Tuesday June 26th 2007
Back home and visiting the CMA’s, Country Music Weekly, Music Row & Aircheck

Hello! We had a busy day today! We made it back safely and got in a days rest before heading right into it.
Today we had the opportunity to go visit and play for CMA, Country Music Weekly, Music Row and Aircheck. Our publicist “Kat Atwood” lined these visits up for us to help promote Cowboy Crush for magazines and to start prepping for our August 13th single release of “Miss Difficult.”

We started off our day by piling ourselves and our instruments into Becky’s truck. We were then on our way to our first stop the CMA.
At each place we stopped, we planned to have a big cookie delivered with a big “Thank You” From “Cowboy Crush” written on it. (Thanks Victoria!) Before doing our acoustic set, we got to do a fun podcast inside CMA. Then we got to play 5 songs for everyone at CMA. We had a lot of fun and they surprised us at the end of our show with a plaque, engraved on it “Cowboy Crush” and the date, to stick up on the CMA wall of fame! We were so tickled to receive that and so honored to be added to the wall along with the many other great stars of country music. Tony Conway was also there to see us put our plaque up. Thanks to Chief Operating Officer Tammy Genovese and Chief Strategic Officer Ed Benson and the rest of the CMA for having us over. We really enjoyed it!

Our next stop was to Country Music Weekly to visit with Larry Holden, Executive Editor and Senior Editor David Scarlett.
It was really nice to meet them, along with everyone else at Country Music Weekly and we enjoyed singing some of our songs for them. Thank you everyone at Country Music Weekly for taking the time to listen! We hope to be giving you something really cool to write about really soon!

After a quick stop at Virginia’s Mart as they call it for a quick sandwich, we were then on our way to visit Music Row Magazine. We got to meet the founder and editor of Music Row Magazine, David Ross. We also got to meet and hang out with his staff as well. We felt very welcome and everyone was receptive. It’s always cool to visit and talk with the people behind the writings. Thanks to everyone at Music Row Magazine for having us!

Our last stop was to go visit with Lon Helton, Chuck Aly, Jeff Greene and the rest of the staff at Country Aircheck. They were so sweet, they gave us Aircheck coffee cups to take home with us! After playing our acoustic set for them, we got to browse through their magazine (see photo!). Hmmm.., makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Ha! Anyhow, it was so nice to visit with everyone there and they made us feel welcome.

It was a busy day for all of us, but it was a very fun one! Thanks again to everyone at CMA, Country Aircheck, Music Row Magazine and Country Music Weekly for having us! We had a blast! See you again soon.

Friday, June 22nd Manhattan, KS. - “Country Stampede”
Saturday, June 23rd Moraine, Oh. - “Moraine Heritage Festival”
Sunday, June 24th Rockford, Illinois - “Stars and Guitars Show”

Hello there! We are now officially back in Nashville after our two week stint! There’s quite a bit to fill you in about. Our last three road shows went extremely well! We’ve also been quite busy back home here (read next blog!), paying some visits to some cool magazines, CMA’s ect.

So let me first off get started by saying that “Country Stampede” rocked! We had the honor of sharing the stage with “Chris Young”, Carolyn Dawn Johnson”, “Little Big Town”, and “Alan Jackson!” I couldn’t help but to wonder if ole’ Alan had remembered seeing a girl (myself) wipe out in front of him on a wake board at Center Hill Lake a few years back while waving to him while he was in his boat. Hee hee. Anyhow, what a party the Country Stampede was and everyone was extremely hospitable. We were in quite a dash when we got there. We had a 3pm show, plus jumbotron and interviews to do prior. The sound was great for the show and they had a huge runway jetting out from the stage. I took a huge advantage of that! We hung out for a while and got to listen to Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Little Big Town, and a little bit of Alan Jackson. We really seemed to connect with Little Big Town in particular in our chat. They are a wonderful group, and they really sing their butts off! They’ve been at it for 8 and a half years and it is so nice to see them finally getting the recognition that they have for so long deserved. Check ‘em out!
We had to roll out pretty quickly after talking with them because we had to be in Moraine, Oh. The next morning!

