Archive for January, 2010

Howdy,

It was great to be a part of Sound and Speed yesterday! If you’re not familiar with S&S, it’s a charity event supporting Victory Junction and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. NASCAR drivers (stars and up-and-comers) and Country Music singers (stars and up-and-comers) come together and interact with fans via concerts, autograph signings, Q&A sessions, and a gala event, all to raise money for the charities.

This was my first time participating in Sound and Speed, and I had a blast! I showed up at 2:30, catching an elevator with Bucky Covington in the parking garage. After checking in and hanging out in the green room for a while, it was off to sign autographs! If I’m correct, S&S passes out a set number of tickets to have autographs signed by certain artists or drivers. Also, they pair artists and drivers together for the signings. It was a real honor to be paired up with Elliot Sadler! He’s a fan favorite and has quite a record. It was funny, I even had a couple of fans ask me how I got lucky enough to sit beside Elliot for the signings! ha ha

Autographing was a pleasure. Somehow, I had the foreknowledge to bring my own silver Sharpie (they didn’t have one). Unfortunately, it died on me halfway through the session!!! Some blessed soul found another one, and I was saved. I truly appreciate everyone who came through my line. It was great to meet everyone, have pictures taken, and, once again, I truly appreciated all the kind words and well-wishes. Hopefully they enjoyed the sampler CDs I was distributing as well. My label rep. Lily said that people were lining up, asking, “Is this the line where the CD’s are?” ha ha I probably signed over 250 autographs, total. I’ll take writer’s cramp over writer’s block any day! It was a special honor to sign a photo for a mother to send to her son who is bravely fighting in Afghanistan. Also, I had my picture taken with a gnome and a bear (items, I’m not describing people…lol)

After that, I was escorted down to the media room to be interviewed in a press conference format. I was kind of dreading it to be honest! I love to SING in front of people, but talking in front of people is way down on the list of favorites. I’m just gonna have to get used to it! I got through it mostly unscathed, not a brilliant performance, but a passable one! lol That was the end of this part of the event, and I went home to get a little more dressed up and, most importantly, collect my lovely wife for the gala event!

We arrived at the red carpet sometime around 6:30. Dummy me… I parked us, and we walked down to the Municipal Auditorium, winding up on the WRONG side of the building. After walking through the warm building a little bit, we decided that we were gonna have to go back out into the freezing, blowing cold to walk around to the other side of the building to the red carpet entrance! ha ha ha! Anyway, so Steph and I were escorted to what I’ll call the “photo wall” where around 20 photographers were lined up taking photos of those who entered, against a Sound and Speed backdrop. This was the first time I had experienced photographers saying (like on t.v.) “Nathan over here.” “Nathan straight ahead.” Thank you photogs; you made me feel special! I went first and then motioned Steph over to have some pics taken with me. The photographers asked, “Who is this???!” I motioned to Steph and started to say, “This is Na…” Then I caught myself and hung my head in shame, as everyone knew I was about to say my own name! lolol They thought it was funny, as did Steph. I tried to recover and said, “Just so you know, she has introduced herself as Nathan before! (true story) This is Stephanie… my WIFE Stephanie.” Gotta skip forward here. It was a long night! Steph and I hosted a table of folks who had sponsored the event. What a table we had! It was a group of friends, mainly connected as golfing buddies, along with their wives. They made us feel like we’d known them for a million years. We had some great conversation, told some jokes about our table being arranged so close to the buffet (They must know us!), ate, and I drank some Coca-Cola. I hope to meet those folks again!

Some other highlights of the night:
Josh Turner and Gretchen Wilson performed
Many of the most famous NASCAR and Country Music Stars walking around
An artist painted two magnificent portraits, live on stage during the event, one of Willie Nelson, one of Johnny Cash, both of which auctioned for several thousand dollars to help the charities

I hope I get to participate next year!

God’s Peace,

Nathan