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!

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!

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!

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.

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.

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'

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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!

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!

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!

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!