We wait for her, and wait and wait. NO DEBBIE! Trenna goes in to fetch her so we could all run to our next flight, and she comes out empty handed. Where’d she go?! We all had to jump a shuttle to get from one side of the airport to the other. There just seemed to be no other way. O’ Hare is so huge, to try to run it at this point, we would definitely miss our flight. All we could do is move on and hope that our disappearing bassist would fall into place. Eric called her on her cell phone as we were getting on the shuttle and apparently she’d thought we’d already left her and she was running through the different connecting gates, “the long, hard way.”
We’re on the shuttle, getting ready to take “the quick and easy way,” and he’s urging her to turn around and come back, but she was already way too far into her sprint to turn back now. We seriously didn’t think that she’d make it, but we got off the shuttle and behold there she is! She was all out of breath from running what we found out later was roughly a mile from our initial gate to the next one we had to be at. She beat us there! Way to go girl!
So all three days at Terrible’s Casino went well. Our friend and horse lover Michelle came to our shows and during our downtime, showed us how to rope. She also brought some of her family and we got to embarrass her brother on stage. Poor Kimmy lost her cell phone on her flight in from Memphis, but later scored a new one free! The weather was pretty poor for a few days, a lot of wind, and rain however when Saturday rolled around I had a casino version of “cabin fever,” and I was compelled to literally take a run into town. I believe that it was roughly 2 miles into town, I wasn’t totally sure, but when you tend to get stir crazy like I do sometimes, your mind, body and the craving for exploration have no limits! So with my I-pod, warm jogging pants, sweater, trusty running shoes, baseball cap and 5 dollars, I ran! It was a crisp, fall day in Osceola and the sun was shining. I felt like a butterfly coming out of her cocoon! I made it into town, and came across a nice little coffee shop that had just opened for it’s daily business. I went in, sat down, had a nice cup of swiss chocolate mocha coffee and chatted with two ladies for about an hour or so. Ha ha, they probably thought that I was crazy, running all the way into town from the casino just to have a cup of coffee, but hey, stir craziness will do that to you! I did end up buying a half pound of that nice coffee, and on my way back out of town, I picked up a nice sweat shirt of their local area high school team! I just thought it was so cool. The town is so precious and everyone was so sweet.
Thank you Osceola and Terrible’s Casino for having us. We felt warm and welcome there! And I’ll never forget my trek into town for a cup of fine coffee and having such sweet people to sit and chat with.

We’ll be writing to you all again soon. Things kind of go into hibernation in the fall through the winter, but we’ll be keeping you up to date on the goin’ on’s! Congrats to Becky! She’ll be giving Pam Tillis a hand with her Christmas show coming up here in Nashville (mid November- Dec.). So, if you’re in Nashville, go check it out!

2007-10-16T23:32:00.001-05:00

Oct. 9th Eminence, MO. “Cross Country Trail Ride”
Horses, horses, HORSES!!

We woke early to the feeling of the bus treading “off road.” No, nothing bad! We just knew that we were heading into a beautiful, fun filled day at the Eminence Cross Country Trail Ride.

It’s a huge campout, focused around nature, and a lot of horseback riding in the beautiful Mark Twain National Forest. Debbie was drooling the second she got up, being a huge lover of horses. We did this show last year and had a ball! We were really hoping to get to ride like last year. Eric bought his first pair of cowboy boots in 10 years! We stayed on the bus just long enough for a pot of coffee and immediately we were off to go hit up some horse owners to see about riding. I had the coolest horse last year. His name was “Casper.” I didn’t think in a million years that I’d ever see Casper again, but guess what?! While looking for potential rides, Casper’s owner was there and he let me ride Casper again! He is just the sweetest thing. Debbie and Eric hooked up with horses as well and we went for a ride through the trails. When we got back, Debbie ended up running off with Casper and Kimmy and I went boot shopping. Ha! The staff at the trail ride fed us well and later that eve we did a show. You could smell the campfires burning and see people hitched up on their horses watching the show. What a fun day!! Thank you so much for having us back!

2007-10-16T23:29:00.001-05:00

Oct. 5th and 6th gigs in Hagerstown, MD. And Aurora, Indiana

Hello! We’re on the bus! Last night we did our show in Hagerstown, MD. At a club called “Cancun Cantina”
It was a huge club and throughout the day I found myself constantly getting lost!
Everyone was so sweet to us and our show went really well.
On a sadder note, unfortunately, Trenna lost her granddaddy “Poe Poe.” He was 87 and a heck of a gentleman. He always told the coolest stories and I think he got quite a kick out of me because I’m from up around the Wheeling, WVa. Area, and he spent time up there many many years ago laying pipeline. He used to share all kinds of stories with me about that. He lived a very long and fruitful life and he brought a lot of joy and love to many. We dedicated our show to him.

We are now on our way to Aurora, Indiana.
It’s been a rough day for Trenna and us with the passing of her granddad, but she hung in there tough. We did a good show and had a great response. We rushed out right afterwards so we could get her back to Nashville in time to fly out to Tulsa, OK. To be with her family. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

2007-09-29T16:55:00.001-05:00

Thursday, Sept. 27th gig in Culver, Indiana at the “Culver Academy”
Hello! Today we were in Culver, Indiana along with “The Low Cash Cowboys” to do a show at the Culver Academy for the students. The school is mainly a military school, established back in 1894 by Henry Harrison Culver. It became co-ed several years back. Culver also has “The Black Horse Troop,” the biggest calvary left in the U.S. The campus was beautiful and you could sense the order and discipline of the students and the inner workings of the school. Our show was in the “Steinbrenner PAC,” which was a brand new building built for the arts. The school is scholastically known for leadership.

We got to take a tour of the campus and look at the various buildings. They were so beautiful and majestic. We even got to go have lunch in the mess hall. After soundcheck, we got to chill for a while and the new PAC had a great sounding stairwell for me to play my fiddle in! I hung out there and played for a good while. I find that I’m creatively inspired in certain places due to the awesome sounding reverberating acoustics. These places would be: a stairwell with 2 or more flights and brick walls, locker rooms with huge showers (not running of course) ., and hee hee, bathrooms. So I felt at home!

This was our first show with the “Low Cash Cowboys” and they got the crowd fired up for us! All of the students loved us and it was interesting because the had all of the guys one side of the room, the faculty in the center and the ladies on he other side. So throughout the show we would get them into screaming matches to see who could scream louder. They were all having a great time! We did an encore of “Sweet Home Alabama” with Low Cash and we all got to rock the house. After the show we got to meet everyone and sign military shirts, hats, etc. (hope we didn’t get you guys in trouble). We felt so welcome in Culver! Thank you for having us!

2007-09-29T16:44:00.001-05:00

Sept. 22nd and 23rd 2007
Shows at “Southpoint Casino” in Las Vegas
Poor sick Trenna!!

It’s been quite the busy weekend for us! We flew in Friday night. We met up with Eric and his new Bride at the Vegas Airport.
After we got to the hotel/casino, I was wide awake, so I went down to the showroom and caught a cool Prince tribute band called “Purple Reign.” They were awesome!
A last minute opportunity to play at the Las Vegas Speedway came up. We were to do a show there Saturday afternoon, then run back to the casino where we were booked to play another. We did our show at the Speedway and all went well! We went on to do our Saturday night show, and all was well except for poor Trenna! The dry Vegas air and the rigors of the day had taken a toll on her voice, not counting she’d been having sickness issues. By the end of the show, she was pretty hoarse and instead of going out for a night on the town, we felt that rest was much needed. The weather is so dry out in Vegas, and it is notoriously known to be hell for singers.

Sunday rolled around and it gave way to worse news: Trenna couldn’t talk and Becky was now having issues as well! We were supposed to have joined Trenna’s brother and family for a cookout, but rest was needed.
I did get out and take some time to stroll up and down the strip and visit the “MGM Grand”, the “Luxor”, “New York, New York” and “Mandalay Bay.” I hadn’t been in these places in a while and I was amazed at how much they’d changed , especially MGM. I had done shows way back when at the MGM Grand in the dome area, but since then, it has become a bar and there was no longer a stage. I get a kick out of this city and I never can sleep while I’m here because there’s always so much to do and so much to see. I remember several times in which I’d walk so much that my shins would start hurting and even then that wouldn’t stop me. A lot of action all over! It can be a little bit overwhelming, sensory overload., your eyes start spinning like the slot machines.
So at 5:30pm, we had a line check. With Trenna in the condition that she was in, we were unsure of how to get through our show.
Debbie, Becky and I talked and went over some other songs that we used to do. It was actually kind of neat to pull those out and play through them but we’d wished that it wasn’t under such bummer circumstances.
Showtime came and we were prepared to put some of these other songs into the set list if Trenna wasn’t feeling well enough to sing the entire show. With a little bit of an elongation of “Orange Blossom Special,” some solos and one tough girl as a lead singer, we made it through. Time to rest up, and to take A LOT of Airborne vitamins! See ya’ in Culver, Indiana!

2007-09-29T16:43:00.001-05:00

Friday Sept. 7th, gig in Olathe, Kansas, Sat. Sept. 8th gig in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Howdy! These two shows went really well, we had a blast hanging out with everyone!

We left Nashville Thursday at Midnight and made it to “Olathe, Ks.” Around 10am.

It was a really nice and comfortable town and everyone made us feel welcome. There were a lot of Friday night high school football games going on around the area, but we still had a great crowd of supportive people. Thank you Olathe for having us, and it was nice to meet “Chocolate Thunder” of the SWAT security team after the show! Ha ha!

Note: We found out later that there was a gentleman at the show who was 105 years old, who’d been in both world war one and world war two. He was out of the military in the late 1940’s. He made a point to go to Eric and tell him how much he enjoyed the show. If anyone knows this man, please tell him “thanks” for us.

We stayed over in Olathe, and the following morning after a radio interview, we were on our way to Council Bluffs, Iowa to play at Iowa Western Community College.

It was Saturday, college football day and watching our road manager Eric getting into the Texas A & M v.s. Fresno college game was entertaining. Kim got a big kick out of taunting Eric throughout the game, cheering for Fresno (Eric is devout Aggie supporter!) just to set him off. We got to Council Bluffs and we’d never seen Eric run off the bus, set the gear up and have us at sound check quicker than that day! Ha, actually I tend to be more of an NFL fan than college, however, I must say that this game was really good and we all ended up back on the bus watching the final outcome of it. After triple overtime, Aggies pulled it off and that made our day, especially Eric’s. We went on stage not long afterwards and played our show. The theatre that we played in sounded excellent, and the crew was really helpful. Eric got the opportunity to record us live! There were a few parts of the show that cracked us up really bad.., but I am not going to tell you because., well., I just can’t right now. : ) Thank you for having us! We hope to come back again!

We’ve had the week off, we’ll be heading out to Vegas this weekend. We’ll talk to you later!

2007-09-09T14:57:00.000-05:00

August 29th 2007
Benefit for leukemia @ "The Cadillac Ranch."

Hello! Whenever we get the chance, we love to support by taking part in various benefits/fund raisers.

Today we got to play right here in Nashville at "the Cadillac Ranch" for a benefit that was being held to raise money for leukemia research. Many items were auctioned off and there were a lot of participating singers, songwriters and bands. All went well and after our performance, we hung out to show our support and also watched our friends "Abel kane" do a great show. It was so nice to see so many people willing to help raise money for Leukemia and Lymphoma research. Thank you Rita for letting us be apart of a great night!

Sept. 1st 2007 "Monroe, Mi.”… and a little bit of tailgating.

We had bus call late Friday night, and…..well, it ended up being a lot later! Originally our time to meet our bus at midnight turned into a 3 hour campout in the parking lot of 100 oaks mall. We had a blast at our own tailgate party but the bus never made it. First we were told the holdup had been because of a TV. Installation. (we have to be able to watch movies!) So, no big deal, we hung tight, raided our supplies box which had our mighty bottle of Jack Daniels, plastic cups and coke. I turned up the radio in my car, and Eric went for ice! As we hung out in the lot and Eric made check in calls to the bus driver, we received more bad news. we heard that when the bus went to leave the lot, the brakes locked up. It then had to pull into a truck stop across town for servicing. By then it was 3am. We were all pretty beat, then Becky got the bright idea for us to hitch up and go meet the bus where it was being serviced so we could get to bed. So we did just that!! Yay Becky!

The bus didn't roll out of town until around 5:30am and we had to scramble! We got to the venue around 4:30pm, and in spite of it all still managed to get in a line check prior to our show. The weather up in Monroe was absolutely beautiful and we were on the bill with Steve Azar.
It was quite the family gathering for Trenna! Her mom had hopped on the bus with us in Nashville. We sooo love having her out, she's so vibrant and witty and a stinker too! She kept us laughing the whole trip! We see where Trenna gets it from! Trenna's dad Delbert made it out to hang with us and his friends from Monroe. It was really nice to see everyone!
We did a great show and got a lot of great response from the crowd. Thank you all, hope to see you again soon!

2007-08-22T10:55:00.000-05:00

Friday August 17th, Pitman, NJ.
Gig at the “Broadway Theatre”

Howdy! We had an awesome time at the “Broadway Theatre” in Pitman. We left Thursday night around 10pm and drove through the night. It was a long drive! It took roughly 15 hours to get there. Kudos to our bus driver for hanging tough with us. That’s one heck of a job to have and is an art in itself.
We pulled into the town of Pitman, NJ. Friday afternoon and what a cute town it was! I got to take a walk up and down the main street and it made me miss my hometown. There were cute coffee shops and antique stores up and down the street. They had a neat little park next to their library. I sat down for a while and took it in.
The Broadway Theatre had recently been reopened. It is an extremely historic place of performance. With it being strategically located not far from Philly, not too far from NYC., many acts would grace the stage on their way in and out of town. Legends like, George Burns, Gracie Allen, the Andrew Sisters, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash and Hank Williams had all performed on the same stage that we were about to perform on. We even heard that there were ghosts!
The theatre was built back in 1926 and last September was reopened for entertainment shows to grace that legendary stage again. Everyone was really nice to us and the show went really well. The sound of the theatre really got us. You can hear a pin drop and the acoustics were unbelievable. Thank you for having us!

Saturday, August 18th 2007
Gig in “New Martinsville, WV” at the “Town And Country Days”

Hello there! This was a very special day for me. Today’s show was in “New Martinsville, WV” about 24 miles south of where I was born and raised. So today was kind of a homecoming show for me. We were at the Wetzel County Fairgrounds, which I hadn’t been there since I was a kid when my brother and I would go to my dad’s yearly work picnics. All of the food and rides were free and we’d gorge on sugar and ride all of the rides 100 times. So many memories here! It felt really neat to have the girls so close to my old stomping grounds. It seemed like everything went by pretty fast.., well too fast!
I had my own cheering section of my aunts, uncles, cousins, brother, family friends and other relatives. It was really neat to see that my dad made it. He’d just gotten out of the hospital after falling off the roof of their house, breaking his hip and sustaining a head injury. He was moving a little slowly, but he made it! Mom has her hands full for quite a while since he’ll be off of work until December, hang in there momma! It was just so nice to see everyone! Thank you all so much for supporting us throughout the years.
The weather was perfect for the day and for a great show. The show went really well, and we had a huge line for autographs, merch and pictures. The band “Heartland” played after us. Like I’d said, it all went by way too fast! At least after this show I got to go home to stay with family for a few days and get some time with them. Thank you everyone at the “Town And Country Days” for having us! We hope to come back soon! Thanks to everyone for supporting your hometown girl! Love ya’!

2007-08-05T20:42:00.001-05:00

Friday August 3rd 2007
Coeur D’ Alene Casino with Mark Chesnutt

Hi Again! We left the “Wildhorse Casino” in Pendleton, Oregon, around 11am and now we’re on our way to Worley, Idaho, to do another show with Mark Chesnutt at the Coeur D’Alene Casino. It’s been a pretty drive! A lot of land out here! Write to you again soon.

Saturday August 4th on our way home!

Howdy! It’s 7:10 am and we just left the Coeur D’Alene casino. We have about a 35 mile drive to Spokane, WA., where we’ll catch our flight out. We’ll have 1 stop in Vegas, then onto Nashville, we’ll go! It’ll be about 12 hours worth of travel altogether.
Last night’s show ROCKED! It was a 30 minute set (a quick 30 minutes), and we gave slammed it hard for our audience. It was a packed house, at least 1,500 people. The sound was awesome (thank you Eric!), and the room had a neat sound quality to it as well. When we went to sign autographs, we only had about 20 minutes to do so, but our table was immediately swamped with people wanting to buy merchandise and get autographs. Security was unable to get line in order due to the countless people that wanted to meet us! Wow, thank you everyone for your support! We signed and met with as many people as possible, but then had to conclude our signing due to Mark Chesnutt’s show starting. We were so blown away by everyone’s enthusiasm. We walked back into the dressing room with or mouths hanging wide open wondering “What the heck just happened?! Wow!” Thanks again everyone for hanging out with us. It was also neat to see Debbie’s Uncle Dave and Aunt Barbara. It was also nice to see Dave Sandford and friends!