Saturday, June 23rd Moraine, Oh.
“Moraine Heritage Festival”

We made it to Moraine safely after about a 13 hour trip. There was some bad weather in the area, but it seemed to hold off for the show. Julie Roberts and Shenandoah were on the bill. It was a really nice relaxing day for us, and we all were starting to feel that “home itch!” One more show after this and we’re home, home, HOME!! I’d actually played this festival with a friend of mine “Thom Shepherd,” back in their first year. We got to open for Charlie Daniels.” This was a really nice hometown festival and there were a lot of crafts and rides. They had another stage that had a band playing as well and it was neat to watch them play. We did our show and then got to watch Shenandoah take the stage. They’re such a great bunch of guys and they’re still rocking the house! Thanks guys for hanging with us!

Sunday, June 24th Rockford, Il.
“Stars and Guitars” show

We rolled into Rockford pretty early today and were greeted by stage hands and awesome catering! Today’s show was with “The Wreckers” and “Jason Aldean.” We were playing on the riverfront which made it scenic and many boats had pulled in to catch the shows. We were the first up to play, followed by the Wreckers and then Jason as the headliner. This is our last show for the two week run so we all were pretty wound up! We did a pre-show interview first, and then did our show. The staff for the event took really good care of us and once again the catering rocked! They helped us surprise Trenna with a birthday cake as well. I had to act like a goober and distract her as much as I could so Eric could light the candles! It had been sitting on the table unlit when we walked up. Ha! There was a lot of cake eating on this trip! Yummy! Later that eve, we headed home!

We just want to say “Thanks” to all of the fans who came out to see us and support us!

June 16th-20th 2007 - Gigs in Sauk Centre, MN. & Deadwood, SD.
“We got to be tourists in Deadwood!”

Remember, you can click on any image in this blog for the full-size picture.

Hello! We are now in West Fargo, ND., getting ready to do a show along side Joe Nichols. The past few days for us have been really fun! We did our gig in Sauk Centre, MN. (June 16th) with Trick Pony and Travis Tritt for the “Country Music Fest.” It was nice to see some of our old road friends again, hang out with them, and catch up on some chat. The show went really well and to have Becky back with us on stage with us was awesome. We felt “complete” again!
We then bussed out to Deadwood, SD. Along with Trick Pony to perform for the “Wild Bill Days” festival in Deadwood, SD. (June 17th). We fell in love with the town the minute we pulled in and we were especially excited about being there because we were going to have a few days off to see the sights and be tourists. Trenna’s dad, Delbert met us there and he’s always such a bright ray of sunshine. It was perfect because it was Father's day so at least we got to spend it with one of our dads! We did our sound check, did an interview with Nate Brown from “The Eagle” and met some special guests of the festival. One in particular was a little seven-year-old bull rider named “Tanner.” He’d just won 1st place in a bull riding championship. He was quite the little charmer, and he was happy to show us all three of his photo albums. Inside of them where many pictures of him riding in various competitions and events. It was so neat to see someone so young to have such a great interest in riding. He and Debbie chatted about horses for a good while!
After the meet and greet, we walked around a little and took in some sights. We were looking forward to doing that in depth the next few days after this show. The weather was a little bit of a concern for a while. Clouds rolled in followed by a little bit of rain. It cooled down a little, however by show time, the sun had peeked through once again. Our show went really well, I had a little bit of an issue with my wireless, but we made it through just fine. I just had to make sure that I didn’t unplug myself in the middle of the show.
We signed autographs for a while after the show and we were free afterwards. We ended up at “Saloon 10,” where The "Drew Davis Band” was playing. We’ve been running into those guys a lot lately, and it was really nice to see them again. They actually had a keyboard issue, so Becky let them use hers for their show.
We didn’t stay out too late though, we had a days worth of sight seeing to do the next day!

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June 18th Visit to Crazy Horse and Mt. Rushmore

