Musician Diary: St. Louis

It’s been almost a week since I got back from the Indie Buzz Bootcamp in St. Louis. I had such a great time there and have been so busy since then working on my music that it took me awhile to sit down and write you about it!

First off I want to say hello to all my new friends from the weekend. Whether I met you at the conference, while street performing in the loop or six hundred and thirty-two feet up in the air in the arch looking over the flooded Mississippi, you made my weekend awesome and I love you for it!

It all started out Friday when I flew to St. Louis and immediately after arriving at our hotel Griffin and I took off for the arch. It was incredible to see it in person and I recommend taking the elevator/train/carnival ride contraption up to the top when you have a chance. And stop by below for some delicious hot cocoa mixed with a wooden spoon in the “old time” coffee and sweets shop below the arch. It’s delicious and the people are dressed up like they were when Lewis and Clark came through town in the nineteenth century. Correct me if I didn’t remember that correctly – I’m not good with dates.



After that I tried to pull Griffin over to the lake to look at the baby ducks but it was getting late and we wanted to walk through downtown more so we didn’t. On our walk we passed a fountain that was dyed pink in honor of the breast cancer walk going on. We wound up at Union Station where we tried some fudge after the employees at the shop sang and teased us for not participating in a fun call and response thing they were doing.

Most of the weekend was spent at the Indie Buzz Bootcamp. It was an incredible conference put together by indie music marketing guru Bob Baker and his girlfriend Pooki. They set up all of these great networking parties and events, fed us and made me feel very welcome. The speakers were all very motivating and super accessible.

I had the chance to perform on Saturday night with some hit writers from Nashville in the Behind the Song Café. I met Rylee Madison and Wil Nance who are both based out of Nashville. Wil wrote “She’s everything” for Brad Paisley. He teased me a lot about performing on the subway but he’s not so bad!

Sunday I must have woken up on the lucky side of the bed because I won a copy of the Indie Bible and thirty-six custom t-shirts from StickersAndMore.com. Look out for those soon! That afternoon Griffin and I got a little tour from Pooki’s son down to The Loop. If you haven’t been, I definitely recommend checking it out when you visit St. Louis. It’s this strip of shops and restaurants about a mile long and on Sunday’s there’s this happening hippy drum circle that you would never expect in St. Louis.

I like to think I am a hippy but after seeing these free spirits I know I’m nowhere close! One guy who was wearing a turtle shell for a hat that he had made after finding the turtle on the side of the road offered me his guitar string earring. He had taken an old string and cut it off to about 1.5 inches after the round threading and just put it in his ear and bent it around. “It has its own built in clasp,” he said. I couldn’t: 1) Take a prized possession like that and 2) Worry about getting some disease from the metal. If I didn’t realize that I wasn’t a hippy before, it became clear as day then!

Anyways, We hung around for a while listening to the drum circle and then headed over to a restaurant just as it started raining. I wasn’t expecting much but I had the most incredible salad at this place. The caesar dressing was made with curry and I think I freaked out the waiter by telling him how great it was about eight billion times.

After our tummies were full and merry I went out on a search for a place to play my music on the street and hopefully make some new fans. I found a shady spot under a tree where instead of competing with the trains I was up against about a hundred sparrows tweeting loudly because they were so happy the sun had come back out. I started playing and it was slow at first but some people hung around to listen and I met three stellar guys who jammed with me on the Uke.

In the end I got rained out and I had to run half a mile to the train. Griffin and I got back in the shuttle where we met the owner of the hotel we were staying at. He grew up with Sheryl Crow. Small world! Back at the hotel we wound up hanging out in the computer room with some conference stragglers as I entertained myself learning how to make paper cut out streamers of girls in dresses, hearts, fish and a guitar. I left them for some stiff workaholic to find the next morning.

I woke up late Monday before we left and spent about 30 minutes enjoying the Jacuzzi and pool before having Panera Bread (aka St. Louis Bread Co.) for some late brunch. The trip back to LAG airport was pretty painless save for a little two hours delay in Atlanta where we again went to Panera Bread (aka Atlanta Bread Co.).

After writing all of this I’m not sure who would find it all interesting but it put a huge smile on my face to think of all the fun I had and most of all the great people I met!

Till next time St. Louis!

xo
Natalie