Breakfast With The President, Gasoline & Banjos

Well friends, it’s been an interesting and busy week to say the least. I haven’t seemed to catch up on sleep yet, and the coming week doesn’t seem so promising either! Oh well, “I’m young right? Who needs sleep?” – Unfortunately, my soar throat doesn’t agree so much!

Anyways, it seems like only a few days ago that I was writing about my trip with the band to Washington, D.C. This past week I returned to D.C. to perform with Alison Krauss and Dan Tyminski at the National Prayer Breakfast. I flew last Monday into Nashville for a rehearsal before flying with everyone to D.C. Thank goodness that I did, or I probably wouldn’t have made it out of Boston for a few days because of the big snow storm. Luckily for me – school was cancelled on Tuesday and Wednesday (which means I don’t have a load of work to make up – YAY!)

Ok! On with my story - The actual breakfast was an early morning event in which we played two hymns – I Know Who Holds Tomorrow and Abide With Me. The event takes place every year at the Washington Hilton and is hosted by all of Congress and attended by the President. This year was the 59^th annual. There were about 3,500 people packed in the ballroom and reportedly representatives from over 150 different countries. Though I don’t tend to be extremely political, I was so thrilled to be part of an event all about something that does mean so much to me – Prayer. It was also a pleasure to get to meet, Randall Wallace, writer of some excellent movies such as, Brave Heart, We Were Soldiers, Pearl Harbor. He gave an amazing keynote speech at the breakfast. We also played 4 songs at the closing dinner later that night which was very fun as well! I was able to meet author, William P. Young, who wrote The Shack, who also gave a very touching speech about his faith. It’s of course always such a joy to get to sing with two of my favorite singers ever – Dan and Alison. I’m always reminded just how much I LOVE to sing harmony in a situation like that. We did two accapella songs at the closing dinner – so fun!

Alison and me at the closing dinner.

Dan during soundcheck.

I think if you do a search on youtube there are a couple videos from the performance that morning that were on C-SPAN. :)

After flying back to Nashville I had to make a quick run over to the office to meet the guys for our band rehearsal. We were supposed to rehearse with our new banjo player, but unfortunately got a call from him that morning letting me know that he had decided to accept a job with a different band. Not exactly good news, and it’s unfortunate for us as it felt good to finally hire someone and we were all pumped to rehearse. BUT, I truly do believe that all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord! And as I fail to do so often, I believe we should praise Him even in times when things don’t go our way. I know He knows what’s best for this band and will see things through as he sees best. The guys and I certainly wish Jessie the best! We ended up rehearsing both Friday and Saturday. I really love the new material. It’s so fun and refreshing to play these new tunes, and I really hope you guys will like them! I’m really excited to get out and play a bunch in March in support of the new record. With the release date being moved back to the earlier date, it really forced our booking agency to get on the ball and start booking, booking, booking. I’m really happy with the progress they have made the last few weeks and it will be GREAT to be out on the road with a brand new album! Our wonderful and faithful friend, Ron Block will be going out with us on the March Tour – what a shame! ;) haha

Ok – so enough serious talk – let’s get REALLY serious. I did something dumb today. Ran out of gas on I-40. There’s really no excuse for something like this other than my lack of responsibility. I’ve mostly been in Boston for the past year and a half, and my car stays in Nashville so that when I fly in to work/ect. I have a car! Well, at the end of last summer my fuel gauge stopped working and always says I’m on empty. My gaslight is ALWAYS on. So, I took my car to Nissan where I have it serviced and they quoted fixing it for like $400. I decided at the time since I was hardly driving it that I would just wait to have it fixed. Not long ago, I got an extended warranty in the mail from Nissan saying that this was a problem with many of the year models like mine and that I could get it fixed for free! (Sweet, huh?) Except, I’ve not been home long enough to get it done! SO, I always have to remember to fill up. Before driving to Alison’s for rehearsal I put $30 worth in the tank, which normally does me just fine for a short trip into Nashville. I guess $30 just doesn’t get you as far as it used to these days. Anyways, I was driving to Cookeville, TN to meet my mom for lunch before I flew out today. Luckily my brother and two of his friends had drove down to Nashville for the weekend to go to SPBGMA and were following me and able to rescue me! I had given my brother a birthday card right before we started driving and it had $20 dollars in it. Thankfully so, because he used that $20 bucks to buy me a gas jug! Hahaha Anyways – boring story.

My own little personal version of TripleA!

Ok folks, that’s all for now. I’m currently soaring through the air on a big Southwest plane headed back to Boston! Yes, that’s correct. I booked a flight during the Super Bowl. I know.. I’m so not cool!!

As always, thanks for reading! :)

Sierra