Yay! We got to be tourists! There’s so much to write here, because we got to see so many cool things. Thanks to Trenna's Dad, our day started in downtown Deadwood where he had lined up a photo session at “Woody’s Old Time Photos.” It’s a photo studio where you could have old western/mobster type portraits taken. We thought that it would be so cool to have a few “Western” portraits taken of the band. We got to dress up in these vintage western dresses and hats along with garter belts, stogies and guns! Our first shot was a bar scene shot in which we all hung around like we worked in a brothel, and the second shot was of us playing. They happened to have an old piano that Becky could sit behind, and we rigged up a washtub bass for Debbie, consisting of a washtub, broom and some wire. We had Kim playing the jug. We had to get Trenna up on the piano in the shot, because, well, it just wouldn’t be Trenna if she wasn’t! I took my fiddle in with me as well. They turned out so well, we’ll definitely be using them in the future.
Afterwards, we went back to the hotel, dropped off our gear and were on our way to go see Crazy Horse, Mt. Rushmore and whatever else we could see in a days time. We were in such a big hurry to go that we left the hotel once and realized that we’d left our road manager “Eric” behind. Ha! we went back and picked him up - He’s been such a trooper on this trip!
We had a really sweet gentleman by the name of “Ole (O-lee)” , take us on the trip. We also had a cameraman come with us to document our trip. So one at a time, each one of us had to wear a clip mic. Don't cuss Trenna! Ha!
Our first stop was to go see the “Crazy Horse” memorial. The construction of Crazy Horse started in 1949 by a man named Korczak Kiolkowski. He’d been invited to the Black Hills on May 3rd, 1947 by Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear. Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear’s vision was to have something to let the white man know that the red man had great heroes also. Kiolkowski was almost 40 when he started the project and over the decades, he battled financial hardship, racial prejudice, injuries and advancing age. He was also a believer in the free enterprise system and felt that the building of Crazy Horse should be a non profit educational and cultural, humanitarian project built by the interested public and not the taxpayer. He twice turned down ten million dollars in potential federal funding.
The Indians chose Crazy Horse for the mountain carving because he defended his people and their way of life in the only manner he knew. Crazy horse, as far as the scale model is concerned, is to be carved not so much as a lineal likeness but more as a memorial to the spirit of Crazy Horse – to his people. With his left hand thrown out pointing in answer to the question asked by a white man, “Where are your lands now?” he replied, “My lands are where my dead lie buried.” This monument will become the world’s largest Mountain carving, standing at 563 feet when finished. To give you an idea of how large it will be, the entire Mt. Rushmore monument will be about the size of Crazy Horse's face! There are also plans to put in the Indian Museum Of North America and Indian University Of North America and Medical Training Center. Check out their website : http://www.crazyhorsememorial.org/.

After visiting Crazy Horse, we loaded back into the van and took the scenic route, driving on “Needles Highway.” There we took many beautiful photos and literally drove through rocky tunnels! There were many windy roads going through the Ponderosa pines and the rocky cliffs of the Black Hills. Each time we’d stop, we’d not only take photos, but we would pick up pretty rocks that were glittery and shiny as well. Some of them looked like they had gold flakes in them!
At Mt. Rushmore, we took the walkway all around the Monument and took pictures. Along the walkway, plaques of each of the presidents, Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln of Mt. Rushmore were displayed.
“Until the wind and the rain alone shall wear them away.” Those are the famous words of sculptor Gutzon Borglum used to describe the length of time his most famous work Mt. Rushmore, will endure.
The mountain itself was originally named after Charles E. Rushmore, a New York lawyer investigating mining claims in the Black Mountains in 1885. Borglum chose this mountain due to its height (5700 above sea level), the soft, grainy consistency of the granite, and the fact that it catches sun for the greatest part of the day. The presidents were selected on the basis of what each symbolized. George Washington represents the struggle for independence, Thomas Jefferson: the idea of government by the people. Abraham Lincoln for his ideas on equality and the permanent union of the states, and Theodore Roosevelt for the 20th century role of the United States in world affairs. The carving of Mt. Rushmore began on August 10th, 1927 and spanned a length of 14 years. What a beautiful sight it was to see!
After visiting Mt. Rushmore, we decided to stop off in Keystone for dinner at a place called “Aruba.” Afterwards we were all pretty exhausted from the day! Some of us dozed off in the van all the way back to Deadwood. Thank you again so much Ole for taking us out. We had a blast!

June 19th A wonderful day of touring in Deadwood, SD.!