We’re now on our way to the airport, almost there, it’s been fun trying to type in the bouncy van! Guess we’ll be catching up with you later. Our next run will be on the 17th, 18th and 19th. I’m especially excited because day two of our run we’ll be doing a gig really close to my hometown of Moundsville, Wva.
See ya’!

2007-08-05T20:41:00.001-05:00

August 2nd 2007
Wildhorse Casino with Mark Chesnutt in Pendleton, Oregon.

Hello there! Today we got to share the stage with Mark Chesnutt at the “Wildhorse Casino and Resort” in Pendleton, Oregon.
We left Nashville yesterday around 5pm., our first flight going all the way to Seattle, Washington, and then hopping on another flight to Spokane. I’m not exactly sure what causes this, but by time we boarded the flight to Spokane, we were (especially me) feeling slap happy and ornery. I think that it has to do with being confined in such a small space for so long, such as an airplane, with very little legroom, your butt getting numb from the seats etc. I think your brain goes numb too. It started from the for me, as the Southwest flight steward for the Seattle to Spokane flight was demonstrating how to use the breathing apparatuses that are supposed to come down in case of an emergency. We’d actually gotten the exit row seats (Yay! More legroom! It figures that would happen on a flight that was only going to be 35 minutes long. Where was the legroom on the previous 4 hour and 45 minute flight??! But hey, we got lucky on this one!). Being in the exit rows, the steward had to go through extra “safety procedures” with us. I was cutting up from the start and in him noticing my humor and being easily amused, left the “mock breathing apparatus” with us. So the next 35 minutes consisted of 100 things that you “should not do” with a breathing apparatus to yourself and others. The flight attendants were so amused (especially the flight attendant guy), that they gave me a free drink! We were definitely the life of the party, and I’m sure that the surrounding passengers were extra concerned if there would have indeed been an actual emergency.
Anyhow, after that entertaining flight, we then loaded up into a van and drove on to Pendleton, Oregon. It was about a 200-mile trip.
We got to the venue around 4 am CST. And we all were pretty wiped out by then.

The next day, it was pretty relaxing. Most of us slept in and sound check didn’t happen until 4pm. We grabbed some food and some of us took a run around the resort grounds. It was so nice to see Mark Chesnutt and the rest of the guys. A bunch of sweeties they are!
We had a meet and greet at 6:30pm and then a 40 minute show. We had a blast, and the crowd was great!
Afterwards, some of us hung out with Mark and the guys. Trenna and Becky danced with Mark Chesnutt too! What a fun time!

2007-08-05T20:38:00.001-05:00

Saturday July 28th
Nashville, Indiana “The Little Nashville Opry”

We left Nashville around 8am for “The Little Nashville Opry” in Nashville, Indiana. I’d just flown in from California in enough time to hop on the bus and roll out, so I slept the whole trip there! The Little Nashville Opry is a quaint place where many stars have graced their stage. Becky had actually played the venue previously with Patty Lovelace, Trisha Yearwood and Pam Tillis. So the staff remembered Becky from those previous shows. As we walked inside to the stage, we could just sense the history of those who’d been there before us. Many of those artists’ pictures hung in the lobby area. We were so honored to be there. The scenery surrounding the opry was beautiful and once I awoke, I couldn’t resist but to take a run out a small side road outside that went off into the trees, hills and followed along side a creek. Extremely lovely! The opry had a great home cooked meal for us, which made us feel cozy, and “down home.”
The show went really well and I believe that it was one of the most “capturing” of the band’s personality to our audience. The flood gates opened and no holds were barred after Trenna accidentally did something that has been a long standing joke amongst artists and performers who are constantly traveling, getting thrown about across the country relentlessly. The words “How’s everyone doing out here in Nashville, Illinois?!,” poured out of her mouth as she was talking to the audience. The crazy thing was that the venue had actually had “Nashville” written center stage by her mic stand, but no state. Seconds seemed like minutes, and we all had realized what had just happened. But she along with the rest of us handled it well and made a huge joke out of it, making the audience crack up in laughter. It’s amazing how easily that can happen, but no one took offense and throughout the show we would throw little jokes around about it. The show went well and we felt extremely welcome by everyone. Thank you little Nashville opry for having us!

2007-08-05T20:31:00.000-05:00

Sunday, July 22nd 2007
Gig in Valpariso, Indiana at the Porter County Fair

Hello! We’re getting ready to roll home! Today was a lot of fun. We got to open for Dierks Bentley tonight. What a wonderful crowd and a nice bunch of staff at this festival. This gig was extra special to Debbie because a bunch of her best friends of family grew up here. Debbie had actually taught double bass for the Great Lakes Community Camp at Valpariso University. It’s also where her mom and dad first lived right after getting married.
We woke up parked out front of the venue, and hung out for a while until we knew the game plan for today’s show. I tend to be “the scavenger” of the group and after having a cup of old Folgers coffee made the night before, I realized that this just wasn’t going to cut it. So I was off, to find water so I could make a “decent” pot of coffee for when everyone else awoke. I went into a 4H building that had just opened it’s doors. No one seemed to care that I walked in. I found a kitchen inside and a sink. There was nothing to carry water in though. I did find manage to find an almost empty two-liter bottle of soda. With roughly one swig left, I dumped it, rinsed it out and filled it with our soon to be coffee water! Yay! These little things tend to be huge victories when out on the road. Ha ha! We’re so easily amused, scary.
Our bus driver awoke and we drove the bus to the stage. The runners took us to our hotels where some of us used the opportunity to work out, and get showers. The catering kept us full all day with outdoor grilling of burgers, veggies, pasta salad ect.
For dinner, they treated us to Tilapia, mushrooms, asparagus ect.
Our soundcheck was around 4pm and the sound was awesome! Great job, Eric!
We pretty much just hung out until our show at 8pm and we did a 50-minute set. All rocked! We signed for a good while afterwards and met a lot of really nice fans. Thank you Porter County Fair for having us!

2007-07-22T23:01:00.001-05:00

Saturday, July 21st 2007
Day off in Chicago!

We woke up camping out in a truck plaza outside of Chicago. Jeremy, our driver had driven us in pretty close, but we didn’t want to go any further until we were sure we could park in downtown Chicago. We were planning on going the “Field Museum” today. After some coffee and some egg Mc muffins, we made our way closer into downtown Chicago.
We got to have special visitors passes to the museum thanks to a close friend of ours Ron Onesti. Thank you so much, Ron!
We found parking without a hitch, and we were immediately on our way to the museum to go see as much as we could see before it closed at 5pm.
We got to see all kinds of Native American exhibits, animal exhibits and the most intact, well-preserved tyrannosaurus rex in the world ever found (her name is ‘Sue’).
They had an exhibit about life on Earth starting from the “Precambrian” period (45 billion-543 million years ago) with prokaryotes and bacteria to present day earth and all of the life that had come and gone through various stages of global extinction. It also showed how the continents had shifted and moved. We had just enough time after that to see ancient Egypt and visit the gift shops.
We were not finished with Chicago yet. We were ready to go find some food somewhere with a cool atmosphere. Thanks to Eric’s web surfing, we stumbled across a place called “Al Capone’s Hideaway and Steakhouse.” It was literally Al Capone’s hideaway back in the 20’s, and because of that, boy we had quite a trip getting there! This place was out in the sticks, which brings me to share a little bit of history behind this place.
No one ever knew that Al Capone’s hideaway was off the beating path or even close to it. But for 75 years, the hidden spot along the east bank of the Fox River in an unincorporated area north of St. Charles had been a popular restaurant and watering hole. The characters who’d visited here and the activities that occurred here back in the 20’s are what makes this place so unique. There were many wild and daring times here, and the owners acutally manufactured their own liquor here during prohibition times and played host to many shadowy figures such as Al Capone and George “Bugs” Moran. “Bathtub gin” was made here (and then mixed with beer) and when a raid ensued, they would pump the beer through cold copper lines into the henhouse. The crazy thing is that this underground system had not been discovered until the 60’s, when a renovation took place!
A lot of speak-easies and roadhouses had this system back in those days. They had done a really good job with preserving this house, and keeping “the vibe.” There were a lot of original pictures hanging on the walls of gangsters who frequented there. The place had two levels (that we knew of): the downstairs being a full bar and the upstairs being a dining area. The front door to the dining area still had a small slit of an opening for back in the day when they used to demand a “password” before allowing entrance.
They had several violin cases hanging about the place that featured Tommy guns inside of them!
They also had a strolling Dixieland group, and we found out that they’d be coming upstairs to the dining area to play.
After ordering some drinks downstairs, we went back upstairs and got our table. The place was busy and buzzing with activity.
Once again, that cool feeling hit me as we sat there waiting to order. How lucky we are to be here hanging out, being on the road and getting to experience these cool things! We toasted to that and not long after dinner was on its way.
Dinner was really good, and the band of guys had come upstairs to play for the dinner crowd.
I noticed that as we “relaxed” and hung out, that we started to drum more and more on the table along with the guys playing. At first, we weren’t really sure how they were taking this enthusiastic activity from us, we’re musicians and you can only sit so long before you have to start taking part in the musical flow of a situation when given. I’m sure that we were one of the more rowdy crowds that they’d had (except for back in the 20’s). We were calling off requests from “Sweet Georgia Brown” to “It Don’t Mean A Thing If You Ain’t Got That Swing.” And they would play our requests! As the night went on and the spirits flew, we ended up jamming with them! It started with Becky jumping up on an old upright piano they had and hammering along with them on the tunes. I wasn’t far behind as the floodgates had opened and Eric was off to get my fiddle. It turned into one heck of a jam! We had a blast with these guys and they were so sweet to allow us to sit in and play. The owner of the restaurant gave us a huge Tommy gun bottle of their Vodka and some stogies. We also picked up some hats, shirts and mugs on the way out. Thank you “Al Capone’s Steakhouse and Hideaway” for having us! We strongly suggest to anyone who visits Chicago, if they’re in the mood for a visit to the days of the Mob and for some great food and entertainment, to go see and hang at this place! You will not be disappointed.

2007-07-22T22:51:00.000-05:00

Friday, July 20th 2007 Gaylord, MI
Fun at“Alpenfest”
We left Kalamazoo at 9:30am and most of us went back to sleep on the bus. It was a beautiful day and it sounded like the gig was going to be a lot of fun as well. We pulled in about four hours later and the town of Gaylord was jumping with festival activity. The buildings and houses looking like you just stepped into Switzerland. I couldn’t resist getting off the bus and taking a stroll through all of the excitement. You could hear polka bands, smell that sweet smell of roasting almonds, and in the town square they were holding a pie-eating contest. There were quite a few cool shops up and down the street and I did end up going into one of them and getting a neat little stage hoodie to wear for the eve. I came unprepared for the temperatures that we were going to have to be playing in, (mind you, we’ve been spending the past few weeks of tour in 100 plus temperatures, so not once in our minds did we realize that we would be playing in 50 degree weather!) so I managed to find this neat little hoodie and long sleeved shirt half off the price!
Soon after, we did our sound check and we were a little bit concerned about the sound gear. Apparently, they’d had a huge storm blow through the night before and some of it had gotten wet. So it was pretty wild trying to get it going, because it seemed like every time we’d get a mix set, it would change. However, by show time, after leaving the gear on for a while, it dried out and settled in with us just fine for our mixes. We did two shows, each 45 minutes. We had a great time and there were a lot of cute little kids at the front of the stage dancing. We got to hang out with the Alpenfest queen’s court and also with some of our Navy guys. They gave us some cool Navy swag too!
We left Gaylord around 1am. We have a day off in Chicago tomorrow!

2007-07-20T18:28:00.001-05:00

Thursday, July 19th
“A Taste Of Kalamazoo” festival!

We left Wednesday at midnight for Kalamazoo, MI. We all slept pretty well all the way there. I was the first to wake up, so I put on some good bus coffee and was on my way with a mug full for a walk around downtown Kalamazoo. It seemed that we were plenty early and that there wasn’t any rush to be anywhere. So I headed towards the mall area of the town. There was a lot of cool architecture, and I noticed as I walked up the street how people seemed to greet me as they passed. How neat! There were some really cool stores and gift shops. There were also some really neat coffee shops and martini places. It just seemed like a happening area of town. I ducked into a few of the shops and browsed a little while.

For lunch, we literally got to partake in the different tastes of Kalamazoo. We got to order from various local restaurants and they rocked! We got everything from chicken curry, meatball subs to sushi brought on the bus for lunch.

Everyone at the venue was so sweet to us and treated us so well. They even shuttled us to and from the hotel in a white limo. We did a cool radio interview and later on our show! Other than a few technical difficulties on stage, the show went over really well and our audience was extremely supportive! We got to hang out with our radio friends at WIN 98.9 for a while. Thanks for having us Kalamazoo!

2007-07-20T18:23:00.000-05:00

Saturday, July 14th gig in Grundy, VA. Opening for Trent Tomlinson

Hi there! We left Nashville last night around midnight. It’s so nice to be back on the bus again after such a busy week.
Today we’re in Grundy, VA. We awoke to surrounding hills and the bus parked in a small valley in the town. It made me miss my West Virginia hills! We had a few rooms at the comfort inn, and the interesting thing about this hotel was that they had the cutest little rubber duckies sitting on the bathtubs of the rooms.
What an interestingly cute thing to wake up and arrive to. This was extremely adorable compared to some of the other places that we’ve found ourselves staying at (places with bullet holes in the windows, huge menacing bugs, over all creepiness etc….)

Sometimes, while out on the road, (and it may be due to boredom), but being cooped up on a 45 foot bus rolling down the road, fatigue that plays with your head, leading to extreme slap happiness or just for the hell of it, you do things for basic entertainment at the expense of someone else, just to get a rise out of them.
Trenna and I were the first to get back on the bus after cleaning up for the gig. We tend to be the two that cause the most ruckus and practical jokes on the road. She came up to me giggling with that devious grin on her face hiding something behind her back to surprise me with. I wasn’t sure what to expect! She had went to the store and bought of all things: a whoopee cushion! The feeling of deviousness and sheer joy came over me and we immediately realized that we had to plant it somewhere before everyone else came on board! Quickly, we scrambled around the front lounge of the bus trying to think of a perfect most “effective” place to hide it. We placed it under one of the seat cushions (which was a little bit hard because they’re attached to wood) and waited. The first place we put it is where Eric, our road manager, tends to sit a lot and wouldn’t you know it, he was the first one to come on board. We sat down out of the way of the planted prank and patiently waited for Eric to sit down in his usual spot. Trenna started suggesting to Eric to “Take a seat,” “Stay a while,” “Take a load off,” etc. The anticipation was killing us! In the middle of his usual rundown of the day, he did take a seat, however instead of getting the huge sound of sick flatulence that we’d so longed, hoped and prepared for, instead we received a little “Poot,” that was barely heard and totally unnoticed. We frowned as we were unsuccessful in our venture for entertainment, but that didn’t stop us there! If anything, it drove us even more to get that perfect whoopee cushion performance, and someone’s hind end was going to make it happen!
As everyone else started coming on board the bus, we desperately tried to secretly hide it in a more “strategic spot”.
One strategic spot was on an area of the couch right next to me. Our next victim was Debbie. She lugged her suitcase on board and came up to the front. Once again, Trenna having a harder time keeping a straight face, urged Debbie to “Take a seat,” “Make yourself comfortable.” Debbie did, right where we’d placed the cushion and still……. no luck!! The bus was starting to roll, and still we secretly tried to stash it somewhere! We tried it on Debbie several times, -I was getting more entertainment out of Trenna’s reactions to the failure of the whoopee cushion and her various ways to distract Debbie so I could replant it, than the actual cushion itself! Our laughter gave us up and the lot was uncovered. The whoopee cushion met its fate less than an hour later when Trenna sat on it on top of the bus table, blowing a hole in it. It sounded like a car backfiring! The end result; a very flat and dead whoopee cushion. Ha, ha I’m laughing with tears in my eyes right now.

We took the bus up to the venue. The roads were really windy and narrow. They were so windy and narrow, that a small pickup truck from the fire dept. had to take the lead and as we made our way up and around the hills, and had to urge on coming cars to pull over to allow room for us to maneuver the bus. It was very pretty though, and once again I missed home.

When we got there, we walked around the fair. We got to go through a funhouse, go down a huge slide, and go into a haunted house. We then got to have some really good catering!

We did our show and had a great time and Trent Tomlinson rocked the house. We’re now heading back to the hotel for showers and will meet back with the bus and get some sleep. We’ll get back to Nashville in the morning!

2007-07-13T23:12:00.000-05:00

Friday, July 13th 2007
Howdy everyone! It’s hard to believe that we’ve already gotten home and the week has flown by! We’ll be leaving out again this evening for Grundy, Va. Our last trip out was a little bit grueling, but it was also extremely pretty with all of the beautiful sights of Utah and Colorado.
I managed to keep “bloggage” notes on my phone as we traveled to capture moments, sights, ect. So here we go!

Wednesday, July 4th 2007
“4th of July in Ashland, KY!”

