Between The Tour Tales - Working, Weddings, and Johnny Depp...

The past two weeks have been crazy! Filled with a lot of work… And even just a bit of fun!

Gabe and Bob at the studio on their
matching computers...

I spent about ten days in Nashville, and I was amazed with how much I got done while I was there! I spent a lot of days writing. They write a bit differently in Nashville than I normally do; it is more of a nine to five job there, but they certainly get the job done! I wrote with Jennifer Hanson (who is indeed Larry’s daughter, and is very successful) for two days. The first day we didn’t really come up with much, which happens. But the second day her and I wrote with Martin Dobson, and we wrote a great song! So that excited me, and seemed to get my creative juices up and moving a bit more than they had been.

The Texas Tenors were also in town recording at Larry's
studio. Spent a lot of fun time hanging out with them!

Then I spent about three days writing with Gabe. We seemed to keep coming up with two and a half songs a day. Right about the middle of the third song we just always seemed to deplete our creative energy. But we wrote some great new songs that we are very excited about.

Gabe at The Toy Box Studio.

The last three days- including up until the hour I flew out of town, I spent recording. The first day Gabe and I recorded at The Toy Box. We got six of our songs recorded in seven hours. (Just roughs- but trust me, that is still impressive!) And it sounded awesome. We got a couple of our new favorites recorded, and we are really excited about that! The following day I worked at Larry’s studio with a band of Nashville studio musicians. Gabe was the drummer, but everyone else was from Nashville. One of the guitar players that played on the songs is in The Black Crows! (Love that!) So it was a killer band! We recorded three songs that day. All of which sound awesome as well. Of those three songs, one was written by Gabe and I, one was actually written by my dad a long time ago, and one was written by Michael Grimm. Lots of fun songs! Then the day I was leaving I redid the rough vocals on the band songs at Larry’s studio. That was awesome- however, by the end of that day (after three days of singing about five to seven hours a day, never mind singing everyday all week while I was writing) my voice was quite weary!

Our friend's singer/songwriter night. They sounded great!

Nashville wasn’t all work and no play though… One of our first nights there we went to see some friends of ours- Shane Fair and Bobby Tomberlin, do a singer/songwriter night. They did a great job! (And it is always nice to see friendly faces!) That same night we tried to get into the Station Inn for an incredible band. (The guys refer to seeing this particular band as church…) But it was already sold out and so we went down to Broadway for a bit instead. We found ourselves in a bluegrass bar and we were loving the sounds. Another night we got to see The Cleverly’s at the Station Inn. They are incredible. I know them from Branson, and I’ve been a big fan! Paul Harris is hilarious! I’d always recommend him to anyone.

Me enjoying my Jack's BBQ! Awesome! 

Among all the other things we did there for fun at night, (so much music to go to there!) Gabe and I also took a night out to go to a concert. Now here is the deal… Gabe is a big; make that humungous fan of Taylor Swift. In fact, he plans on marrying her. So I made the mistake of informing him that she was doing a concert at the arena while we were in town. He was ecstatic to say the least! So I agreed to be his escort for the evening. (And I wanted to watch his wedding proposal first hand…) When we got there, Gabe was a bit surprised about the age of the audience. Aside from the parents, we were some of the oldest people there. (And he was among a very small group of males.) Also, all the girls there were wearing sundresses and cowboy boots. I felt so left out! I did not get the memo! But it was a good show. Very entertaining. And Gabe did propose! You could send messages to the screens on the side of the stage, however they must screen them, because his message never came up. So sad! He’ll have to try again next time.

In other news… A project that I had been working on is finally finished! I had been doing a music video for a song that my dad had just written called “Johnny O”. It was a lot of fun to shoot! I got to work with some friends on the project, and that made it a lot of fun. It turned out really great! I even got to get married! And to Johnny Depp! Score! I hope you all check it out, it is posted below!

Aside from that, I also got a chance to go to Maui! I was there for a few days for Michael Grimm’s wedding to his beautiful new wife Lucie. It was incredible! The wedding and just the few days in Maui on the beach and by the pool were all perfect. It was a great trip! I always forget what amazing beaches you can find in Maui! It is on a whole other level! I just love it there! Dad and I went, we had about two days free, and then we had a bachelor and bachelorette party night, and the wedding day. So much fun! And so great to be there and support our friends!

Yummy fruity drinks!

On the bachelorette sunset dinner cruise.

Lots of days poolside and beachside. Dad and I were laying out one afternoon and it was getting pretty hot so we decided to go get in the pool and swim over to the waterslide. I was walking to the stairs to get into the pool- because I didn’t want to disturb any of the people laying out near by, when I looked over to find my seventy year old dad diving head first into the water! Yep, I may be a wimp if my dad will jump in and I won’t!

Dad and I.

But I have to say; I am already very much missing that place! The walks on the beach, the lovely dinners, and of course the fruity drinks and amazing fresh fruit! Their pineapple is to die for! I think I had an entire pineapple for breakfast one morning… But totally worth it!

So it has been an incredible couple of weeks! So much work has gotten done, and so much fun has been had! To top it all off, the day after I got home from Maui we had a gig at The Coach House, and Gabe and I opened the show with a singer/songwriter thing. It was such an amazing and special night. But that is for the next blog…