We just finnished a rip-roaring ralleying session of "Stump the Tour Manager." I think Sean and Eric (the one being stumped) started it. By the time i got on the bus, they were already into it. Here's how it's played. We shout out a 3 diget area code and our Tour Manger has to tell us where its from. His abilities were pretty impressive, I must say.
So...tonight was our last show of the year. ...It was sort of a funny night, but...we had a good time and are now enjoying our last night on the bus. Our last night of camaraderie on the bus for a while.

Many of you have heard us talk about the Watkins Family Hour shows that Sean and I have done at Largo in Los Angeles with our friends for four and a half years now. Well, we finally put up a special myspace page with pictures and scheduals and some video footage from one of the most recent shows as well! Sean and I will be updating, blogging and keeping active on that site during the time off, so if you're curious as to what we're doing when we're not driving around the country in the Nickel Creek bus, befriend Watkins Family Hour and stop on by!
Thanks! Sara

Nine AM greetings to you all.
I've been more ore less awake since five this morning and don't really know why. I went to sleep at 1:30, and, were I in typical form, I'd still be out cold for an other two or three hours. This morning I just couldn't stop thinking. ...Thinking about arrangements for songs I'm probably going to work up, keys...(would it be better if I use an alternate tuning on the fiddle?)
I thought some more about the idea of getting back into some teaching around San Diego and LA during the months we're off the road this winter...I always improve when i'm giving fiddle lessons...
-- thought about maybe signing up for a yoga class... haven't been a part of anything like that for a long time. Haven't had enough time in one place. I thought about getting into a home routine of going to bed early and waking up before the coastal fog burns off, and riding my bike to the beach to check out the surf.
I need to get a coffee maker. My other one broke.
Our first taste of autumn came when we were in Minneapolis, but since then, there hasn't been much of a chill until today in Indiana. It's beautiful out. The sky is blue. the students are quickly walking to class in sweatshirts or t-shirts over thermals....
There might as well be a pumpkin patch right in the lawn right infront of me!
Three more shows and we're done for the year!

Hey Everyone. I wish that we could sick around this festival for the rest of the weekend. But Friday has come and gone and at 3 AM we head to Tulsa, OK. I'm not gona lie to you. It was very very hot today. Don't think I stopped sweating all day.

--wish I would have had time to see Stars and Cat Power and a few others....

By the time our show came around however, there was a nice breeze accross the grounds. I don't know how the audience stays excited for the music all day long. In the sun, the crowds, the dust and being on their feet all day. They are stronger than almost any band here, I'm sure.
Our show was really fun, I thought. But on Ode to a Butterfly, there were some guitar technical difficulties, inasmuch as ... it wasn't audible...to anyone. But Chris and I held it down :) Other than that, I think it went pretty well for a festival show. (which is generally a challenge because you have no soundcheck, just get onstage and play a short set). We love this festival though. Its been very good to us. Radio here, the people, the whole city.
After a little signing at the Watterloo Records tent I went to find Ray LaMontagne, who'd asked me to play a little with him during his set. I played and sang on his first record and so we did one. He sounded great, of course, and is playing with a good bunch of musicians. I always enjoy singing with him.
Now we're heading back to the hotel to wash the festival stank off our feet. Wish us luck!

Drivin' through the hills of West Virginia, coming up on the exits to Morgantown, where we'll be playing tomorrow. I'm so happy for the coming of autumn. It will be a nice change wear sweaters and hats. I particularly enjoy the first time i see my breath in the crisp air. For some reason I'm imagining that this year it will happen when i wake up at an earlier hour than usual, step outside, and impulsively cross my arms infront of me in welcome surprise at the chill.
That's just what I imagine.
We have three more weeks on the road and then I go home for six whole months! ...more ore less. Then we start up again around April i think. Not in seven years have I had half this much time blocked off and am really excited for it. Oh, I'll probably freak out a little, but it will be real good for me i think.
It is always good to tour in the fall - kids are back in college, everyone has a little more energy and life in 'em, and who doesn't like Thanksgiving!?! yehah.
Sara
ps - The Watkins family hour show was really fun last night. Greg Leisz and Benmont Tench, along with Mike Witcher came down and we had a grand ol' time. Crazy life.

We are enroute to Missoula, MT. from Salt Lake City. These couple weeks out have felt like a whirl wind. Increasingly, the days run together in my memory. At first its a sort of wash and then its as though my eyes begin to focus and, bit by bit, forms become more pronounced and recognizable through the cloud of vapored gigs...

First, Lallapalooza, and the days that followed when i visited dear friends in Spokane. We were up in the northernmost parts of Wisconsin in a great little town called Bayfield, where my friend Timothy took me around. We waded into Lake Superior, and she said that after Christmas, when the lake freezes over and the ice gets thick enough, they make an road out to the island where some one hundred and fifty people live. She told me that, after the holidays, everyone in town brings their old Christmas trees down and one of the men in town plants them into the frozen lake to mark the road!

We've been playing quite a few outdoor venues lately, and as we have moved westward, the evenings have progressed from hot and sticky and buggy, into clear and comfortable and sometimes breezy! Sandpoint, ID; Redmond, WA; tonight in SLC...all gorgeous evenings in lovely settings.