All I can say is that Ashland, KY. Really knows how to celebrate 4th of July and their fireworks were unbelievable!
This gig was extra special to us because we actually got to take some of our loved ones out on the road with us for the trip. So early that morning, we all met the bus at Trenna’s and made the 5 hour trip to Ashland, KY. It was so much fun having hubby’s and family on board with us. It isn’t very often that we get to do so, but when we do it’s so nice! Because so many times we’ll be out on the road and see something totally amazing and wish that our significant others, or kids could see it and share the moment. So it was really special to have our family out with us to share the 4th of July with.
We arrived at the venue and was working on getting soundcheck together when a huge storm started to roll in. We got in a little bit of a line check, until the wind started blowing furiously and causing the sound crew, electricians and us to scatter and take shelter. The immediately had to cover up all of the gear of both ours and Diamond Rio’s along with all of the speakers, soundboards ect. The rained poured and poured. No end in sight! We did still manage to do our radio interview with Scott of WKTC! It rained so much that there were 5 inches of standing water outside our bus door! You had to take a major leap to get off, and even then you still got your feet wet. The weather did clear and other than fool with our pre show meet and greet and take about 10 minutes off of our show, things ran smoothly. There was some drizzle off and on, but that didn’t stop us or our dedicated country music fans!
The fireworks happened shortly after and what a show they were! Diamond Rio took the stage afterwards and did a stellar show. Afterwards we got to hang out with lead singer Marty Row for a while.
We were then off to the hotel to get our showers and left Ashland around 2am.

Thursday, July 5th 2007 Travel Day

We rolled back into Nashville around 6:30am and we had to drop our loved ones and gear off back at the meeting point, Trenna’s house. We then had the bus take us out to the Nashville Airport to get ready to fly out to Salt Lake City, Utah. We did manage to get some breakfast at Cracker Barrel before hitting the airport. My fun moment came when we’d gotten off the bus to go into the airport and I’d realized that I’d left my cell phone plugged in on the bus in the lounge! My heart skipped a beat and panic struck me! I dropped everything I had in front of Eric’s feet and raced back down the escalator and back out the front doors of the airport. The bus was no longer out front where it had dropped us off! I then looked to my right and there it was, sitting at a red light just turning green about 50 yards away from me!
Now I’m quite the “gym visitor” , I go religiously every morning (except weekends and even then I’ll walk or run or something), but it immediately hit me that I’d been training seriously for this very moment that had awaited me! So I took off full tilt in pursuit of the bus. I figured that it would at least have to shift 4 to 5 times before it could get up some real speed from the light and leave me in the dust defeated. I ran like the wind and waved my hands furiously like a coach in a bad play call in a football game! Thank God the bus driver took a glance out his side mirror and spotted me! Jumping back on the bus I told him “I’ve been training 6 months for that.” He smiled, I grabbed my phone and “walked” back into the airport, hoping no one knew who I was.
We went about our way to Salt Lake City, Utah!

Friday, July 6th Layton, Utah
“Hot, hot, HOT!!!
We were in Layton, Utah and it was burning up! The West has been suffering major drought with no relief in sight.
Our day started off with some phone interviews and some down time. I took some time to go walk around a little bit and get some sushi for lunch. The temperature reached 110 degrees with little or no humidity.
We went and did sound check around 3pm and I could tell that the heat zapped my energy a little. Sound check went on for a little while longer than usual due to some gear problems, but we all pulled through. We went back to the hotel to get ready and cool off. I actually ended up snoozing for about 30 minutes.
On the way to our show, I saw a bank thermometer that read 104 degrees. This was at 7:30pm, 30 minutes prior to our outdoor show! We drank a lot of water and the eager crowd kept us charged up! We had the honor to meet Art Cameron, Brigadier General, USAF Commander of the 309th Maintenance wing of Hill AFB Utah! Thoughout our stay in Layton, I had the joy of watching F-16 fighters fly maneuvers over the city. I’ve always had a fascination for fighter jets and flying and I have always wanted to go up in one. Even before flying on the fiddle, I’d dreamed of becoming a fighter pilot. So needless to say, along with the other girls knowing this, we had to try to hit him up for a ride for moi! He couldn’t make it happen on this run, but said that perhaps next time if we come out and do a show for the base. Hook us up, secret agent man! Ha!
We also got to meet the mayor, Steve Curtis. Thank you all for having us and taking such great care of us out there! Thanks for driving us, Alice!

Saturday, July 7th
Travel to Meeker, CO. Show with Aaron Tippin

Today we loaded up the 15 passenger van with our coffee, gear and ourselves and headed out to Meeker, CO. to do a show with Aaron Tippin.
We traveled through the huge mountain passes, what a beautiful countryside and even though the temperature was soaring once again down in the valley, you could still see some snow on the mountaintops. It doesn’t seem like it’s that far up, but the snow proved differently.
We would love to come back to this area for a vacation (Skiing, snowboarding, glider rides ect.)!
Debbie got a kick out of all of the miles and miles of white fences and horses. There were a lot of gorgeous mountain homes with huge windows that supplied the owners with a panoramic view of the beauty around them.
We passed through many cute mountain towns, but also passed through many areas of huge stretches of land in which whomever lived there would’ve had to have been pretty self sufficient in order to survive.
We got into Meeker, CO. at 4pm. We dropped our gear off and had to run right to the venue for sound check. We ate some really nice home cooked food prior.
We had started doing our sound check when a lot of dark monsterous clouds started rolling in along with lighting. We immediately had to pull the plug, and that was a bummer because we were having issues with Becky’s backline keyboard. We had to run back to the hotel, change and come back for the show. It didn’t seem to rain much (bummer, since that area could really use it) and in spite of the rolling clouds and potential threats, the show went on. Once again, the crowd hung tough with us! Thanks!
Aaron Tippin went on not long afterwards and we got to watch his show. We were particularly intriqued by his performance of “Working Man’s PHD.” As the band started the song, he brought on stage a small work table, and a BMX bike in a box needing assembly. The man managed, while singing the song, to put together the whole bike within 3 minutes (by the end of the song)! We were stoked!
WE visited with Aaron for a short while, but had to be on our way shortly afterwards. We had an extremely long travel day back (7 hr van ride and then 7 hrs. of plane flights) and were exhausted.
We want to say thanks to Mc Kenzie of KEKB for having us, and a very special thanks to Janet Marcus with “Denver Snowy Western Wear” for all of the beautiful shirts and for the wonderful “Bling!” Your continued support means so much to us. We’ll being wearing that stuff a lot!

Sunday, July 8th
“Heading Home!”

We were off to the races early the next morning, with a lot of coffee and our comfy clothes, ready to spend the day traveling back. I will say that I was really tired and part of me really wanted to sleep the entire 7 hour van ride back. But the beautiful, breath taking sights kept me awake the whole time! I could easily wake up out here every morning with a hot cup of coffee and a camera to take pictures of the endless, exquisite scenery. I found myself trying to snap wonderous rolling mountains and landscapes with my ditsy little camera phone! D’oh! Debbie went on about owning horses, Kim was plugged into her computer listening to music, Eric drove like hell, Becky scanned the radio for signal and Trenna slept.
Another trip wrapping up and another book full of memories! Catch you again soon!

2007-06-29T02:04:00.001-05:00

Tuesday June 26th 2007
Back home and visiting the CMA’s, Country Music Weekly, Music Row & Aircheck

Hello! We had a busy day today! We made it back safely and got in a days rest before heading right into it.
Today we had the opportunity to go visit and play for CMA, Country Music Weekly, Music Row and Aircheck. Our publicist “Kat Atwood” lined these visits up for us to help promote Cowboy Crush for magazines and to start prepping for our August 13th single release of “Miss Difficult.”

We started off our day by piling ourselves and our instruments into Becky’s truck. We were then on our way to our first stop the CMA.
At each place we stopped, we planned to have a big cookie delivered with a big “Thank You” From “Cowboy Crush” written on it. (Thanks Victoria!) Before doing our acoustic set, we got to do a fun podcast inside CMA. Then we got to play 5 songs for everyone at CMA. We had a lot of fun and they surprised us at the end of our show with a plaque, engraved on it “Cowboy Crush” and the date, to stick up on the CMA wall of fame! We were so tickled to receive that and so honored to be added to the wall along with the many other great stars of country music. Tony Conway was also there to see us put our plaque up. Thanks to Chief Operating Officer Tammy Genovese and Chief Strategic Officer Ed Benson and the rest of the CMA for having us over. We really enjoyed it!

Our next stop was to Country Music Weekly to visit with Larry Holden, Executive Editor and Senior Editor David Scarlett.
It was really nice to meet them, along with everyone else at Country Music Weekly and we enjoyed singing some of our songs for them. Thank you everyone at Country Music Weekly for taking the time to listen! We hope to be giving you something really cool to write about really soon!

After a quick stop at Virginia’s Mart as they call it for a quick sandwich, we were then on our way to visit Music Row Magazine. We got to meet the founder and editor of Music Row Magazine, David Ross. We also got to meet and hang out with his staff as well. We felt very welcome and everyone was receptive. It’s always cool to visit and talk with the people behind the writings. Thanks to everyone at Music Row Magazine for having us!

Our last stop was to go visit with Lon Helton, Chuck Aly, Jeff Greene and the rest of the staff at Country Aircheck. They were so sweet, they gave us Aircheck coffee cups to take home with us! After playing our acoustic set for them, we got to browse through their magazine (see photo!). Hmmm.., makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Ha! Anyhow, it was so nice to visit with everyone there and they made us feel welcome.

It was a busy day for all of us, but it was a very fun one! Thanks again to everyone at CMA, Country Aircheck, Music Row Magazine and Country Music Weekly for having us! We had a blast! See you again soon.

2007-06-29T02:03:00.000-05:00

Friday, June 22nd Manhattan, KS. - “Country Stampede”
Saturday, June 23rd Moraine, Oh. - “Moraine Heritage Festival”
Sunday, June 24th Rockford, Illinois - “Stars and Guitars Show”

Hello there! We are now officially back in Nashville after our two week stint! There’s quite a bit to fill you in about. Our last three road shows went extremely well! We’ve also been quite busy back home here (read next blog!), paying some visits to some cool magazines, CMA’s ect.

So let me first off get started by saying that “Country Stampede” rocked! We had the honor of sharing the stage with “Chris Young”, Carolyn Dawn Johnson”, “Little Big Town”, and “Alan Jackson!” I couldn’t help but to wonder if ole’ Alan had remembered seeing a girl (myself) wipe out in front of him on a wake board at Center Hill Lake a few years back while waving to him while he was in his boat. Hee hee. Anyhow, what a party the Country Stampede was and everyone was extremely hospitable. We were in quite a dash when we got there. We had a 3pm show, plus jumbotron and interviews to do prior. The sound was great for the show and they had a huge runway jetting out from the stage. I took a huge advantage of that! We hung out for a while and got to listen to Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Little Big Town, and a little bit of Alan Jackson. We really seemed to connect with Little Big Town in particular in our chat. They are a wonderful group, and they really sing their butts off! They’ve been at it for 8 and a half years and it is so nice to see them finally getting the recognition that they have for so long deserved. Check ‘em out!
We had to roll out pretty quickly after talking with them because we had to be in Moraine, Oh. The next morning!

Saturday, June 23rd Moraine, Oh.
“Moraine Heritage Festival”

We made it to Moraine safely after about a 13 hour trip. There was some bad weather in the area, but it seemed to hold off for the show. Julie Roberts and Shenandoah were on the bill. It was a really nice relaxing day for us, and we all were starting to feel that “home itch!” One more show after this and we’re home, home, HOME!! I’d actually played this festival with a friend of mine “Thom Shepherd,” back in their first year. We got to open for Charlie Daniels.” This was a really nice hometown festival and there were a lot of crafts and rides. They had another stage that had a band playing as well and it was neat to watch them play. We did our show and then got to watch Shenandoah take the stage. They’re such a great bunch of guys and they’re still rocking the house! Thanks guys for hanging with us!

Sunday, June 24th Rockford, Il.
“Stars and Guitars” show

We rolled into Rockford pretty early today and were greeted by stage hands and awesome catering! Today’s show was with “The Wreckers” and “Jason Aldean.” We were playing on the riverfront which made it scenic and many boats had pulled in to catch the shows. We were the first up to play, followed by the Wreckers and then Jason as the headliner. This is our last show for the two week run so we all were pretty wound up! We did a pre-show interview first, and then did our show. The staff for the event took really good care of us and once again the catering rocked! They helped us surprise Trenna with a birthday cake as well. I had to act like a goober and distract her as much as I could so Eric could light the candles! It had been sitting on the table unlit when we walked up. Ha! There was a lot of cake eating on this trip! Yummy! Later that eve, we headed home!

We just want to say “Thanks” to all of the fans who came out to see us and support us!

2007-06-21T23:42:00.000-05:00

June 16th-20th 2007 - Gigs in Sauk Centre, MN. & Deadwood, SD.
“We got to be tourists in Deadwood!”

Remember, you can click on any image in this blog for the full-size picture.

Hello! We are now in West Fargo, ND., getting ready to do a show along side Joe Nichols. The past few days for us have been really fun! We did our gig in Sauk Centre, MN. (June 16th) with Trick Pony and Travis Tritt for the “Country Music Fest.” It was nice to see some of our old road friends again, hang out with them, and catch up on some chat. The show went really well and to have Becky back with us on stage with us was awesome. We felt “complete” again!
We then bussed out to Deadwood, SD. Along with Trick Pony to perform for the “Wild Bill Days” festival in Deadwood, SD. (June 17th). We fell in love with the town the minute we pulled in and we were especially excited about being there because we were going to have a few days off to see the sights and be tourists. Trenna’s dad, Delbert met us there and he’s always such a bright ray of sunshine. It was perfect because it was Father's day so at least we got to spend it with one of our dads! We did our sound check, did an interview with Nate Brown from “The Eagle” and met some special guests of the festival. One in particular was a little seven-year-old bull rider named “Tanner.” He’d just won 1st place in a bull riding championship. He was quite the little charmer, and he was happy to show us all three of his photo albums. Inside of them where many pictures of him riding in various competitions and events. It was so neat to see someone so young to have such a great interest in riding. He and Debbie chatted about horses for a good while!
After the meet and greet, we walked around a little and took in some sights. We were looking forward to doing that in depth the next few days after this show. The weather was a little bit of a concern for a while. Clouds rolled in followed by a little bit of rain. It cooled down a little, however by show time, the sun had peeked through once again. Our show went really well, I had a little bit of an issue with my wireless, but we made it through just fine. I just had to make sure that I didn’t unplug myself in the middle of the show.
We signed autographs for a while after the show and we were free afterwards. We ended up at “Saloon 10,” where The "Drew Davis Band” was playing. We’ve been running into those guys a lot lately, and it was really nice to see them again. They actually had a keyboard issue, so Becky let them use hers for their show.
We didn’t stay out too late though, we had a days worth of sight seeing to do the next day!

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June 18th Visit to Crazy Horse and Mt. Rushmore

Yay! We got to be tourists! There’s so much to write here, because we got to see so many cool things. Thanks to Trenna's Dad, our day started in downtown Deadwood where he had lined up a photo session at “Woody’s Old Time Photos.” It’s a photo studio where you could have old western/mobster type portraits taken. We thought that it would be so cool to have a few “Western” portraits taken of the band. We got to dress up in these vintage western dresses and hats along with garter belts, stogies and guns! Our first shot was a bar scene shot in which we all hung around like we worked in a brothel, and the second shot was of us playing. They happened to have an old piano that Becky could sit behind, and we rigged up a washtub bass for Debbie, consisting of a washtub, broom and some wire. We had Kim playing the jug. We had to get Trenna up on the piano in the shot, because, well, it just wouldn’t be Trenna if she wasn’t! I took my fiddle in with me as well. They turned out so well, we’ll definitely be using them in the future.
Afterwards, we went back to the hotel, dropped off our gear and were on our way to go see Crazy Horse, Mt. Rushmore and whatever else we could see in a days time. We were in such a big hurry to go that we left the hotel once and realized that we’d left our road manager “Eric” behind. Ha! we went back and picked him up - He’s been such a trooper on this trip!
We had a really sweet gentleman by the name of “Ole (O-lee)” , take us on the trip. We also had a cameraman come with us to document our trip. So one at a time, each one of us had to wear a clip mic. Don't cuss Trenna! Ha!
Our first stop was to go see the “Crazy Horse” memorial. The construction of Crazy Horse started in 1949 by a man named Korczak Kiolkowski. He’d been invited to the Black Hills on May 3rd, 1947 by Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear. Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear’s vision was to have something to let the white man know that the red man had great heroes also. Kiolkowski was almost 40 when he started the project and over the decades, he battled financial hardship, racial prejudice, injuries and advancing age. He was also a believer in the free enterprise system and felt that the building of Crazy Horse should be a non profit educational and cultural, humanitarian project built by the interested public and not the taxpayer. He twice turned down ten million dollars in potential federal funding.
The Indians chose Crazy Horse for the mountain carving because he defended his people and their way of life in the only manner he knew. Crazy horse, as far as the scale model is concerned, is to be carved not so much as a lineal likeness but more as a memorial to the spirit of Crazy Horse – to his people. With his left hand thrown out pointing in answer to the question asked by a white man, “Where are your lands now?” he replied, “My lands are where my dead lie buried.” This monument will become the world’s largest Mountain carving, standing at 563 feet when finished. To give you an idea of how large it will be, the entire Mt. Rushmore monument will be about the size of Crazy Horse's face! There are also plans to put in the Indian Museum Of North America and Indian University Of North America and Medical Training Center. Check out their website : http://www.crazyhorsememorial.org/.