Today, we got to spend the day visiting the historic town of Deadwood, SD. We’d been itching since the show to take time to see this beautiful town and to take in the history and sights. So today was our day! The town of Deadwood, is a National Historical Landmark located in the historic and scenic Black Hills of South Dakota. The architecture is Victorian which is unique to the West. The famous and infamous have called Deadwood and the Black Hills their home over the last several centuries. Lewis and Clark, Will Bill Hickok, Wyatt Earp, George Armstrong Custer, Poker Alice, the Sundance Kid, Calamity Jane, Mark Twain and many others have passed through here in search of fortune and adventure. So you can definitely get an idea of the history and stories that this city holds.
Frontier prospectors hit a fabulously rich gold strike in Deadwood Gulch, Dakota Territory 131 years ago and that was how the towns of Deadwood And Lead were born. The gold national gold rush had caused a major frenzy, luring thousands to the Black Hills in hopes to find the next great El Dorado. Gold was indeed found everywhere in the area and Deadwood became an instant metropolis in the Wilderness, surrounded by greed, gold and gunpowder. The first few years of Deadwood had no laws or order. So there were many bandits running loose and there were a lot of fights over gold claims. Entertainment consisted of theatres, bordellos and many makeshift saloons and casinos for the miners. Many lived and died here including “Wild Bill Hickok” (by the gun of Jack Mc Call) and Calamity Jane.
We walked down historic Main Street and it is an attraction in itself. It has really been kept up and preserved over the many years. There are many structures built in the 1880’s that still remain. Taxes from gambling are what saved the antique hotels, brick paving, vintage street lights and store fronts.
Several times throughout the day we caught gunfight re-enactments.
We went and visited the “Adams Museum.” It was built in 1892 and housed many beautiful artifacts, exhibits, art and readings. It really gave us an idea of what the town was like back then and how much it has grown to this day. We especially got a kick out of the photos and the 19th century clothing. They also had many guns on display and furniture. There was a section in the museum called “Ethnic Deadwood” and we read about the Jewish and Chinese communities of the town in that period. Just loads and loads of intriguing facts and information at the Adams Museum. Debbie and I especially got a kick out of reading about “Poker Alice.” She smoked stogies, dealt Farow in Deadwood and was a madam for a prostitute house in nearby Sturgis. She was known for being good with cards, men and guns. She actually met her husband by shooting his assailant at a poker game! I admit, my attention span for certain things can be rather short, but the museum kept me “present” the entire time!
We went and browsed through the Franklin Hotel est. 1903. It was extremely elaborate and lovely.
A few of us took the Ghost tour through the haunted Bullock Hotel est. 1895 and read through a notebook of ghost stories and pictures taken by guests who had stayed there.
Debbie and I ate Buffalo burgers (that rocked!) at Diamond Lil’s, a restaurant established by actor Kevin Costner, and later returned there once again to have dinner with everyone else.
We got to see where Will Bill Hickok was shot and went and had drinks at the Eagle Saloon, which had a Cherry wood bar built in 1825.
While sitting at the bar, having drinks, we had the fine opportunity to chat with a couple of gentlemen. The first gentleman was a Vietnam Vet and a participant in the re-enactments that took place daily in the city. He actually played the part of “Jack Mc Call,” the man who shot Wild Bill Hickok. He was full of history and information and eager to tell us all about it. The other gentleman was a Vietnam Vet as well. We let them both know how much we appreciated their service and it brought tears to their eyes.
We did get some good shopping in as well! Some of us took the opportunity to buy some fine sterling silver rings crafted by the Indians to take home, and some of us also picked up some nice house decor. There were all kinds of neat gifts shops, smoke shops and a Harley Davidson Store (Being that the Sturgis Bike Rally is held not to far from there every year).

What a wonderful city Deadwood is. We felt so welcome there and it was like the town took us in as family. We felt like we’d lived there for years. We so encourage anyone and everyone to make Deadwood, SD. a plan in their travels and vacations. Deadwood has a very special place in our hearts forever. Thank you so much Chuck Turbiville, Joe Hamm and Jade of the Chamber of Commerce for having us and thank you City of Deadwood for taking us in and making us your adopted daughters!