In Grand Rapids, MI, we played an amphitheater in a botanical garden. When I woke up, I went for a walk to just look around the grounds, and over the loudspeaker an elderly woman's voice announced that they were about to have a "worm hunt" in the children's area. I still regret not attending said hunt.

Lately, I've been going to sleep earlier in hopes I will in turn wake up earlier. But no. I still sleep in until at least ten-thirty or eleven in the morning. It is now ten past one in the morning, and Sean, Chris, our singing guitar-tech Chief and i are up typing, lounging and listening to music. This night's drive began with Mendelson's Violin Concerto progressed through a few things and we are now admiring the choruses of the Jayhawks on Songs for a Rainy Day. Their last record.

I'm looking forward to a day off in Montana tomorrow. Our merch girl, Laura and I tossed around the idea of finding some horses to ride, but who knows..maybe i'll just take my metronome out for some room service and try to learn to play in time.
Either way, it will be nice to step off the bus and be in Montana, big sky country.
Sara

Back on and traveling the road again. I was home for a little over a week, during which time I was refreshed by two nights at Largo, my back yard, the Del Mar fair, days and days of the company of my two best friends, french toast made of left over fair cinnamon rolls, and on Monday night, Radiohead at the Embarcadero. It was a fantastic venue - the best I've been to in San Diego - and i witnessed for the third time, the best band in the world perform before my very eyes. Holy smokes. They are a good band.
We arrived in San Jose on Friday night and since we had the night off, just took it easy. We met up for dinner in the hotel and called it an early night. The next day we learned that instead of eating and drinking and sleeping we could have seen Fiona Apple and David Garza play up in Saratoga at the Mnt. Winery, where we were played on Saturday. That was a little disappointing to learn. Not to down play the lovely low key night.
We've played the Mnt Winery once or twice before. Its historic and mostly used for concerts these days, the view is wide and very pretty. We were playing Scotch and Chocolate toward the end of the set and, when it picked up to the fast part, my E string broke!
Never in my life have I broken a string on stage. It wasn't a serious issue. Until a couple years ago, I wasn't always good at remembering to bring spares along.
Fortunately, Chief, our incomparable guitar tech, was all ready with the Uke to do Anthony during which time he put on hist very first fiddle string. If this isn't a promotion, I don't know what is. After Anthony Sean did a solo song so i could get it all tuned up again. And the night was saved! Hooray!

Though I've moved in to my new place, from which I hope to not move for some time, there are still boxes, bags and piles of shoes, books and various clutter lining the inside of the garage. Occasionally, I wander out and rummage through the top layer and rescue a few things I find more appealing than the rest. ...Things I see more of a future for, in terms of maintaining a roll in my life.
Nickel Creek, some of you have noticed, is touring a lot. At times I feel I'm on the road far too much for personal sanity.
Last night I had the three girls I was closest to in jr.high and high-school, and each of their men over for dinner. My roommate has a cold and I feel one coming on, so I've stayed home all morning. I ate watermelon for breakfast, an omelette for lunch. Talked to a neighbor over the fence that splits our properties, and now I sit on my humble hearth, listening to Emmylou Harris, so grateful to know that a job awaits me on the road at the end of the week.
A breeze came through and the door to my front yard just closed, but I was happy with how it was, so I'll prop it open.

There. All is well again.

Thursday and Friday at Largo, Sean and I played two more Watkins Family Hours with everyone's friend, the great Gabe Witcher. It is hard to believe we've been doing this gig together for over four years now. Gabe and I reckon that we've done over forty shows.
Thursday was epic! Greg Leisz, quite possibly the greatest pedal steel player ever and absolutely one of my favorite musicians, sat in with us all night. I'd only done a session with him before (never played a live show) and, holy crap,what a musician. A friend told me after the show that he'd never before seen me play less on stage. And it's true. I kept finding myself with my bow standing still on the strings and a smile on my face. In four years of WFH shows, we've never experienced a less enthusiastic audience. Under normal circumstances that would have brought us down and hurt the show, but on Thursday, it didn't matter because we were so hyped up on everything Greg played.
If you've not yet met his playing. Do yourself a favor and get well acquainted.

Friday night was great fun too. Scott Fritz did sound for us, this time only Gabe, Sean and myself, as we stood around one mic. We were all really confident and felt good about how we were playing and singing, and it turned into what we all think was one of the best nights yet!
Red Dirt Girl is almost over, so I'm going to call this a blog and go ride my bike.
Have a great day everyone.
Sara

Mandy and I went to the lake, right accross the road from the Surf Ballroom, where we're playing tonight. We walked out on the dock and laid down on our bellies, our heads hanging just a foot off the water entranced by the surface of the water, the little bits of matter, floating in different levels - one inch, two, three inches below our wobbly reflections. When our conversation dwindled, I scooted back and stared between the slats on the dock. I was daydreaming without purpose. Imagining senerios, potential future days, thinking about guys... And when I came out of it I was disappointed with myself.
This day, in the sunshine, pleasently warm with a breeze washing over us, the sound of the lake's miniature waves taking turns throwing themselves ashore, the distant laughter of the people on a passing silent boat, the peaceful, joyful feeling I've had since yesterday afternoon... This day deserved more beautiful thoughts than guys. More grateful thoughts than silly daydreams of things that are ultimately unsatisfying. This day deserves to be enjoyed and taken advantage of with a book, hard work, and many many cartwheels.