After visiting Crazy Horse, we loaded back into the van and took the scenic route, driving on “Needles Highway.” There we took many beautiful photos and literally drove through rocky tunnels! There were many windy roads going through the Ponderosa pines and the rocky cliffs of the Black Hills. Each time we’d stop, we’d not only take photos, but we would pick up pretty rocks that were glittery and shiny as well. Some of them looked like they had gold flakes in them!
At Mt. Rushmore, we took the walkway all around the Monument and took pictures. Along the walkway, plaques of each of the presidents, Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln of Mt. Rushmore were displayed.
“Until the wind and the rain alone shall wear them away.” Those are the famous words of sculptor Gutzon Borglum used to describe the length of time his most famous work Mt. Rushmore, will endure.
The mountain itself was originally named after Charles E. Rushmore, a New York lawyer investigating mining claims in the Black Mountains in 1885. Borglum chose this mountain due to its height (5700 above sea level), the soft, grainy consistency of the granite, and the fact that it catches sun for the greatest part of the day. The presidents were selected on the basis of what each symbolized. George Washington represents the struggle for independence, Thomas Jefferson: the idea of government by the people. Abraham Lincoln for his ideas on equality and the permanent union of the states, and Theodore Roosevelt for the 20th century role of the United States in world affairs. The carving of Mt. Rushmore began on August 10th, 1927 and spanned a length of 14 years. What a beautiful sight it was to see!
After visiting Mt. Rushmore, we decided to stop off in Keystone for dinner at a place called “Aruba.” Afterwards we were all pretty exhausted from the day! Some of us dozed off in the van all the way back to Deadwood. Thank you again so much Ole for taking us out. We had a blast!

June 19th A wonderful day of touring in Deadwood, SD.!

Today, we got to spend the day visiting the historic town of Deadwood, SD. We’d been itching since the show to take time to see this beautiful town and to take in the history and sights. So today was our day! The town of Deadwood, is a National Historical Landmark located in the historic and scenic Black Hills of South Dakota. The architecture is Victorian which is unique to the West. The famous and infamous have called Deadwood and the Black Hills their home over the last several centuries. Lewis and Clark, Will Bill Hickok, Wyatt Earp, George Armstrong Custer, Poker Alice, the Sundance Kid, Calamity Jane, Mark Twain and many others have passed through here in search of fortune and adventure. So you can definitely get an idea of the history and stories that this city holds.
Frontier prospectors hit a fabulously rich gold strike in Deadwood Gulch, Dakota Territory 131 years ago and that was how the towns of Deadwood And Lead were born. The gold national gold rush had caused a major frenzy, luring thousands to the Black Hills in hopes to find the next great El Dorado. Gold was indeed found everywhere in the area and Deadwood became an instant metropolis in the Wilderness, surrounded by greed, gold and gunpowder. The first few years of Deadwood had no laws or order. So there were many bandits running loose and there were a lot of fights over gold claims. Entertainment consisted of theatres, bordellos and many makeshift saloons and casinos for the miners. Many lived and died here including “Wild Bill Hickok” (by the gun of Jack Mc Call) and Calamity Jane.
We walked down historic Main Street and it is an attraction in itself. It has really been kept up and preserved over the many years. There are many structures built in the 1880’s that still remain. Taxes from gambling are what saved the antique hotels, brick paving, vintage street lights and store fronts.
Several times throughout the day we caught gunfight re-enactments.
We went and visited the “Adams Museum.” It was built in 1892 and housed many beautiful artifacts, exhibits, art and readings. It really gave us an idea of what the town was like back then and how much it has grown to this day. We especially got a kick out of the photos and the 19th century clothing. They also had many guns on display and furniture. There was a section in the museum called “Ethnic Deadwood” and we read about the Jewish and Chinese communities of the town in that period. Just loads and loads of intriguing facts and information at the Adams Museum. Debbie and I especially got a kick out of reading about “Poker Alice.” She smoked stogies, dealt Farow in Deadwood and was a madam for a prostitute house in nearby Sturgis. She was known for being good with cards, men and guns. She actually met her husband by shooting his assailant at a poker game! I admit, my attention span for certain things can be rather short, but the museum kept me “present” the entire time!
We went and browsed through the Franklin Hotel est. 1903. It was extremely elaborate and lovely.
A few of us took the Ghost tour through the haunted Bullock Hotel est. 1895 and read through a notebook of ghost stories and pictures taken by guests who had stayed there.
Debbie and I ate Buffalo burgers (that rocked!) at Diamond Lil’s, a restaurant established by actor Kevin Costner, and later returned there once again to have dinner with everyone else.
We got to see where Will Bill Hickok was shot and went and had drinks at the Eagle Saloon, which had a Cherry wood bar built in 1825.
While sitting at the bar, having drinks, we had the fine opportunity to chat with a couple of gentlemen. The first gentleman was a Vietnam Vet and a participant in the re-enactments that took place daily in the city. He actually played the part of “Jack Mc Call,” the man who shot Wild Bill Hickok. He was full of history and information and eager to tell us all about it. The other gentleman was a Vietnam Vet as well. We let them both know how much we appreciated their service and it brought tears to their eyes.
We did get some good shopping in as well! Some of us took the opportunity to buy some fine sterling silver rings crafted by the Indians to take home, and some of us also picked up some nice house decor. There were all kinds of neat gifts shops, smoke shops and a Harley Davidson Store (Being that the Sturgis Bike Rally is held not to far from there every year).

What a wonderful city Deadwood is. We felt so welcome there and it was like the town took us in as family. We felt like we’d lived there for years. We so encourage anyone and everyone to make Deadwood, SD. a plan in their travels and vacations. Deadwood has a very special place in our hearts forever. Thank you so much Chuck Turbiville, Joe Hamm and Jade of the Chamber of Commerce for having us and thank you City of Deadwood for taking us in and making us your adopted daughters!

2007-06-19T01:21:00.000-05:00

Friday June 15th 2007
Hello, it’s been a very busy week and a half for us and a lot has being going on.
CMA Music Fest (Fan Fair) went extremely well and it was so nice to meet our fans and sign for them. Other than a small rainstorm, the weather was beautiful and comfortable. We started our CMA Music Fest week with a really cool interview with Steve Gill of WLAC 1510. Later on during the Festival week, we signed autographs at the “Greased Lightning” booth, the “Mary Kay” booth and the “Ya’ll Magazine” booth. We also got to do an interview with ABC Houston about the goings on and the festivities associated with the festival.
It’s was particularly slamming week for me because I’d picked up a lot of work downtown! The clubs were hopping with tourist buzz all week long and I had some good “gigging” going on all weekend.
We finished off our weekend with a performance down at the riverfront. We felt blessed that the sun was right overhead and that we were being covered by the canopy. We remember last year when the sun was right in our eyes and we fried! A special “Thanks” goes out to Kathi Atwood for lining up all of our interviews and keeping the Crush “buzz” happening.
Well, I’d told you that a lot had been going on with us lately. Unfortunately, before our show on Saturday, Becky had received a call that her sister, Roycelyn was extremely sick and that there was a possibility that they could lose her.
Roycelyn has been battling MS for many years now, and somehow she’d developed some sort of infection in her bloodstream. Immediately after our show, Becky flew to Texas to be with her. We all braced for the worst as she reported the condition of her sister. Which also placed us in a predicament. We had more shows coming up starting Wednesday, 13th at the Opryland Hotel, and then bus out on a two week midwest run right afterwards. As we heard of the not so good news coming in it looked more and more like Becky was not going to be making it back in time for the gigs. So, we immediately scrambled to find players to cover her parts. We spent a lot of time on the phone, getting passed on from one player to another trying to fill in the spot. It was extremely hard, especially with such the late notice. (1 day before!!) A lot of people we knew were either already gigging, or couldn’t break away from other engagements. Thank goodness we came across Lydia Salnikova to cover the keys on our Wednesday eve gig at Opryland. She was in the band “Bering Straits.” She is extremely talented, and she did a really good job. We also had a rockin’ guitarist named Lauren Ellis grace the stage with us. We managed to slip in a quick rehearsal prior to the show. The gig went well and both girls did a wonderful job. They both had a lot of music to cram! Lydia was unable to come out on the road with us, however Lauren was---so she joined us! We left right after the show and bussed up to Marinette, Wisconsin where we did the Porterfield Country Music Festival with Mark Chestnutt and Joe Diffie. The show went well and it was fun to hang with Mark and Joe.
Now we are in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Today is a day off for us and we spent the day at the “Mall Of America’s.” We did a lot of walking! We heard from Becky today and she will be flying back in tonight to meet us. Lauren will be flying out tomorrow morning. It’ll be nice to see our sister Becky again. we missed her! Many “Thanks” again to our two girls, Lydia and Lauren for helping us out!
We’ll be leaving for Sauk Centre, MN. tomorrow morning. We’ll be in touch!

2007-06-08T23:31:00.000-05:00

Saturday, June 2nd Orville, Ca. - “Feather Falls Casino”

Hello everyone! We’re back! All is well here, we’re just gearing up for the cma music fest getting ready to happen in downtown Nashville!
We did our show in Orville, ca. and had an absolute blast! We flew out of Nashville Friday afternoon. It seemed like we were on that plane forever. We flew into Sacramento, and we were picked up and driven an hour to Orville to the “Feather falls casino.” Our poor drummer girl, Kim was pretty beat by then because she’d traveled from Memphis before boarding the flight out of Nashville. We got to the casino and was greeted by our awesome road dude “Matt Leland.” He was filling in for us on this date as road manager and sound man. He’d actually spent our first whole summer out on the road with us through gigs and radio tour and boy, if he survived that, he can survive anything because they had us red-eyeing and buss-ing everywhere from one end of the country to the other. Thank you Matt for helping us out and congrats on your patent success! We all went and grabbed dinner and during this, we found an extremely interesting photo opportunity. Hair clips everywhere I must say! Ha., anyhow, that isn’t something you see every day. : )

The next day we were not scheduled to do sound check until 4pm. So we went and hung out by the pool. This was a really nice hotel by the way, that the casino had just built. Very cozy and everyone treated us well. Very clean and welcoming. We hung out by the pool for a while (I didn’t show up until a little while later). Unfortunately, Becky hung out by the pool a little too long because when we went back inside she was a lobster! The light breeze blowing outside had masked the potential of the hot summer sun. We all came back in just slightly sun kissed, but she fried. I gave her plenty of Tylenol and we managed to find her a leaf from an Aloe Vera plant for her to break open and put it on her skin.

We had our show later that eve (thank goodness Becky had brought a nice, loose fitting dress to perform in), and a bunch of Trenna’s family came out to see us! They were hilarious and I heard that later that night the party had continued and carried on until the wee hours of the morning. We had a great audience and it was nice to meet everyone afterwards and sign. One particular person that comes to my mind that I’ve been thinking about since the show is this lady who’d came up in our line crying. We had performed “He’s coming home” during our show and she was extremely moved by that. She had just lost her son in Iraq about a week and a half prior. She kept saying that “He went home.” And once again, we are reminded why we do what we do.

We flew out the next day and spent Sunday getting home. The flight was rough off and on, but all was well and here we are, back safely!

Will have a lot to write about CMA fest coming up. We’ll be pretty busy! Looking forward to meeting our fans! See ya’!

2007-05-24T10:37:00.000-05:00

Friday, May 18th Franklin Park, Il. Railroad Daze Festival, and Saturday, May 19th Robinsonville, Ms. at “Gold Strike Casino.”

Hey everyone! Hope all is well out there! We’ve been busy around here, not only musically (business ect.), but with our lives at home as well. So thanks for bearing with us through our times of still trying to play “catch up” after being out for 5 weeks! I, personally, had taken it upon myself to totally strip and re-stain the deck at my house! I’m pleased to say that I FINALLY finished the damned thing and I’m still finding stain on parts of my body! Ha! Anyhow, as soon as it has finished drying, I want to have everyone over for a deck party. I have opened up a heck of a can of worms because now that the deck looks brand spankin’ new, the rest of the house could use a good renewal on the paint. As Homer Simpson would say “D’OH!!” Looks like I’ll be taking “Painting 101” for the rest of the season when I’m not out on the road.

Anyhow, we had an awesome weekend. We’d left Thursday night and we were happy to have our agent/manager Bob Kinkead out with us. We’re not sure if he’s going to come out with us again after the various forms of punishment we put him through. Hee hee! I’ll leave it up to Trenna to post the “proper forms of picture blackmail” as needed.
We were delighted to be back to perform at the Railroad Daze festival in Franklin Park, IL. The weather was absolutely perfect and it was nice to see everyone! Great to hang with you again Jeff! We missed you Jim Peterik! It was nice to see you again Mayor Dan, and we really do appreciate your work towards raising money for Multiple Sclerosis. During our show, Mayor Dan arranged to have donation cans passed through the audience to raise money for M.S. He’d kept in touch with Becky since our last show because they both have loved ones who have M.S. He gave her a bandanna with various names of people who have M.S. signed on it. She was extremely touched. Thank you again so much.
They treated us to Italian lunch at a local place called “Gino’s,” were we tried various pizzas, Chicken Parmesan, and lasagna. Thank you for making us feel at home and welcomed back.

The next day, we were off to Robinsonville, Ms. to play as show with T.G. Shepard at the Gold Strike Casino. We actually stopped off in Memphis on the way to check out the huge International Barbecue festival they were holding on the riverfront. We got to hang out and walk for a few hours. I couldn't resist but to take a stroll up the famous Beale Street and take in some of the bluesy vibe. We had to move on afterwards, but we did get to drive past Graceland on the way out.
We got to the Gold Strike Casino and they were very hospitable. They had a nice greenroom ready for us- full of snacks, coffee, tea etc. They’d also given us some rooms in which to clean up in. I must say that with a lot of casinos, it’s quite a trek getting back and forth from one place to the other. Debbie and I had taken a 15 minute stroll up to one room, only for poor Debbie to realize that’d she’d left something back on the bus! Poor girl! The show was being held in their theatre, which was absolutely amazing sounding! We especially noticed the wonderful acoustics of the theatre when we would perform our slower ballads. You could hear a pin drop in there!
We got the opportunity to meet Kimmy’s friends and folks. She’s from Memphis, so she had a lot of friends that came out to the show. We had a lot of fun throughout the show and afterwards we got to go hang out in the VIP lounge of the casino where they had drinks, snacks and cookies…, chocolate chip cookies.., yummy. I ate too many. We hung out, chilled, laughed a lot and turned some heads. We proceeded to pick on Bob, our poor manager and make his eve a living hell. Ha.., well, we all had fun! Thanks again T.G. and Gold Strike for having us!

2007-05-07T13:59:00.000-05:00

Friday, May 4th 2007
Featherlite International Dealer Meeting in Cresco, Iowa

Howdy! We just got in from our date out in Cresco, Iowa for the Featherlite Dealer Meeting, and may we say, what a fine bunch of hospitable people! They made us feel so welcome and we were so happy to be able to travel out to Iowa do a show for them. In return, they ended up hooking us up with an awesome trailer and even loads of cool Featherlite clothing. You guys took a big gamble setting us five women lose in your “swag” closet!

The gig went very well and this was officially Kim Trammel’s (our new drummer girl) first trip out on the tour bus. She didn’t sleep too well the first night on the bus, but the second night, she did much better! She also had to learn what “getting your bus legs” meant. Pretty much it’s like learning how to walk again in a moving vehicle. I guess it would be kind of the same comparison to getting your “sea legs.” (play this game)

The venue fed us plenty of barbeque ribs, chicken, potatoes, ect., and after our show, they took us on a grand tour of the various trailers that you had to choose from. We were so blown away at how many trailers they had and the different designs/styles depending on it’s purpose. They had these particular horse trailers that actually doubled as living quarters! So you could haul 3-4 horses and also have a separate area in which to live in, with a full on shower, toilet, kitchen, living area with an extending side and a sleeping area! Kudos to Featherlite trailers!

Thanks again for having us, we really hope to see you all again soon!

2007-05-01T22:44:00.000-05:00

Friday, April 27th 2007
Visits with Froggy WOGI 98.3, and Y108 WDSY in Pittsburgh, PA.
“Officially the last day!”

Here we are! We’ve reached the final, (at least for now) day of radio tour! We have two stations left to visit and they’re right here in Pittsburgh!

First, we were off to Froggy WOGI 98.3 to go see Frank Bell, Dave Anthony and crew. They were so nice to us! They gave us froggy shirts, froggy cups and stickers! We walked into the station and there was cool frog stuff EVERYWHERE! I especially got a kick out of this because I am an avid frog collector! We played our show for them, got to do liners and visited for a while. We also met with Donnie from Boogie Street Custom Guitars who gave us some pretty cool shirts. We are anxious to see what kind of instruments they have! Because of me being so excited about all the frog paraphernalia, On the way out the door, I was surprised with a froggy bobble head! It’s so cute. Thank you so much guys - I love it!