Friday June 15th 2007
Hello, it’s been a very busy week and a half for us and a lot has being going on.
CMA Music Fest (Fan Fair) went extremely well and it was so nice to meet our fans and sign for them. Other than a small rainstorm, the weather was beautiful and comfortable. We started our CMA Music Fest week with a really cool interview with Steve Gill of WLAC 1510. Later on during the Festival week, we signed autographs at the “Greased Lightning” booth, the “Mary Kay” booth and the “Ya’ll Magazine” booth. We also got to do an interview with ABC Houston about the goings on and the festivities associated with the festival.
It’s was particularly slamming week for me because I’d picked up a lot of work downtown! The clubs were hopping with tourist buzz all week long and I had some good “gigging” going on all weekend.
We finished off our weekend with a performance down at the riverfront. We felt blessed that the sun was right overhead and that we were being covered by the canopy. We remember last year when the sun was right in our eyes and we fried! A special “Thanks” goes out to Kathi Atwood for lining up all of our interviews and keeping the Crush “buzz” happening.
Well, I’d told you that a lot had been going on with us lately. Unfortunately, before our show on Saturday, Becky had received a call that her sister, Roycelyn was extremely sick and that there was a possibility that they could lose her.
Roycelyn has been battling MS for many years now, and somehow she’d developed some sort of infection in her bloodstream. Immediately after our show, Becky flew to Texas to be with her. We all braced for the worst as she reported the condition of her sister. Which also placed us in a predicament. We had more shows coming up starting Wednesday, 13th at the Opryland Hotel, and then bus out on a two week midwest run right afterwards. As we heard of the not so good news coming in it looked more and more like Becky was not going to be making it back in time for the gigs. So, we immediately scrambled to find players to cover her parts. We spent a lot of time on the phone, getting passed on from one player to another trying to fill in the spot. It was extremely hard, especially with such the late notice. (1 day before!!) A lot of people we knew were either already gigging, or couldn’t break away from other engagements. Thank goodness we came across Lydia Salnikova to cover the keys on our Wednesday eve gig at Opryland. She was in the band “Bering Straits.” She is extremely talented, and she did a really good job. We also had a rockin’ guitarist named Lauren Ellis grace the stage with us. We managed to slip in a quick rehearsal prior to the show. The gig went well and both girls did a wonderful job. They both had a lot of music to cram! Lydia was unable to come out on the road with us, however Lauren was---so she joined us! We left right after the show and bussed up to Marinette, Wisconsin where we did the Porterfield Country Music Festival with Mark Chestnutt and Joe Diffie. The show went well and it was fun to hang with Mark and Joe.
Now we are in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Today is a day off for us and we spent the day at the “Mall Of America’s.” We did a lot of walking! We heard from Becky today and she will be flying back in tonight to meet us. Lauren will be flying out tomorrow morning. It’ll be nice to see our sister Becky again. we missed her! Many “Thanks” again to our two girls, Lydia and Lauren for helping us out!
We’ll be leaving for Sauk Centre, MN. tomorrow morning. We’ll be in touch!

Saturday, June 2nd Orville, Ca. - “Feather Falls Casino”

Hello everyone! We’re back! All is well here, we’re just gearing up for the cma music fest getting ready to happen in downtown Nashville!
We did our show in Orville, ca. and had an absolute blast! We flew out of Nashville Friday afternoon. It seemed like we were on that plane forever. We flew into Sacramento, and we were picked up and driven an hour to Orville to the “Feather falls casino.” Our poor drummer girl, Kim was pretty beat by then because she’d traveled from Memphis before boarding the flight out of Nashville. We got to the casino and was greeted by our awesome road dude “Matt Leland.” He was filling in for us on this date as road manager and sound man. He’d actually spent our first whole summer out on the road with us through gigs and radio tour and boy, if he survived that, he can survive anything because they had us red-eyeing and buss-ing everywhere from one end of the country to the other. Thank you Matt for helping us out and congrats on your patent success! We all went and grabbed dinner and during this, we found an extremely interesting photo opportunity. Hair clips everywhere I must say! Ha., anyhow, that isn’t something you see every day. : )

The next day we were not scheduled to do sound check until 4pm. So we went and hung out by the pool. This was a really nice hotel by the way, that the casino had just built. Very cozy and everyone treated us well. Very clean and welcoming. We hung out by the pool for a while (I didn’t show up until a little while later). Unfortunately, Becky hung out by the pool a little too long because when we went back inside she was a lobster! The light breeze blowing outside had masked the potential of the hot summer sun. We all came back in just slightly sun kissed, but she fried. I gave her plenty of Tylenol and we managed to find her a leaf from an Aloe Vera plant for her to break open and put it on her skin.

We had our show later that eve (thank goodness Becky had brought a nice, loose fitting dress to perform in), and a bunch of Trenna’s family came out to see us! They were hilarious and I heard that later that night the party had continued and carried on until the wee hours of the morning. We had a great audience and it was nice to meet everyone afterwards and sign. One particular person that comes to my mind that I’ve been thinking about since the show is this lady who’d came up in our line crying. We had performed “He’s coming home” during our show and she was extremely moved by that. She had just lost her son in Iraq about a week and a half prior. She kept saying that “He went home.” And once again, we are reminded why we do what we do.

We flew out the next day and spent Sunday getting home. The flight was rough off and on, but all was well and here we are, back safely!

Will have a lot to write about CMA fest coming up. We’ll be pretty busy! Looking forward to meeting our fans! See ya’!