albums and marathons

Hey all!!

So I thought I'd give an update on what I've been up to. The most exciting thing is probably the fact that I completed the tracking session for my first album! It was an incredible experience to watch the musicians take my songs and make them into fully produced, radio ready quality. I'm so excited!! I still have to record the vocals over the next couple months, but I have a lot of faith in how this music can turn out when done with heart and talent.

I feel SOO blessed that my family came to listen and support me over that weekend!! 2 of my sisters flew in from Salt Lake and my mom and sister drove from Virginia. Then as a wonderful surprise my incredibly supportive father flew in the morning of the recording!! I love my family so much. I had a great time with them "exploring" Nashville--or the little that I know to do here! I felt bad that I've never really done much tourist stuff so I didn't really know where to take them. But they were sports and just wanted to come to support me.

Here a pic of me with the musicians, producer, and engineers. When they came into the studio they were all impressed at the other musicians they got to work with! They are all the A Team in Nashville--for example, my guitarist tours with Faith Hill, etc. They could name drop, but they're so humble that they don't. :) SO talented!!!

In other news, I also completed a goal I'd set for myself. Me and my best friend Lexy ran a 1/2 marathon on November 6th! Woot. It was great. She kicked my trash as far as time goes, but I'm happy I finished it. I actually don't have an accurate time because my time chip fell off my shoe somewhere during the race! It was incredibly cold in downtown Indianapolis where we ran, but it was beautiful. It's definitely given me the courage and motivation to even consider a full marathon!! Thanks Lex for doing that with me and pushing me through training!

brand new blog

Hey family and friends!

I thought it would be fun to create a blog that anyone and everyone can read about my life and times here in Nashville, TN. It's been such a fun experience and I want to share the things I'm learning! I'd love to have comments and make this a fun/therapeutic blog, but not a private diary, which was basically what I was doing before.

For those of you that don't know, I moved to Nashville in May to complete a music internship to finish my degree in Media Music. Now my internship's over, I'm all graduated, and I decided to stay here and figure out what contribution I'd like to make to the industry! Still working that part out, but I've been writing and performing and, hold your breath... preparing to RECORD AN ALBUM next month! I'm super excited. My main purpose in doing this is to have an actual product. Something I can physically put into someone's hands to showcase my talent-it'll be good evidence of my time in Nashville. It's going to be a random collection of my songs with some unique production. I got a really great deal from my boss at my internship (Artist Development Network) and she hooked me up with an awesome producer. He recently produced Dolly Parton's last album. The studio we'll be at is called Sound Kitchen and is a standard country studio! Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Kellie Pickler, and many many others have recorded albums here.

Right now I have no idea how long I'll be here, but I figure if there's no reason to go anywhere else, I might as well stay here and see what music brings to my life and what I can bring to music's!

In the meantime, I'm working at a frozen yogurt shop called Sweet Cece's in downtown Nashville. It's super fun! Self serve frozen yogurt is a new found novelty in Nashville, so we often get music celebrities coming in to try it out. At one of the other stores in Nashville, apparently Faith Hill and Tim McGraw come in regularly, as well as T Swift, Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman. The other day I saw Kelly Clarkson and Mary Steenburgen. Right now I prepare all the fruit and fresh items we offer as toppings.  I call it my 'mom' job, since I'm in the kitchen doing dishes and cutting fruit all day. One of the kids that works with me calls me mom, which, I have to admit, warms my heart a little bit! There's rumor that I might be moving to a brand new store closer to my house with a management position, so we'll see what happens. It's fun to have so many changes going on. I love it here in music city, USA.

I'll try to keep this updated as much as I can as things (maybe) get exciting.