Next up was WDSY Y108 in Pittsburgh where we had lunch at the station with Jane, Stoney Richards, Calvin, Mike and crew! They also recorded our live performance. You can WATCH it HERE.
Many congrats to Jane on her recent wedding! Lunch was fun and we found out that Calvin is the troublemaker of the crew. (Of course, I think Trenna egged him on a bit) HA! We got to go on-air with Mike for a while and he told us how much he loved our version of the Star-Spangled Banner. Our very own Becky Priest arranged our version so we were so excited when we were asked to perform it live on the air! They recorded us singing it and want to use it again on the air. Yea Baby!
Also while we were at WDSY, we met Heather who was taking around a Virginia Tech Banner to spread hope and pay homage to the victims of that horrible day. We want to thank Heather for letting us sign the banner and for giving up her time to help others. We love meeting people that make a difference in this world. You rock girl!

Well, that’s all for now! We’ll be flying home and getting in this eve. It’s funny, but it really didn’t seem like a 5 week stretch and the last two weeks went by so quickly. We’re all excited to get home, but we’ll have a lot of catching up to do. We’ll be meeting the bus the next day, start the process of “moving out.” That’s always an adventure! Thanks again to all of our radio reps. for putting up with us out here! We had so much fun with all of you. A special thank you goes out to Donny Michael of http://www.gigtours.com/ for being a wonderful bus driver and bus host! Also Thanks to all our new friends (and our old favorites) at radio who took the time to stop, listen and to hang out with us. We hope to see you all again really soon!!

This will not be the end of the blog! We plan on continuing to write about our travels as they come. So stay tuned for some more craziness from the girls of Cowboy Crush! Till next time - Renae'

2007-04-27T22:51:00.000-05:00

Thursday, April 26th , 2007

Visits to BOB in Harrisburg, Pa. And WCAT, Harrisburg, Pa.

remember you can click on any picture for a full-sized one.

Hello! Well were up and on our way to BOB! We were looking forward to our visit again remembering how fun these guys were the last time with visited the station. We got to the station and had Holly, Nancy, Neuman and Joe come on board the bus to hang out and listen to some of our new tunes. While parked outside the station, we noticed the coolest piece of artwork! It was a kite on a straw/string! We couldn’t help but to take a lot of photos of it and then to take our pictures around it. Fun visit! Thank you!

Visit to WCAT in Harrisburg, Pa.
We then got to got meet with Will Robinson and Rich for a lunch at Panera Bread (now known by us crushers as Pantera Bread! Ha!) It was nice to see Will again. The last time we’d seen him, we’d went and rode go carts and played an extremely intense game of air hockey! I still am the reigning air hockey champion! Whoohoo! It was cool seeing Rich and Will and playing for them.

We were now clear for the rest of the day and on our way to Pittsburgh where we were going to meet up with my parents for dinner! Cool!

My parents got to the hotel around 7pm, and we all climbed into a hotel shuttle and went downtown to find some dinner. We ended up going to a place called “Bar Louie’s.” We’d had dinner at a Bar Louie’s before and we really had enjoyed it. It was so cool to have my folks here to hang out with us and we had a blast! One extremely cool thing about this whole five week tour has been that we’ve all been able to hook up with each of our families at some point of time or another. That means so much to us because we do not get to see our families very often, so if we happen to be close to some, we always try to make a visit happen! Thanks mom and pops for coming out!
Well, tomorrow is officially the last day of our radio tour. We still cant believe that it’s been five weeks! We’re all pretty anxious to get home to see our kids, men, doggies and kitty cats. Yay! We’ve been joking around about what we’ll be doing now that we’re going to be home for more than one day. We’ll all be calling each other wanting to see what the other one is doing!

2007-04-25T23:33:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, April 25th 2007
Radio visits to Kat country 96 FM in Allentown, Pa. WGGY Froggy 101 in Wilkes-barre, Pa. And with WIOV “The Big “I” 105 in Lancaster, Pa.

Hello! We slept like rocks last night at the Sheraton in Allentown, Pa. I think that we’re all finally caught up from our weekend of running and performing shows. So today, we were on the move again. Our first stop was to Kat Country 96 FM in Allentown to see Jerry Padden. We actually already knew Jerry from a year ago while out on tour. We’d been playing in Allentown and he was so kind as to take us on a trip to Walmart to go buy us skivs! Bless his heart! Ha! Talk about such a sweet man, so full of patience! Anyhow, it was so nice to see him again and to catch up and chat. What a nice way to start out our day. So after playing for Jerry and some others who’d stopped in, we were on our way to our next destination.

Visit to WGGY Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Froggy 101
We learned what a “dump button” is. Ha!

Well, from here on things got really interesting for us! We dropped in at Froggy 101 and were greeted by Carolyn Drosey. She led us into the conference room where we met Doc Medek, Skeeter, Kelley Green and friends. Right from the start, Kelley and Trenna were off to the races with jokes and craziness! Hanging out with Kelly was especially hilarious! She was making us laugh so hard that our faces hurt! She and Trenna were going off about everything from bra sizes (making the men in the room blush), to commenting and cutting “interesting” jokes about the food that we were eating (still making the men in the room blush. ha!). We played our acoustic show for them and then we went on into the studio to do a 30-minute interview/ performance for Skeeter on the air.
What was about to happen next, the sister in this group has chosen not to have her name revealed, so I’ll respect that…, unless she decides otherwise. We were cutting up big time during the live interview! So we were just having a good ole’ time when “Sister X” tripped into a chair, stumbled backwards and almost fell into a soap dispenser hanging on the wall. While trying to catch her fall, she said “S*#t!” All of the sudden, the room went silent and immediately Skeeter was on the radio gear working diligently to “cancel out” the profanity before it went through the delay and hit the airwaves. Henceforth I introduce to you the “Dump Button.”
It was the stations' first official test of the “dump button,” and we’re pleased to say that it worked wonderfully! Basically, there is a small-second delay that cuts off any transmission and leaves silence on the air to ensure that there is no FCC violation which we were told is a $325,000 fine! There was a lot of sweating going on after that one! The crazy thing about it was that after the interview, everyone came into the studio giving “Sister X” high fives! Great job Skeeter and crew on the save! Who would’ve thought that an all girl group would be the first to test the “Dump Button”!!!! It kind of reminded me of “The Christmas Story” when little Ralphie had said “Fudge,” but it was really the queen mother of all dirty words that he’d said. Everything at that very moment moved in slow motion! We have decided not to watch anymore South Park prior to any live radio interviews from here on! --No harm done, but LESSON LEARNED!

Visit to WIOV “The Big “I” 105 in Lancaster, Pa.

We arrived in Lancaster around 5ish. We met with R.J. McKay and also had the opportunity to meet Les who has been a volunteer for the fire and ambulance services ECAA. It was nice to catch up with R.J. (ha, we actually had two R.J.’s on this visit!). We hung out and talked for a good while and then it was time to hit up some good grub. We ended up going to a historic place called “The Lincoln Home,” in downtown Lancaster. Legend has it that Abraham Lincoln used to stay there, and the place reeked of history. Many photos hung on the walls, along with letters written by Abraham Lincoln himself! It was a good dinner with a historic atmosphere. R.J. joined us and we talked about cooking and wine tasting. It was a fine eve!

I think that after today, we’ve officially entered the “slap happy” phase of our tour. It’s kind of expected after being out as long as we have. When some people crack after being out so long, they express it in different ways, some for the better, some for the worse. We’ve expressed it via photos. We would like to post some of this silliness for your enjoyment. Rule 2: Never let the girls of Cowboy Crush get a hold of a camera during a “Slap Happy”/”Cracking” phase.
Good times!

2007-04-24T21:53:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, April 24th 2007
Visits to WXCY in Havre De Grace, Md. , WPUR in Atlantic City, and WXTU in Philadelphia

Hello there! We’re rolling again! We finally got some good rest after the weekend and we just finished our visit with everyone at WXCY 103.7 in Havre De Grace, Md. We had a pretty full bus and a great visit! We got to meet Dave Hovel, Mike, Paula, Brittian and Ken. Thank ya’ll for listening!
We’re now on our way to Atlantic City to visit with WPUR. It’s hard to believe that we’ve been on the road for almost 2 weeks straight, and that we’ve been on radio tour for five weeks! Doesn’t seem like that long at all. Time flies by so quickly out here! Well, we’re stopping at a truck stop, talk to you again soon!

Visit with WPUR in Atlantic City, NJ.

We got into Atlantic City, N.J. (actually on the outskirts) a little before 2pm to visit with Joe Kelly at WPUR.
He came on to the bus and brought Jennifer and Susie along to hang out and listen as well. We got to talk to Joe about baseball because later this eve he had to go be an Umpire at a little league game. His son plays little league, but wasn’t playing this particular game tonight. So we got to play and visit with them for a little while longer then we were on our way to a cool seafood place that Joe had suggested called “East Bay Crab and Grill” where we had yummy crab cakes for lunch! They had huge oyster crackers in jars at the tables and I couldn’t help but to snack on plenty of those as well. With our full bellies, we were now off to Philadelphia for our final meet for the day with WXTU.

Meeting/dinner with WXTU, Philadelphia, PA.

We made it into Philadelphia 3 hours later, there was a lot of rush hour traffic! We were scheduled to meet Roy Land and his wife, Rachel. Congratulations newlyweds! WXTU has been a longtime supporter of Cowboy Crush and we’ve played various events for them before such as the Tweeter Center, Triple Nickel, and their birthday bash. We played for them first before going into Longhorn (Trenna’s favorite!) and having dinner. Roy said that “We definitely didn’t suck!.” Ha! We asked him if we could okay that for print and he agreed! We talked about movies, he loves comedies like “The Blues Brothers,” and “Blazing Saddles.” His wife Rachel, however is more into books and she and Debbie talked a lot about that. Rachel is planning to open up her own bookstore. You go, girl! We’ll have to stop in and visit you when you open it up! We promise not to cause too much of a ruckus while we’re there. Great dinner and a great visit! Hope to see you all again soon!
We’re now on the road again, heading towards Allentown, Pa. To stay the night. It looks like we’ll be touring Pennsylvania for the rest of the tour. We’ll be in Pittsburgh Thursday eve and it’s looking like my mom, dad and brother may be coming up to hang for dinner! Yay! My hometown, Moundsville, W.Va. is only 45 minutes from Pittsburgh, so it’ll be nice to see my folks.

Okay, before I close out for the night, I’ve just been informed by Trenna that I must make a special mention about our radio rep. R.J. Meacham. He’s quite the character, and whenever we’re out on the road with him, we all goof off like brother’s and sisters!
A few years back, R.J. and Trenna had been rough housing through the streets of Rochester, NY. when she’d accidentally chipped his tooth with one of those huge rings she wears. He says that he chipped her ring with his tooth, but we know differently! So we wanted to leave you with this extra special picture of R.J. to close out with! Saaaaalute!

2007-04-24T12:30:00.000-05:00

Monday, April 23rd 2007 Beginning of week 5
Visits with 97.3 “The Eagle” in Norfolk, Va. and WMZQ in Washington, D.C.
(Oh yea! We made it through the weekend too!)

Click on any image for the full-size picture

Okay, Here we are! We made it through the weekend and boy, are we beat! We’re pulling into our hotel in Aberdeen, Maryland. We’ll all be catching up on our rest tonight. The weekend was awesome!

Our weekend got off to a great start by flying first class (Thank you Neal and 903 for that!) to our first gig in Waxahachie, TX. The flight service was extra nice; the seats were wider with more foot room and they were giving us free drinks and snacks before the plane even took off! My favorite thing about it (and I’m sure that every musician who has to carry their instrument on board can relate to this) is that you also got the opportunity to board the plane a little bit earlier to find a safe place for your prized possession (your instrument) and not risk it being stuffed under the plane to be potentially crushed. It’s always been a nail biting and intense situation for my fiddles and me because I’ve had things broken before on flights even when they are tucked away in a flight case! But- No worries whatsoever on this flight!

We got into Waxahachie later that night and we were staying at the Hampton Inn. Unfortunately, Becky and I were starving! We didn’t grab anything at the airport because we’d thought that we’d have the opportunity to eat either on the way to the hotel or at the hotel. We didn’t stop, and there wasn’t any food being served at the hotel. Our driver had to run off, and Becky and I were stuck wondering how we were going to get some food this late in Waxahachie.
How sweet it was for a man named Brandon, who was working at the front desk, to let us borrow his car and drive it a few miles up to an IHOP to grab a couple of omelets to go! Thanks Brandon!

Saturday, April 21st 2007 Waxahachie, TX. with Neal McCoy, Daryl Singletary, Daryl Worley and The Drew Davis Band

We got up casually the next day, tried to rest as much as we could because we knew that the next few nights were going to be pretty rough sleep wise.
It was an absolutely beautiful day, perfect for the party. They had a stretch Hummer come to the hotel to pick us up, along with Daryl and Daryl (ha!).
The drive was about 30 minutes and the 903 party was being held on “Byrum Ranch.” It was 500 acres of beauty with a lot of wide open spaces, donkeys, cattle, and a lake. Neal, along with his crew and everyone else, greeted us as we arrived. There was a lot of activity going on with the stage being set up. The party was for the start of Neal’s new label called “903 Records”. 903 is the area code for Longview, TX. which is where Neal is from. We all went and hung out on Neal’s band bus for a while and we took time to introduce our new “Crush Drummer” Kim to everyone.
We all got to eat some fine barbeque and before we knew it was time for us to get on stage! They’d actually flown in Jack Hanna to be the MC for the evening and he introduced us for our show. We were so honored to get the party started! We did our show, and spent the rest of the evening hanging out with folks and watching the other bands play. Becky had her sister and mother come and hang out and we all had a blast. There were quite a few people there for the party and it was a great atmosphere. Much Thanks goes out to Shawn and Jan Byrum, and Neal for having us! We hung out most of the night, but we had to be on our way because we had an early call (5am!) to head out to Biloxi in the morning. The performances were AWESOME!

Sunday, April 22nd, 2007
The Crawfish Festival, Biloxi, MS. - (Show with Gary Allan)

We didn’t really get to sleep till around midnight Sat/early Sun. We had lobby call at 4:45am. We made it though and we were on our way to catch our flight to Biloxi! We flew out of Dallas with a connecting flight through Houston, TX. We were all excited about this gig for many reasons. Becky, Debbie and I had played many gigs down on the Gulf Coast in previous years and we had not been down there in a long time. We were anxious to see whom we’d run into while there. We’ve missed our friends from the coast and some of them we’d kept in touch with throughout the years, however some we’d lost touch with over time. We were also concerned as well about the renovations in that area since hurricane Katrina. We were excited to play and to potentially run into some people that we hadn’t seen in years, but were bummed to see all the damage Biloxi had been inflicted with. It was hard to find our bearings as far as what used to be where as we drove down highway 10 along the gulf coast. So many things had been wiped out, yet there were beautiful renovations happening as well. It was so cool that in spite of all of the damage, that they were moving on and having the Festival. Everyone was so sweet and in such great spirits.
We did get to connect back up with some friends of ours, how nice it was to see them (Hey Johnny, little Caleb and Folks! Hello Bill and Tom!) So there we were, doing a show right there on the gulf coast, right on the ocean and in the sun, oh yea-- the sun. I got some major sun! A little too much for my fair skin! We got to hang out and sign autographs for a while, but we ended up having to run out soon after because we had to fly out of Mobile at “O Dark Thirty” in the morning. 6am!

Monday, April 23rd 2007 - beginning of week 5 North East radio tour! Visits to 97.3 The Eagle in Norfolk, Va. & WMZQ in Washington, D.C.

We left the hotel around 4:45am to go to the airport and catch our flight to Norfolk. We had one quick stop off in Charlotte before getting into Norfolk to meet our bus. Ahhh….. the bus, we love our bus…. it was so nice to see ‘home’ again! We were all pretty beat, but we threw on an extra stout pot of coffee and we were immediately on our way to go visit 97.3 “The Eagle” in Norfolk, Va.

We got to the station and were met by “Jim,” a very sweet man who’d been in the Navy for 30 years and a chief on a submarine. He helped us with all of our gear and led us to where we were going to be doing our on air interview and performance. He had on a Jack Sparrow shirt (Becky’s favorite) so we had to get a picture of that! Afterwards, we were joining contest winners and others for some lunch and to perform a private show for them in the conference room. We also had the pleasure to hang and interview with Karen. That was fun! We found out that her sister had been diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 31. Unfortunately, she lost the battle and Karen is keeping her sisters’ memory alive and has written a book of her journey. You can read more about her story on http://www.tracesjourney.com/ Thank you Karen for being active in breast cancer awareness and for sharing your sister’s story to help others through your experience. Trenna could especially relate to Karen because her mom had battled breast cancer recently and is a survivor! We love you Trisha!
After the interview, we went to the conference room and got to join others for a music show and some lunch. We got to meet and talk with John Shomby (operations manager/program director) and Mark McKay (Music director). We also got to meet Ed and Ken who were also in the Navy. Ken was a great guitar picker. We jammed a little bit on some jazz stuff. He said that he didn’t get to play very often because of his duty, but we encouraged him to keep on playing whenever he can!

