CMT Blog: Archive

Hey y'all! It's the Trailer Choir here. OK, so it's been a crazy couple of weeks. We took a few days off from touring with Toby Keith to run to Wisconsin for Country Thunder. We performed there on July 17 and 18, then hopped a 6 a.m. flight on the 19th to meet back up with the rest of the tour in Portland, Ore. We got into Portland (where the airline lost Big Vinny's bag) and headed straight to the theatre to get ready for the show. Vinny got his bags back right before the show. We left town a little late, when (right as we were putting on our pajamas), Toby invited us last-minute to go to Duke's Bar with him, followed by a very late night breakfast at Shari's Diner, involving a lot of chocolate milkshakes around 2 a.m.

The next day we were in Seattle. We started the day EXTRA-early to visit with Amazon.com. The building went up more than 73 floors with a full panoramic view from the top floor so that we could see all of downtown Seattle. It was amazing. On the way out of our meeting, we were all recognized by a school bus full of high school students who said they had just seen our music video on CMT that morning! Pretty darn cool! We played around 7:30 p.m. and then we were off to Spokane. Crystal went on a long run through the city and said that it was probably one of her favorite cities so far. Just BEAUTIFUL! We had perfect weather and left town to head to Sacramento.

We took two days off - well, we still had plenty of work to complete with interviews, online networking, etc., but Crystal squeezed in some time to lay out by the pool, have too much wine, and sing show tunes in her bathing suit at the hotel lounge with Rex, Toby's piano player. Butter decided to unwind with a little songwriting and riding his bike through town. Vinny spent many, many hours on the computer, and did work in as many 99-cent tacos as he could from the Mexican restaurant up the road. We took off and headed to Paso Robles, Calif., for a fair/festival concert. Our good buddy Jewels Hanson (former Nashville Star contestant, and co-writer on "Off The Hillbilly Hook") came to hang out with us, which always means a crazy time. We played an extended set at the festival since Montgomery Gentry wasn't there, so we added a few more fun, party songs and ended with a fantastic back-flip from Big Vinny!

Then we were off to Mountain View, Calif. We played our show and then took off right after to play an after-party at The Rodeo Club. Our label mates, Carter's Chord, did a couple of songs, and then we jammed for about an hour. We jumped back on the bus and headed to Las Vegas! OH YEAH! We played the indoor arena at the Mandalay Bay Casino which is just THE BEST! Then we headed to Harrah's to party at Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill. We were invited to play a few songs so we took the stage and played to a packed house. We took off around 2 a.m. and left for Lake Tahoe. Tahoe is the most beautiful place, says Big Vinny. We couldn't have asked for better weather. We played a great show at Harveys Theatre and then left for a long drive.

Our next stop on the Biggest and Baddest Tour is in St. Louis. We'll let ya know how it goes!

Holla!

-TC