CMT Blog: Travel

Hey y’all! It’s the Trailer Choir here. This past weekend was all about fairs and festivals. We started out in Syracuse, N.Y., for the New York State Fair. Our morning began at the CMT/Time Warner exhibit. We performed an acoustic set and then went on to sign autographs, take pictures and meet some new fans and friends. That night we performed a three-song set to open the show for Toby Keith. These fair and festival crowds got started early and didn’t stop!

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Uh, oh. Looks like we may be losing another American celeb to the London scene. The shopping scene, anyway. While Taylor Swift was in London for a sold-out show Wednesday night (Sept. 3) at King’s College, she said she became addicted to a retailer called Topshop. I’m sure it’s cool, and the anonymity of walking around a town where people might not recognize you is nice, but surely Swift won’t go all Madonna and Gwyneth on us.

As an entertainer, Jessica Simpson is already used to touring — but not just at arenas, fairs and festivals. She’s also been actively involved in USO tours, marking her initial trek to the troops in 2001.

“The first USO tour was me and Neal McCoy and the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders and Rob Schneider. Actually, he’s really funny. And Wayne Newton. We went to Bosnia and Afghanistan. It was pretty unbelievable. So I’ve been to Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Germany, all for the USO,” she says. “It’s been amazing to be a part of that. Even like Fort Hood in Texas and in San Diego, I’ve really tried to meet as many troops as I possibly can just to say thank you. There’s nothing you can really ever do to thank them enough.”

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When I wake up on the floor of a cheap motel room with Charles snoring in the bed above me, I can’t help but think about all the things that the first and second generations of bluegrass pickers went through to keep this music alive. Curly Seckler, of Flatt & Scruggs fame, says they assumed the first three rows of a corn field were open season for hungry musicians, traveling the roads without much cash. Thomas Haglund, the Swedish fiddler, says that money was so tight when he played with Jimmy Martin, his first job upon arriving at any festival was to search the grounds for a bass player for the night. When Flatt & Scruggs were doing their 4 a.m. live radio broadcasts, they didn’t want to wake up early and try to sing, so they’d just stay up all night until show time.

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I can’t tell you how many nights I’ve spent at home with a bottle of red wine and a Patty Griffin album. Back in the day, that was my favorite way to cope with all the angst. Thank goodness I’m out of the woods now, but I thought about those rougher times last night when I was at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, Calif., where she was performing at their small amphitheater. If you love her like I do, you’ll be overjoyed to know that she’s got a handful of new songs - and she said she’s been listening to a lot of country music these days, including George Strait, Tom T. Hall and Lefty Frizzell.

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Hey Y’all! WOW! What a busy weekend we have had! We left Nashville on Wednesday (Aug. 20) to perform at Club Paradise in Blasdell, N.Y. Then it was over to Meadville, Pa., for the Crawford County Fair to meet back up with the Toby Keith Biggest and Baddest tour. We made a stop at 5:30 a.m. in Erie, Pa., for a TV appearance and live studio performance on the WSEE Morning Show with Raychel and Ray, to promote that evening’s performance at the Crawford County Fair with Toby Keith. We then stopped at two radio stations for live, on-air interviews with our labelmates Carter’s Chord. We arrived at the fairgrounds around 11 a.m. and got a little rest. A few members of our band walked around the fair and even got to see a 100 lb. rat! (For only 50 cents, no less.)

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A young band hitting the road has a very simple definition of success - your first tour bus. One glimpse of a mighty Prevost on the highway is enough to make a musician’s heart flutter from within the confines of a smelly over-crowded Chevy passenger van. Could that be Alison Krauss and Robert Plant? Tim McGraw and Faith Hill? The tour bus is the Promised Land.

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Hey, y’all! It’s the Trailer Choir here. We have had a busy weekend in the Northeast! We started out in Virginia Beach. We had a really great day, with absolutely beautiful weather. We had an on-air interview with our friends at 97.3 The Eagle and then we were ready to perform for our acoustic backstage pre-show with Toby Keith. We took the stage after our labelmates Mica Roberts and Carter’s Chord around 7:30 p.m. We performed and got a standing ovation! And we couldn’t be happier!

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It’s been a long, expensive summer. And I have the merch wardrobe to prove it.

Every June, I tell myself I will not buy any concert gear at the summer shows. I don’t need it, it’s overpriced, blah blah blah. Yet here I sit, surrounded by clothes and accessories that tell the world what I’ve been up to for the past three months. But what I tell myself (and my husband) once the damage is done, is that these purchases were unavoidable.

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Melissa Lawson is the winner of the 2008 Nashville Star Series.

Hi everyone! I am HOME! After 3 months on Nashville Star and 2 AMAZING whirlwind weeks after winning, I am finally HOME! =) I get to spend a couple of weeks with my family, no cameras, no interviews, just us Lawsons hanging out and lovin’ on each other. I am really looking forward to this time to recharge my batteries and get ready for the Nashville Star tour kicking off Sept. 12 in St. Louis and to begin working on the album, which will be released around the first of the year. Now let me tell you about what you really want to know about … CHINA! WOW! I thought Nashville Star was great, but it can’t even compare to the last 2 weeks of my life.

View photos from Melissa’s trip.

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