Visit with WMZQ in Washington, D.C.

We got into D.C. and met up with Meg, Kim, Deena and Christy. Girl power! We kept kidding around with our radio rep. R.J. Mecham about him being totally out numbered by us women. We ate at Houston’s Restaurant and girl-talked. The Caymus Conundrum wine was excellent and we talked about golf and Texas! After dinner, we all went out to the bus and we played for them. It was a fun eve!

We had a really cool day, it was nice to visit with everyone and we hope to catch up with them again soon. Time to drive to the hotel and get some much-needed REST! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

2007-04-24T11:27:00.000-05:00

Friday, April 20th 2007
Visit to WQDR in Raleigh, N.C.

Today we got to drop in at WQDR in Raleigh, N.C. to visit with Billy, Lisa and the gang. They had us over for some lunch and we got to perform our acoustic show for them as well. It was a lot of fun and we had a blast hanging out with everyone at the station! This was officially the last day of our Southeast portion of our radio tour. A thanks goes out to our label rep. Mike Rogers for hanging with us!
We were due to fly out to Dallas today, so we parked the bus so we could take some time to prepare our gear, luggage, ect for the flight out.
We’re all extremely excited to go play the Waxahachie date with Neal Mc Coy and the guys. They’re actually flying us down first class! How sweet of them to give us such cool treatment! Becky worked with Neal a few summers back and was even in Neal’s “Billy’s Got His Beer Goggles On” video. He’s been a friend of ours for a while and we are all excited to get to open for him. We’ll also have the pleasure to hang out with Daryl Worley, Daryl Singletary and The Drew Davis Band. It’s going to be a lot of fun!
After the Texas date, we’ll be flying out to Biloxi, MS to perform at a Crawfish Festival. Being back in Biloxi will be extremely special for Becky, Debbie and I because we used to play at Treasure Bay Casino and the Grand Casino on a regular basis in years past. So we all have a bunch of special memories and not to mention a lot of friends in the Gulf Coast area that we are excited to hook up with again. We are looking forward to running into those old friends! That’s all for now…..will write again soon!

2007-04-20T00:21:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, April 18th 2007
Visits to WSSL, WESC in Greenville, S.C. and WCOS in Columbia, S.C.

We got our day off to a cool start by going by WSSL –WESC in Greenville, S.C. to do our acoustic show and visit with Kix Layton, John Landrum and Steve Geofferies. They had a really neat little “showcase room” that they’d designated for live, acoustic performances in an intimate setting. It had a little stage with two small guitar lamps on each end. The room kind of carried that voodoo vibe and all we would’ve needed was some incense to burn while playing! They all came in to listen, and hang out. After the show, we got to meet Benny as well. He handled promotions at the station. He had some really cool stories to share with us and some neat photos of a band that he used to be in with his wife.
After performing and visiting, we walked with Kix and John to a place called “Sticky Fingers” to have lunch. Wonderful barbeque and great company! The downtown area of Greenville where we walked looked so pretty, we hated to have to run out so quickly, but we had to run on to Columbia, S.C.

WCOS Columbia, S.C. visit
We then stopped off in Columbia, S.C. to meet with Glen Garrett and L.J. Smith.
They came on the bus and hung out with us for a while. We played for them and chatted. L.J. was very complementary to Debbie’s bass playing, he then revealed that he played bass too. They led us inside to the station where we did some liners for them. We caught a glimpse of L.J.’s office. He had a really neat aquarium in there with “Nemo” and “Dory” fish!

Visit to WWNU in Columbia, S.C.
Okay, on this next visit, the pictures will just have to do a lot of the explaining! We arrived in Columbia, checked into our hotel and then headed up to WWNU where we met Rick Taylor and Tyler Ryan. We met Tyler Ryan first and right from the get go, Trenna and he were quick witted, full of fire, and great “sparring partners” throughout the interview!
Another really funny moment was when Tyler’s mom rang him on his cell phone and Trenna actually answered! We’re not really sure how his mother handled that, but at the moment it was hilarious. After playing and doing the interview, we all went to “Mc Doogles, where we hung out at the bar for a while with Rick and Tyler. Tyler was a trip (see photo)! I did get to chat with Rick. He had only been at the station for a few weeks, coming from Las Vegas, NV. He and his wife have moved roughly 25 times since he’s been in radio! It was really interesting to hear about his history in radio and the different places it’s taken him to and all of his accomplishments. We had a fun time with Tyler and Rick, but we had to call it a night because we had to head out in the morning! It was also unfortunate because there was some sort of violin display going on around town in which 30 different artists took bodies of violins and turned them into their own works of art.

Thursday, April 19th 2007
Visits to WEZL 103.5 and WNKT, Charleston, S.C.
Today we were off to Charleston, S.C. First we stopped to see Reid Thrush and Kenny Sherbert of WEZL. We invited them onto the bus and got to play for them and visit for a bit. They were especially moved by our special song for the troops called “He’s Coming home.” There’s a lot of troop presence in Charleston and this is the town where a lot of the troops are brought home via C-17 planes. We would be honored to come back to Charleston to play a show for our troops soon!

Visit to WNKT - We were then on our way to meet with Brian Driver of WNKT, Charleston, N.C. We played for him on the bus and then we were off to lunch to a place called “ Morgan Creek Grill” in the “Isle Of Palm.” It was a pretty bay area with a lot of cool boats and water front homes. Becky and Brian talked about the dance hall scene around the Dallas. Brian had lived in Dallas and Becky had played many clubs and dance halls in the Dallas area. Debbie got to talk with him a lot about Branson, Missouri and Bass Pro Shop in Springfield, Missouri because Brian had also lived in Joplin, Missouri. So we all had plenty to talk about!

So we’re now on the road to Raliegh, N.C.
We have one more radio station visit, then we fly out to Texas to do a special show with Neal McCoy in Waxahachee. After that, we’ll be going to Biloxi, M.S. to play the Crawfish Festival. A couple of busy, yet fun days ahead of us! See ya'll soon!

2007-04-18T16:12:00.000-05:00

Monday, Tuesday April 16th and 17th 2007
Week 3 South East Radio visits

Click on any image for the full size picture.

Here we are! Getting ready to start on week three of our radio tour visits! This week we’ll be focusing on the S.E. portion of the country with Mike Rogers.
We had a few days off at home to regroup, do laundry and to switch out busses. Yep, we moved to a different bus! The previous one was scheduled to be sent out elsewhere so we had to move all of our stuff onto a new bus. It’s so crazy how settled in you can become on a 45 foot space. You literally move in and it becomes home! Another funny thing about moving to a different bus is that you have to relearn where and how to pack things and re-organize them. It’s also quite entertaining figuring out how to open the various “push button” doors, turning on lights, working T.V. remotes, and even flushing the toilets!
So here we are, once again heading out of downtown Nashville and I couldn’t help but to once again capture the moment of beauty and thinking of how blessed we are to be doing what we’re doing. I couldn’t help but to stop the girls in midst of their conversations and have them take in the special moment and reflect where we’ve come from and what we’ve done to get to this point. How cool!

We’re heading to Asheville, NC. To see K-99 Kiss Country.

Once we got to Asheville, we invited Zach, Georgy, Chelsea, Brian and Jeff onto the bus to listen and hang with us. We played them some of our tunes and later that eve we had dinner with Jeff Davis and Brian Hatfield at a place called “Flatrock.” Neat place and wonderful Tilapia! Debbie found out that Jeff was born in Huntington, Indiana, which was only an hour from where she’d been born. Also she was intrigued to find out that he had had a book from the radio station “WOWO” which used to host barn dance bands back in the 20’s and 30’s. That struck her as cool since her grandpa used to be in a barn dance band and they used to do that whole Indiana circuit.
Trenna and I talked, showed pictures and shared stories with Brian Hatfield about our pets. It was a really good dinner and it was nice talking with Brian and Jeff. Thanks for hanging with us!

Tuesday, April 17th 2007
Visits with WSOC Charlotte, N.C., WKKT and WTQR Greensboro, N.C.

Today we rolled onto Charlotte N.C. to meet Rick Mc Cracken, Stacey, Chele and D.J. of WSOC. They all came on the bus and we played for them. They would’ve been able to have lunch with us except that they all were a day behind on their work due to power outages following the storms that came through here the day before. We went on to lunch and actually got to hook up with some close friends of ours from Charlotte. Hey Bonnie and Sarah, great to see you!

Dinner at “Table” with John Roberts of WKKT Cat Country.

After a few hours of chill time, we were off to this cool restaurant called “Table” to meet up with John Roberts and his wife Chris. The place was elaborate! We hung out in the bar area for a few rounds and taking in the atmosphere before they arrived. It was most definitely some of the best food that we’d ever had. I actually tried Bison for the first time! It was really tasty and still as healthy as chicken. We talked about American Idol and Canada (that’s where they were from). It was John’s birthday so we had a desert brought to him (and it was yummy!). Speaking of deserts, the Bison was awesome, but we got to try their banana foster. The chef made it for us right there (at one point it flamed up really high!), and it tasted great. Finally, we made it out to the bus and only because they were close friends with Mike Rogers, (our S.E. radio rep. who’s out with us), did they get to see a “crazier” goofier side of Cowboy Crush. Between Debbie’s famous Grinch face imitation and my Chewbacka impression and just goofiness all around from all of us, it made for an extra fun acoustic show and visit.
Another cool part to the bus show was that a close dear friend to Debbie, me and the band showed up to watch us play. So nice to see you Jenna! Debbie and I hung out with her for a while after the meet and caught up on talk. So we probably didn’t call it a night until around 1am! Yikes! I'm going to bed! More tomorrow........

2007-04-15T10:51:00.000-05:00

Country Thunder; Florence, AZ. -Thursday, April 12th 2007

Remember, you can click on any image in this blog and see the full size picture.

Hello there! We made it back home Friday afternoon after our gig at Country Thunder, so we’re now just catching up on some “blog-age.” Are you familiar with that song by “Kansas” called “Dust In The Wind?” Well, that song was running through our heads as we prepared to take the stage at Country Thunder. We’d caught a small glimpse of what strong winds can do in the middle of a desert when driving from Bakersfield to Phoenix the other day, but we’d never imagined what it would be like to play a show in that same situation!
It wasn’t too bad as we left our hotel in Phoenix, however as we got farther out into the desert and closer towards Florence (45 minute drive), the, the desert winds started kicking up and we could see the dirt devils tossing around! The sun was still out though off and on and the temperature was comfortable.
Country Thunder is a major happening, and the fact that it is such a big outdoor event,event; it has to be held out in the middle of a HUGE spread of land.
We’ve played four of these events in the past, and all of them have required a lot of land! Country Thunder out in Arizona is awesome! It’s like one giant country music party in the desert!
So we got to the venue, and got our bus settled in. They had catering for all of the performers outside, so we helped ourselves to some good grub. Afterwards we had some interviews with “Jay” and “Big Shoe Stew,” of KMLE 108, a pre-show jumbo-tron interview with KNIX 102.5, and the Florence Newspaper.
The wind was kicking up a little bit more by then and it was looking like we were going to be in for a very “interesting” show. We were told that a dust storm was heading our way and that the winds were going to get up to 50-60 miles an hour. We headed out anyhow because the show must go on!
We were quick to set up our gear, and we all wore sunglasses, not because of the sun that was no longer shining through, but because of the rushes of wind that would blow sand and dust in our faces as we played. During the show, Debbie’s bass doubled as a parasail, and Trennas’ hair would lash wildly in her face as she sang. She was unable to move her microphone stand because the stage crew had used a roll of duct tape to fasten in down to the stage due to the wild wind. Becky’s keyboards was shaking too. Kim’s cymbals danced back and forth in the wind, and if the stage crew hadn’t have taped those down as well, the audience would’ve caught sightings of what would’ve looked like UFO’s sailing out into the air! It was a fight for me to even keep my fiddle and bow in my hands as I played. I looked out and the visibility was becoming less and less as the dust and sand kicked up. But we played on and in spite of all of the craziness it all went well!
We signed autographs after the show, unfortunately the temperature had dropped and it became pretty chilly, but it was all worth meeting every single person in line, signing hats, pictures, tee shirts and taking photos.
It’s always such an honor and privilege to play Country Thunder. We had a blast, and its days like that, that remind us of how dedicated Country Music fans are, because the weather came in and they didn’t budge! Thanks for hanging in there with us!

2007-04-11T21:56:00.000-05:00

Tues April 10- Visits to KNCI in Sacramento, Ca., KAT country 103 in Modesto, Ca., 93.7 Kiss Country in Fresno, CA.
Wednes. April 11– Visits to 93.7 (studio) Kiss Country, KJUG in Viasalia, Ca. and KUZZ in Bakersfield, Ca.

It’s been a busy few days for us out here in the West! Our goal has been to try to visit as many stations as possible prior to our gig coming up Thursday (tomorrow) at Country Thunder.
It was quite a trek getting from Salt Lake City, Utah out to Sacramento! Kudos goes out once again to our awesome bus driver, Donny Michaels (www.gigtours.com) for making it happen all while keeping us cozy and safe.
One of the cool things about the Sacramento visit was that some of Trenna’s family/friends happened to be close in the area and were able to stop by to hang out with us. Her dad Delbert, along with his friend Doreen and also Trenna’s Uncle Tom and Aunt Marianne came to join in on the fun. We got to catch up with them and have breakfast at the hotel prior to our radio visit.
Our first radio visit was with KNCI, Sacramento, Ca. We had the pleasure of meeting and having on board Mark Evans, Nate and Matt. We had a nice visit with them and played them some of our songs. Hope to see you again soon! Trenna’s family also joined us on the bus and got to listen to us perform our acoustic set.
After the bus show, we had to say goodbye to Trenna’s folks and roll on to KAT Country 103 in Modesto, Ca. We went into the station where we met “Bear,” Dee, Nate, Ray, Roper, Denee, Jenae, and Lenee (Wow, that’s a lot of –“ae’s!). It was a really cool station visit and we took a lot of pictures (behave yourself, Roper!). Thanks for all of your hospitality!
We were then on our way to Fresno, Ca. where we were to meet Jody Jo Mize, Steve Pleshe and Katrina of “KISS Country 93.7” for dinner at “Flemings.” Dinner was great (especially the Austrailian lobster) and so were the Cosmopolitans. We introduced Jody Jo to the Cosmopolitan and she enjoyed them. We also got to try an extremely special wine, a Remo Farina Amarone della Valpolicella, Italy. Cool vibe, great company and intriguing conversation throughout the dinner as Debbie and Katrina talked all about horses. Becky and Jody along with Katrina, showed pictures of their beautiful kids. After the dinner, we invited them over to the bus where we got to play for them. We were scheduled to play for them the next day and they urged us to stop in a little bit earlier so we could perform on the air at the station. We called it a night afterwards, except for a few of us (Debbie, Donny, Eric and I) decided to hang out “outside the bus” and watch a few boxing matches before turning in. It was so wild because there is actually a flat screen t.v. built in under the bus in a bay that comes out! I didn’t have a clue that it was there until last night. It was quite the sight, and Donny had set up a series of lawn chairs around the t.v. so we could sit down and hang out for a while! So there we were, camping out behind the Ramada Inn, watching boxing! All we needed was a good campfire and a lake.

Wednesday, April 11th 2007
Visits to 93.7 KISS Country in Fresno.Ca., KJUG in Viasalia, Ca. and KUZZ in Bakersfield, Ca.

We started off the morning with a visit to 93.7 KISS Country. We got to meet up once again with Jody Jo Mize and Steve Pleshe. We had the pleasure of meeting John Garabo and interviewing with him on the morning show. We hit it off with him wonderfully on the air and we kept him guessing at what we were going to do next to either make him blush or leave him speechless. We got to talking with him and we learned that there was this popular food item called “Tri Tips,” which are indigenous to that section of the country and that it was a type of briscuit sandwich-more on that later. We were priveleged to play a few songs acoustically and we had some calls come in. John loved the sound of the fiddle. Thanks Jody, Steve, John and Katrina for your time!

We were now on our way to go visit a long time supporter of our group “KJUG” in Viasalia, Ca.
We remembered the studio from a few years back, and it’s coolness factor with all of the antique radios displayed throughout the station. We met up with Adam Jeffries, Jenna Jackson and the rest of the crew at KJUG and did an acoustic show for them. We had a really good time! They turned us on to a place called “Big Bubba’s Bad To The Bone BBQ,” where they told us we could get some of those Tri Tips we mentioned earlier...and we did! I will say that the Oriental Salad that I had rocked and I ate every bite! Thanks KJUG for the cool recommendation!

After that visit and picking up a to go lunch from Big Bubba’s, we were on our way to KUZZ in Bakersfield, Ca. to see Evan Bridwell and Donna James. When we got there, Evan and Donna came on the bus and visited with us. They’ve known us for a few years as well and it was nice to catch up with them. They as well have been keeping up with us and our endeavors and were eager to hear about our goings on. We took the opportunity to play for them and they expressed intrest in having us back to come and play at the “Buck Owens Crystal Palace.” How cool would that be?! We hope to do that soon!

We’re now on our way to Phoenix, Az. to stay the night. We’re playing a show at “Country Thunder” tomorrow outside of Phoenix in Florence, Az. We’re extremely excited to be going there! It’ll also be our first “official gig” with our new drummer girl, Kim Trammel. Looking forward to doing a full on live show and rocking the house. The temperature is supposed to be pretty comfortable.., we hope! Right now, we’re heading through Barstow, and it is extremely windy right now. You can really feel it tugging on the bus. It’s also tossing up a lot of dirt and sand. We got off the bus to go get a sandwich and we all received a mouth and eye full of dirt and grit. Hopefully it’ll tame down a little and give our bus driver a break. We should get into Phoenix at midnight. Talk to you later!

2007-04-10T17:32:00.000-05:00

“Heading out West!”
Monday, April 9th 2007 beginning of week 3
Visits to KSOP and K-BULL
Salt Lake City, Utah

Hello! We’re back for round three of our radio tour! This week we’re heading out west with Eric Mellencamp our radio rep. for the west portion of our trip.
We had a nice straight through flight yesterday eve (Easter), out to Salt Lake City from Nashville. So today our first visit was to KSOP in Salt Lake City, Utah. We’d known this station from back in 2005 when we did the “Native American Celebration.” Hello to all of our Navajo friends! We’d played the festival and got to take in some of the cool sights and pick up some neat jewelry while out here. Debby Turpin, the program director of KSOP came out to our bus first and we played for her, then we ended up going inside the station and doing an on the air visit and play for Kim. We got a kick out of visiting with him and we talked about a lot of cool music gear, especially with Becky about keyboard gear. Everyone was so nice and we took a lot of photos.

After some breakfast/lunch at IHOP and a quick grocery run, we were on our way to K-BULL to see Ed Hill and Pat Garrett.
We’d met up with these guys back at CRS (country radio seminar) in March. We played our acoustic show for them on the bus. We loved the fact that they’d asked us to play something from the seventies. We played “Jet Airliner” and they got a kick out of it. We had a great visit with them!

So now we’re back on the bus and we’re heading out on a long haul out to Sacramento, Ca. We’re looking at roughly a 600 mile trip, arriving at our hotel around 3am. Our first radio visit will be at 10am.
We always get a kick out of coming out West because of all of the unbelievable scenery. The views of the mountains are breathtaking, standing so majestically, capped with snow. Wow! We definitely felt the slight altitude change as opposed to Nashville. Definitely need to catch that extra breath while here!

2007-04-07T01:01:00.000-05:00

FRIDAY, APRIL 6TH 2007 - Kansas City, Missouri
Visits to KFKF and KBEQ Q104, - Last day of Midwest visits

Hello! We’re on the bus now rolling towards the airport. We’re grabbing a quick bite to eat before flying out. I will not be checking any luggage today! So today’s visits were with KFKF and KBEQ in Kansas City, Mo. We got to park and have our visitors come out. The first one out to the bus was Dale Carter and Renee Fonner (Another Renae!) of KFKF. We had a blast visiting with them and getting to know them.
Next out to visit us was Mike Kennedy, Nycki, Heather Fischer, T.G. Mc Entire and Ted of KBEQ. Another full house for the bus and another rocking show. We had a lot of fun and thoroughly enjoyed having them out. Cool girl talk!
So here we are, closing out another week of tour, we’ll be getting back to Nashville around 6pm. My parents are actually coming in for the weekend to visit, should be fun!
Our manager/agent Bob Kinkead sent us a cool Easter basket to the hotel of stuffed peeps, skate bunnies, fly bunnies, Reeses peanut butter eggs (look out Becky!) and music playing jump ropes! Thanks Bob and Julie, we love ya’! We’ll gotta run for now, but we’ll be catching up with you all for the West Coast start of our trip. We’ll be starting out in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Happy Easter Everybody!

2007-04-05T20:48:00.000-05:00

Thursday, April 5th 2007
Station visits with KHKI/KJJY, Des moines, Iowa,
Babies, Babies Everywhere!!

This morning started out pretty fast paced for us. Bus call was 7:20am, we arrived at the station and immediately they were ready to have us on air!
We grabbed our instruments and ran in. We met up with two extremely hilarious guys, Big John Mccoy and Eddie Hatfield. They were a trip and they had us laughing from the beginning til the end. We played a song on air and did some morning chat. Long after the interview, while waiting to go meet with Andy Elliott to do some one liners and grab some breakfast, we continued to make our presence known throughout the station by cutting up with the other station people and off and on popping our heads back into the morning show to pick on big john and eddie. Big John, we want to hear that tuba next time! Eddie, keep playing those rockin guitar licks!
We went and had breakfast with andy Elliott afterwards at a hometown place called Urbandales.
The pancakes were huge! We talked a lot with Andy and probably the main topic of conversation was about his anxiousness of awaiting for his wife to have the baby (anytime now!). Its going to be a girl and they’ve named her Ava Leone.
So about the time we were continuing our silliness by reciting lines from the childbirth portion of Bill cosby himself comedy video, Trenna received a wonderful call, her brother Craig, who lives out in Vegas and his wife Chrissy had just had their baby!
At 7:30am, 6 pounds, 9 ounces and 19 inches, Maxwell Allen Barnes was born!
Many congrats goes out to Craig and Chrissy Barnes on their new baby boy Max, and best wishes and blessings go out to Andy and is wife on their soon to be born baby girl Ava.
Were heading on to Omaha, Nebraska now. Talk to you again later!

KXKT Kat country 103 omaha, Nebraska
We pulled up to the station and were met by Craig Allen. We all then went into the station where we met Ritch Cassidy. We played a few songs on air and did a fun interview with Ritch. After the interview and tunes, we had the opportunity to meet Tom Goodwin as well. We all got to chat for a while and learned that for one Craig Allen of the station not only had the same name as Trenna's brother out in Vegas, but was also that he and his wife are expecting anytime now! Theyre going to be having a baby boy named sawyer. How neat is that?! Earlier in the interview, when we were asked who weve all had opportunities to work with, one of my honors had been brett Michaels of poison, some shows and recording on his record. Craig was eager to hear about it, being a huge poison fan that he is. We caught up with tom, craig and ritch (tritch, ha, I will not mention the reason behind this title for ritch, Ill leave that up to him) a little while longer and then we were on our way out. We mentioned lunch later on, and we hoped that all of the gents. Could join us. We were on our way to the next station!

Waitt radio network, Omaha, Nebraska

We moved onto waitt radio network to meet Jen Brown and play for her and others next.
Jen came out to the bus, along with norm, j.t., jeff, rod and Jackson, her son.
That was definitely the most people that we d ever had out for a bus show and we had a blast playing for them! We signed a bunch of pictures afterwards and then we were on our way to lunch. We had lunch at grandmas, Ritch and Craig from KXKT meet us!

When we finished the WAITT radio visit, it was time for lunch and we were all starving! We'd initially picked a Mexican place, however it was 3pm and theyd just closed for a few hours. So we ended up going to another place called 'Grandma's'. Craig and Ritch ended up coming over to meet us and we had a great time talking in more detail with them. We found out that Ritch is one heck of a guitar player and a parody writer. We want to hear some of that stuff, Ritch! Craig plays awesome harmonica, and loves poker and peppermint shnapps. They told us about their building being haunted and that theyd actually had ghost hunters there. We talked about more music and then we all had to go about our ways. We missed ya Tom! Wish you couldve made it! Hopefully next time!
Well, here ends another neat day! Were heading on to Kansas city, Missouri where we will finish up the Midwest and then fly home for one day then out again! See you tomorrow!

2007-04-05T20:43:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, April 4th 2007
Visit to WWQM, Madison WI, WWMD and KHKI/KJJY Des Moines, IOWA

We woke up to freezing temperatures and snow flurries this morning in Madison, WI. !
It’s supposed to be spring!! Anyhow, we were off to our first stop, WWQM. What a cool vibe the station had. There were a lot of guitars hanging everywhere and a cool piano rug in the front lobby that we all dug, especially Becky. We had a really fun and entertaining visit on air with Mel Mc Kenzie, touching on everything from me getting a shocking experience from a lighting strike to Mel talking a lot of fun humor about her daughter and showing us the cool tattoo of a Libra sign in shape of an “A” on the back of her neck in honor of her daughter “Aliesha.” So happened her daughter had the same birthday as Becky’s son “Jaron” (Sept. 26th) We played two songs and they had us sign two guitars before running out.

WMAD New 96.3 Country Surprise!

We were rolling out and our tour bus was spotted! We were invited to stop by WMAD in Madison, WI. To see “The Hot” Tyler Reese, John and Tammy.
We had fun and I know a few times we had Tyler blushing!

After that we were back on the bus and heading out to Des Moines, Iowa. We probably had a 5hr. trip ahead of us, so we all got comfy and either watched T.V., wrote thank you notes or napped. We got into Des Moines and got a call that Andy Elliott (KHKI/KJJY), whom we were supposed to meet for dinner, was going to be unable to make it because his wife was having some labor pains! So, we called it a night and settled in at the hotel for the eve. We were up for an early morning and were supposed to visit KHKI/KJJY for the morning show anyway.

2007-04-04T14:25:00.000-05:00

Tuesday April 3rd 2007
Visits to WQHK - Ft. Wayne, Indiana, WUSN Chicago, IL. , WMIL - Milwaukee, WI. And WWQM -Madison, WI

Today was a very busy day for us, a lot of traveling! But before we started off on our visits for the day, we went to the Ft. Wayne Airport where our luggage had finally arrived! Yay! Boy we were sooo happy to see our bags being rolled out one by one and in one piece. So when everyone’s stuff was all present and accounted for, we were on our way to our first visit to WQHK.
We’d actually had dinner with Rob Kelley of WQHK the eve before, but we decided to drop by the station anyway since it was so close to the Ft. Wayne airport. We also wanted to take a moment to meet Rob’s assistant program director Dave Michaels.
They both came out to hang on the bus for a visit and Debbie showed off her barista experience by conjuring up cups of Starbucks French press coffee to our guests and talking to them about the whole bean roasting process.
We had to move on quickly though, we had a three-hour trip to Chicago to make and we were hearing about some potentially bad weather.

WUSN – Chicago, IL.
We bussed into Chicago pretty easily, traffic was light and we managed to park out front of WUSN. We got to visit with Mike Peterson and Joe Epperson. We’d actually met Mike 2 years ago when we were in Chicago for a show/radio meet at the Hard Rock Hotel. It was cool to catch up with him. He had just returned from Ireland with Pat Greene. He complimented us on our acoustic set and how tight we sounded. Thanks Mike!
Our visit was short and we all wished that we could’ve had a little more time to hang and take a stroll down Michigan Ave., but we had to move along.

WMIL – Milwaukee, WI.

We managed to catch Mitch Morgan and Kerry Wolfe for a quick bus visit at WMIL in Milwaukee. Mitch was able to hang a little bit longer, but Kerry had to run off, his little girl was doing an art show, but the time we did get was fun!

WWQM Q106 – Madison, WI.

We got into Madison, WI. A few hours later, and dropped in on a listeners party being held by WWQM Q106 at “The Dry Bean Saloon.” The club treated us to a really good dinner and the live music was great. We met Mel McKenzie, and Jennifer Powers. We’ll be dropping by their station tomorrow morning to play so I’m going to close for now and try to get some rest. We’ll need to bundle up though, it’s really chilly up here and there may be some snow in the forecast.

2007-04-03T17:44:00.000-05:00

Monday,April 2nd 2007
Radio visits with WCYD 99.5, WDTW “THE FOX,” Detroit, MI., B95 WFBE Flint, MI., and WQHK Ft.Wayne, Indiana.

We woke up around 6am and got our showers. There was still no word on our luggage that was missing. We were really starting to get a little concerned because some of us had jewelry and other personal belongings in our bags that were lost. I reassured everyone that everything was going to be okay and that thank God we didn’t fly any of our gear in our luggage like we usually would’ve in a flight situation. (I’d carried my fiddles on the plane like I usually do last night).

We were off to see WYCD 99.5. We were greeted by Ron Chatman. They’d heard about our luggage loss and treated us to some cool radio station “swag” (road term used for shirts, clothing ect. received on the road while touring). Ron once played the violin and we chatted about the ins and outs of the instrument. We went into the studio and met Dr. Don, Grunwald and Rachel. Grunwald and Trenna were cutting up constantly over the silliest of things (some things we will not mention), and we caught up on the excitement of today being the opening day of baseball for “The Tigers” by playing their request for “Take Me Out To The Ballgame.”

Dr. Don was a trip! He was able to point out something he knew about each one of us; Becky being known as “Becky Crocker” due to her wonderful cooking; Debbie being known as “The Professor” because of her amazing knowledge and factoids (however, she points out that she can never find her cell phone, sunglasses, or keys); Trenna, “The Athlete,” due to her most recent wipe out on her roller blades; and of course me, being the survivalist /country girl who is a carrier and collector of various knives and joking that he needed to watch out for me. (He should) HA!
Our good friend Larry from Detroit Music Online was also there to say Hi and to take some pictures. You can check out his pictures that he took of our visit by clicking HERE. Larry's been a friend of Cowboy Crush's for a couple of years now and it's always great to see him. After our interview and playing a few songs live on air, we met with Tim Roberts and talked with him for a while. It was neat to chat with him about sports and he showed us various pictures of his family he had hanging on his wall that were all in sports. We couldn’t help but to talk about Wrestlemania and about Vince Mc Mann getting his head shaved by Donald Trump. We signed their blue wall of fame, Becky did some mighty fine Cowboy Crush artwork and we were on our way!

WDTW “THE FOX” DETROIT, MI.
We arrived at WDTW about 30 minutes later and had the opportunity to meet John Trapane (Director of Listener Input), Ray of the morning show and the rest of the crew (We sure missed ya’ Scott Gaines!) on this stop. It was fun to visit and play for them and baseball fever was in the air there as well!

B95 WFBE Flint, MI.With “Coyote Collins” and Keith Allen We bussed about an hour out to go see Coyote and Keith for lunch at “Bar Louis’.We went on about everything from the nutty weather, to Becky and Debbie cajoling Keith to finish his tater tots that he’d ordered, yet all along he was insisting that they needed to finish them. Best wishes and luck to Keith! His wife is getting ready to have a baby soon. It was really neat to talk with Coyote and to hear about his background. He went to high school in Africa and told us about all of the cool wildlife (animals, ha) he saw while in the country. We found out that he is quite the accomplished guitar player/songwriter and we talked for a good while about the Detroit/Flint music scene. We went out to the bus after lunch and played some songs for them. It was a fun visit and we hope to catch them again soon!

After the visit with Coyote and Keith, our Midwest Rep. Mark gave us an opportunity to run into Macy’s which happened to be right next to the place where we ate, to do some quick shopping for some clothing necessities. Unfortunately, all of us had packed all of our best dress jeans and shirts into our luggage (because we’d worn them and they needed to be washed at home), and we had no clue where they were or if we’d ever see them again. So off we went! We had 50 minutes to find some items, try them on and then meet back. We all managed to find some cool jeans ect., and were back on the bus in an hour. Dan Richards of B95 actually came on board for a quick visit with us before we left! Great to catch you!

Our final stop on our tour for today was in Ft. Wayne, Indiana to meet with Rob Kelley of WQHK K105. We ate at this place called “Trolley Stop,” and it had a neat San Francisco theme going on. They had cool classic rock songs playing throughout the restaurant and it set us off on a conversation about band and singles favorites. Then we talked about favorite movies, which his happened to be “Pulp Fiction.” It was also really cool to hear that he was interested in jukeboxes that played 78’s. My father and I had restored a jukebox many years back (which he still has and it still plays to this day) and that has always been a fond memory of mine. Becky has always been interested in 78’s as well. The grossly funny moment around the table came when someone made Trenna laugh when she was drinking her coffee and somehow or another it came out through her nose! Becky, of course was there to assist her and pull her back together. I’m sure everyone has their own memory of liquid coming out their nose at one time or another, of course – you were probably 8 when that happened! Rob and Debbie had an Indiana connection that they talked about, Trenna and I talked “Star Trek” with him. He was a really cool, down to earth guy, and he said that we were all a really good hang. Back at you, Rob! We went out to the bus and pulled out our instruments and jammed a while. Played everything from “Orange Blossom Special,” to “He’s Coming Home” (for Mark, our radio rep.), to “Big Ole’ Jet Airliner.” We also played other originals for him to listen to. We had a blast together and we hope to see him again soon.

Well, it looks like the bus is empty for now and time to close on another awesome day of doing what we love. A few times today, throughout different conversation with the various stations, the word “destiny” came up. Since day one, we’ve all believed that Cowboy Crush has a destiny. It amazes me to think about how all of these experiences have brought us together as a group and how much like sisters we really are. We have endured so much together – just like family. We’ve been given a golden opportunity to share our music on a larger scale so we can touch peoples lives, make them laugh or cry, and encourage them to make needed changes in their lives with our songs. We aspire to make “our mark” in music for generations to come. We hope for this and dream of this because it is our destiny.

2007-04-03T09:50:00.000-05:00

APRIL FOOLS ON US!
“Your flight was cancelled and your luggage is lost and we’re not foolin’ you!”
Sunday, April 1st (april fool’s day) 2007

Hello! It’s been an interesting few days for us!
We got in late Friday night/early sat. morning around 1am. Unfortunately I (Renae’) was slammed with food poisoning all of the way home from Dallas, TX. on our way back to Nashville, TN. I don’t think that I’ve ever been so sick in my life! Nothing worse than being sick moving bus. We stopped a lot and even our radio rep. Adrian was feeling a little under the weather. Thank goodness Becky, Debbie and Trenna were there to nurse me all the way home with Imodium, Gatorade, water, cold compress and oh yea., a large garbage bag to get sick in. Kudos to Donnie, our bus driver for taking care of me too!
So we made it home! I was slung out in bed all day Saturday, through Saturday night into Sunday up until we had to leave Sunday afternoon (aside from having to do my laundry for the road). Trenna went rollerblading Saturday and totally wiped out, scraping up her arm pretty badly. So it’s been interesting!
Sunday it was time for us to take our nice 1 way, non-stop flight to Detroit to meet our bus, get in a good dinner, a good nights rest and be ready and rested up for our first Midwest radio visit at 8am…., WRONG!!!
It all started to hit the fan when Trenna had gotten on line earlier in the day (2:30pm) with Northwest to put in her World Perks numbers and lo and behold, our flight had been cancelled! No notification, nothing! We had been scheduled to fly out at 5:15pm. Needless to say, she flipped out and was immediately on the phone racing to find us alternative flights out of Nashville to Detroit. No more flights could be found that went from Nashville to Detroit until the next day. She went around and around making phone calls trying to get us flights. Finally, she managed to get us alternative flights from Northwest to Delta, leaving Nashville, jetting us down to Atlanta, GA. first then up to Toledo, OH. (an hour out from Detroit, no flights left from Atlanta to Detroit until the next day either) and end up meeting the bus there.
So we were off to the airport. We checked our bags and rushed to our gate to our Atlanta bound flight after an in depth security search and wanding on each of us for having last minute, one-way plane flights. I, of course couldn’t help but to make a scene out of my search, sheepishly bending over as the TSA man approached putting on his rubber gloves…, to search my bag of course.
Our plane ended up being delayed and when it did finally get moving, we realized that we were going to be seriously slamming it to make it to our next flight from Atlanta to Toledo. The plane finally landed, it was the longest descent I think we’d ever been on due to the rain that was coming down and the wind in Atlanta. We rushed off the plane, with the next flight scheduled to leave NOW! We ran, and ran, up escalators, caught a train, then we ran some more, finally making it to the gate only to see the closed sign up overhead. We begged and pleaded the lady to let us on and she did (thanks nice lady)! We were all set., well at least we thought.
We landed in Toledo, OH. A few hours later only to find out that our luggage did not make the flight. We stood at the (some airline, we will not say which) ticket/baggage counter along with several other people for about 30 minutes waiting for a baggage representative to come out to start filing the various reports of missing luggage. We hoped that it would be on the next flight first thing in the morning, then get shipped to our hotel in Detroit prior to us having to leave from there. We boarded our bus, no luggage, but lost bag claim tickets and little personal “Necessity Bags” given to us by the airline to take as souvenirs of our wondrous adventure that we’d just completed.
We arrived at our hotel by 1:30 am and set every alarm we could so we could make sure that we’d be up by 6am, enough time to get ready and make bus call by 7:30am. No luggage. Whoohoo!! : ) What an APRIL FOOLS DAY we had!

2007-03-30T17:24:00.000-05:00

Friday, March 30th , 2007
Visit to KSCS and 97 “The Twister” In Dallas, TX.

This morning we left out of “Za Za Hotel” around 9am to go for a visit to KSCS and 97 “The Twister.” We were greeted by Tom Hunter (known as “The Hunter”), Chris Huff, and “Crash” with some really cool gift bags of cup coolers, radio station stickers and tee shirts!
We played some songs for them on the bus and then we were off to lunch at “Saltgrass.”
We were wishing so much that Six Flags would’ve been open. It was towering over us from across the street and the roller coasters looked menacing. We talked a lot with the guys and had a fun visit. Debbie and Tom talked about their likings of “Peter Schickele,” and his “Oedipus Tex and Other Choral Calamities” album.
Tom and Becky also had an in depth conversation about Multiple Sclerosis, being that Becky’s sister Roycelyn has had it for years. We also played a game called “The Game.” Ha! It had to do with someone mentioning a Recording artist and then it would be someone else’s turn to think of another artist starting with the last letter of the pre-mentioned name (example: Someone says “Sting,” the next person would have to name a recording act starting with the last letter of that name. So, the last letter of Sting is ‘G’. So the next person could say “George Thorogood,” then someone would have to say an artist that starts with “D” like “Damien Rice,” then someone would say “Elvis” ect.)
Anyway, the visit was a lot of fun and the food was really good. Adrian, our radio rep., had to run out to catch a flight home, but unfortunately his flight was cancelled due to the weather that was going on. So he ended up coming back and joining us for the ride home.
We’re on the bus rolling to Nashville now for a quick stop home before starting the Midwest portion of our radio tour. We’re trying to beat a storm system that’s just west of us heading through Texas. The wind is really blowing and the bus is swaying quite a bit. Some of us are napping, others are talking to family back home. I think I’ll find a good movie.
It’s unbelievable how far artist touring has progressed over the years. Early artists never had the bus comfort, nor cell phones or wireless internet back then. If you were lucky, you’d find a payphone to call home on, and even then you’d have to stand out in the worst of elements. Artists like Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline rode in cars or buses with seats only and just thoughts of family are what got them home. We feel so blessed and fortunate.
See you in the Midwest!

2007-03-30T00:49:00.000-05:00

Thurs. March 29th 2007
“We’re heading for the big “D” and we DO MEAN DALLAS!”

Today we’re in Dallas, TX. where we had the privilege to hang out with “John Sebastian” of KPLX. John had previously been with the ‘The Wolf’ in Nashville before moving to Dallas and has been such a supporter of our group. So it was really nice to visit with him and to play our songs for him. Thanks John! It has been a stormy day here with all of the volatile weather that has been coming through.
It’s that time of year again; unpredictable things like hail, winds and tornados. We managed to get some sightseeing in before the weather turned nasty. We actually took a 98-year-old trolley down McKinney St. to “West Village” where there was a lot of cool shopping. Found one store in particular named “Cowboy Cool” and it was cool! Found a few “discounted” shirts (thank goodness) that will be nifty for stage.
We’re at the “Za Za Hotel,” which an extremely posh, vibe-y place where the likes of Lenny Kravitz and Madonna have stayed. It also has a club/restaurant by the name of “Dragonfly” that’s a pool by day, but turns into a club at night. We had lunch there earlier today and it was wonderful. Debbie’s parents are here, so nice to see them and Trenna has friends visiting as well. Always so cool to have family and friends amongst us. Tomorrow we have one radio visit here in Dallas and then we’re off back to Nashville for a “quick laundry stop.”

2007-03-30T00:37:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, March 28th 2007
Stop off in San Antonio continuing onto Austin, TX.

We arrived in San Antonio in the wee hours of the morning! We all slept pretty well and today we were scheduled to visit WOAI channel 4 to take part in a pretty crazy and wild show called "Midnight Radio Theater" hosting the playing of a B movies on TV. We were hosting the movie called “Mad Dog Time” that none of us had ever seen before! Two gentlemen by the names of “Kactus Lou” and “Clayton,” who were also with the radio station KAJA out of San Antonio, TX., hosted this late night TV. show and wanted us to make a guest appearance with them. These two guys were such a trip to hang out with and the comedy never ended! The show consists of them picking B rated movies, or horrible sequels and joking/laughing them up (kind of like “Mystery Science 3000”) as the movie played. We had no clue what the movie was going to be, but we had to do a series cues with them and it was a blast!
When we finished, we were introduced to George King of KAJA. We took them all out to the bus, played some music, then went on to have lunch on the river walk at a fine place called “Paesanos.’” Excellent Italian food, wonderful lobster bisque soup, artichoke hearts and calamari. The restaurant was wonderful about getting our food to us because we had to run off to Austin for our next meeting.

We got into Austin, TX. A few hours later where we were greeted by Bob Pickett and Earl of KASE. Bob mentioned to us that they’d received a call on their morning show about a white tour bus with a bunch of ladies being pulled over by the border patrol! It turned out, that the Army gentleman that was there the other night when we were pulled over (Brian) was from Austin, and he’d called the radio station. Ha! It was really nice to meet and visit with Bob and Earl.
That would be our last radio visit for the day and we had the rest of the day free to site see and later on to hit up the club scene on 6th street. Austin is quite the happening place and Adrian, our radio rep., went on to tell us some factoids about who had played where and got their start in certain clubs (“Stevie Ray Vaughn,” “The Fabulous Thunderbirds,” “Z.Z.Top” ect.).
We went for a stroll and managed to catch a quick glimpse of “Kurt Russell.” They were having the premier of his new movie “Grindhouse” at the Paramount Theatre downtown Austin. We also had the opportunity to visit the state capitol and hang out in the rotunda and dome area. Absolutely beautiful!
We met up later again for dinner and went to an awesome sushi place by the name of “Kenichi.” We tried various rolls, yellowtail, cod, and quail eggs (well, I had the quail eggs. Ha!). Nice sake and plum wine too!
We then walked up and down 6th street checking out some live bands. We wandered off the beatin’ path a little and found a club called “Bourbon Rocks.” Inside was a band that was called “The Residual Soul Band,” and they were grooving! We were all drawn in and couldn’t help but to hang and watch them do one hell of a show. The whole band was rocking and the rhythm section was especially tight. It’s always so much fun to go listen to someone else play!
We hung out for a little while, but then realized how late it was and that we needed to get back to the hotel for a 7am bus call to Dallas.

2007-03-28T11:55:00.000-05:00

Off to Corpus Christi and Mc Allen TX. we go!
Tues. March 27th 2007

Day two of our radio tour took us to two more really cool places, Corpus Christi and Mc Allen, TX.
We had bus call at 7am; some of us actually showered in our rooms the night before and then went to the bus to go to sleep to avoid having to wake up for bus call. That’s the norm when it comes to having early morning bus calls like that. I’m sure that we’ll be doing a heck of a lot more of those coming up!
Our first stop for today was K99 KRYS in Corpus Christi, TX., Where we met up with Big Frank Edwards, Kelly Morgan and crew. We were given a warm welcome and everyone was anxious to hear and visit with us. They had pizza and sodas (we behaved ourselves and did not partake, even though it was hard not to!). We played our acoustic set for them and signed pictures. Some of the guys got a kick out of the gear that we were using to play on.
We were then asked by Kelly Morgan to do some one-liners and an interview with her. The whole interview was a cool women’s bonding experience. We joked around with her and found out she's known as “The hardest working woman in country radio.” The interview was awesome and had a lot of depth. We joked as to saying that we all could have been on “The View” doing this interview. We had a lot of fun chatting up a storm with her.

We then moved onto KTEX of Mc Allen, TX., where we met up with Jo Jo, Patches and family for dinner at Outback Steakhouse. We talked about everything from songs, to the St. Louis Cardinals (Debbie and Patches being from Missouri), to fiddles, to hometowns and the list goes on and on. It was a joy to also have Jo Jo’s 9-year-old daughter Caitlin there. Such a smart little girl she is! We finished eating and moved on out to the bus where we serenaded them with our acoustic set. We all could have hung out all night! We even went as far as giving them a rendition of the “Orange Blossom Special” (kudos to Becky for it being her first time playing the rhythm on the acoustic guitar for that one & she ROCKED!). So it was a lovely evening and we all had a blast.

We drove off in our white bus only to get pulled over 10 minutes later in Falfurrias, TX. By the U.S. border patrol. We were greeted by various guards, a sweet U.S. Army soldier by the name of “Brian” and a big German Sheppard all about business by the name of “Cris.”We were escorted off the bus while they sent the dog in to sniff for whatever he could find that was not supposed to be there. While outside waiting for the doggie to do his duty, Becky carried on a conversation with Brian and managed to score a Velcro patch of the Texas flag off of his uniform. She was so tickled to receive that from him, it made her night! All sniffed out well for ole’ Cris, we signed photos for the boys of the U.S. Border Patrol, hopped back onto our bus and we were off. Just another wonderful day in the life of our dreams we’re living. : )

2007-03-27T19:20:00.000-05:00

Our first day of radio visits!
Monday, March 26th 2007

Today was our first day of our radio tour, our first official set of visits. We were all anxious about our first radio acoustic show to be performed. Our first stop was KILT Houston with Greg Frey and Lauren.

The label had thought up a really cool idea about bringing our radio friends down to the tour bus and have us perform for them there. Our bus is equipped with an “extending side,” so when you park, you can literally expand one side of the bus so there can be more sitting and hanging room. The bus we’re on (formerly Rascal Flatts bus), has wooden floors and I always make a joke of being able to roller skate in there when the side is extended out (you could!). But it is such a cool and comfy setting and it doesn’t sound all that bad either.

So we waited anxiously as our radio rep. “Adrian” went into the station to get our radio guests. He brought them back on and introduced us. After chatting a while and letting them listen to one of our studio cuts, we put on our instruments and played them a few songs acoustically. We’ve always gotten a kick out of playing acoustically because it always gives such a different “life” or “flavor” to the songs that you’re so used to performing live. And in a way, it opens your mind up to a different creativity in a song. Plus, just the whole “intimate” setting.
After the bus show, we all went to this cool Tex-Mex place called “Little Papasito’s.” The food was extremely good, especially the Tres Leches!
The tacos yummy and the food portions were plentiful!

The next station we visited was KKBQ in Houston
Where we had the pleasure of meeting and hanging out with Johnny Chang and Christi Brooks. Johnny took us for a tour around the station. The station was on the 23rd floor, so the view from the conference room was amazing. We performed some songs for them as well and chatted.

After the visit, we all went back to the Hotel Derek and from there we all split off and went to “The Galleria Mall.” It’s a three level mall with an indoor skating rink! We’re all glad that we only had an hour or two there before dinner because we all could’ve gotten in trouble with all of the potential shopping that could’ve taken place!
We had dinner back at the hotel at a place called
“Bistro Moderne.” From there we called it a night, bus call was 7am in the morning and we were going to be traveling on to Corpus Christi, Tx. And McCallen, Tx.

2007-03-27T11:24:00.000-05:00

"Here We Are Houston!"

Sunday, March 25 2007

We made it into Houston around 4pm on Sunday, ready to get off the bus and go expel some of that pent up energy you get from being cooped up on a 45 foot space for so long. It's wild how you still feel like you're moving after you get off the bus after such a long trip. We were all eager to get to our rooms, get organized, cleaned up, and head out on the town to go do something. Unfortunately though, it was Sunday and things were closing early. We ran our acoustic set and made sure that everything flowed smoothly and to tie up any loose ends that were needed, then we were on a search for a nice place to sit down, chill and eat dinner. After a walk up and down the street from the hotel (Hotel Derek) where we were staying, we came to a cool, vibey place by the name of " Grand Lux." It was an affiliate of "The Cheesecake Factory." It had an art deco atmosphere, and no matter where you looked, you would always notice some sort of cool, decorative, artsy detail about the restaurant. The food rocked along with the service. After that, we ended up going out and tearing up the town....,well, not necessarily. How about CVS pharmacy? Yes, you read right! We ended up making a trip to CVS for some supplies, however while we were in there, our post travel nutty illness kicked in. Trenna and I tend to be the two who are the most susceptible to this rage. Each of us walked through the store, picking up items that we needed, however, as we got going through the store Trenna started speaking up loudly to each of us not to forget.., (any kind of certain embarrassing items that you can think of, --you fill in the blanks!), and I of course, had to return the favor to her throughout the store visit. Of course people stared! By the time we got to the checkout, we had people in the store either in awe or cackling!" I know that the cashier was quite entertained along with us. I will say that I've never had such a fun trip to CVS ever until now. We brought a lot of laughter in huge doses over the counter!

2007-03-26T23:13:00.000-05:00

On Our way out of town for our radio tour!
Saturday, 24 2007

Here we go! Cowboy Crush Radio tour for 2007 is underway!
We're all so excited to be hitting the road again and so looking forward to visiting and playing for the various radio stations, hanging with our radio reps and promoting our new single, "Some Men Don't Cheat." Left Nashville for Houston 10pm this eve. Didn't take us too long to get our "road legs" back on a moving bus. Once we all had our belongings settled in, we hung out and relaxed. It's amazing how much of a calming effect the road has on us. Some of us tend to get our best rest on the road. How neat it is to be back out again. You get on that bus, start to roll and immediately all of those dreams that you had as a little girl start to pop up in your head of wanting to be a star, wanting to make your mark in music, change peoples lives, even the thoughts of making your family proud and being able to take them to the awards one day. All these things come into your brain as you get on that bus and get ready to roll. How lucky we are to be given such an opportunity.