Hey everyone!  Greetings from Music City, USA!  I'm down here in Nashville where the weather is a lovely 84 degrees and sunny.  I love coming here because the weather is always great, compared to Montana.  While the trip down here was disastrous (we got stuck in the airport in Minneapolis for almost SEVEN HOURS, got our gate changed four times, five flight delays, and one flight canceled... got re-routed through Atlanta and made it into Nashville at 10 PM, nine hours later than planned), I'm so glad we're here, even for just a few days.  I just finished playing at the world-famous Bluebird Cafe last night!  It was INCREDIBLE.  I'm still processing the fact that I just played there.  It's amazing.  God, I love this town.  I got to meet some really cool people and play music with some of the best musicians and writers in town.  Huge thanks goes out to everyone at NSAI, the Bluebird, and my co-stars, CJ Watson, Dani Carroll, and Billy Dawson for an awesome show.  Videos and photos will be up soon!

I just got back to the hotel from having lunch at the Pancake Pantry, which is super famous here in Nashville.  The Swiss Chocolate Pancakes I ordered were absolutely delicious.  What a cool place.  We're headed out to the Frist Art Gallery to see the Andy Warhol exhibit and listen to a sweet Rolling Stones cover band, which should be great.  I'm gonna be singing the Stones for the rest of the week.  I'm super excited.  So excited, in fact, that I'm going to let you guys in on a little prank I've pulled.  I stole my friend Michael's argyle print aviator sunglasses (he actually left them at my house), and I've been carrying them around with me in Nashville, taking pictures of them in funny places.  So far, I've got them in front of the Nashville courthouse, with a picture of Sammy Davis Jr., at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, at the Pancake Pantry, on the bar at the Bluebird, and on the head of my co-star last night, Mr. Billy Dawson.  I'm trying to think of more places to get photos.  Any suggestions?  Leave a comment below and tell me where you think the argyle aviators should travel next!

On Saturday, we'll fly back home to Bozeman and get back to work on rehearsals and gigs, and all those shenanigans.  Hopefully the return trip will be better than the one to Nashville.  Ugh.  Needless to say, I'm not a huge fan of airports.  But I've had time to read some awesome books, what with all the delays and stuff.  I finished one called Looking For Alaska in the airport on Tuesday.  It's a great book, by John Green, who I'm a big fan of.  I highly recommend this book, as well as another favorite of his, An Abundance of Katherines.  Good stuff.  I'm currently in the middle of The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, which is part of the Da Vinci Code series.  It's FANTASTIC.  Seriously one of the best books I've ever read.  If you haven't read his books, you should go read them now.  I am, however, a little bit concerned.  This book has six hundred and sixty six pages... odd.

Well, I'm going to leave you at that.  If you're reading this, thanks for visiting the website, and stay tuned for more updates to come in the very near future.  If you're not reading this... well, I'm not going to say anything to you, because, clearly, you're not reading this, so it wouldn't matter anyways.  Thanks for all your wonderful support.  Last, I just want to say: Happy summer!  Go out, enjoy the sunshine (if you are fortunate enough to have it)!  Stay cool, in both the literal and figurative senses of the word. 

I love you guys.

Rock on,

Courtney

 Hey everyone, Courtney here!  Well, it's coming to an end.  Sophomore year is almost over!  School gets out tomorrow, and I am finished with finals.  It's been a crazy year, with trying to balance my AP classes and schoolwork with music and trips to Nashville.  I can't exactly say I'll miss it.  I am, however, looking forward to summer quite a bit.  With school over, I'll be able to completely fill my schedule with everything else!  I've got the first with the guys tomorrow for the gigs in Laramie coming up in July.  I'll be playing with Jake Fleming, Craig Hall, and Adam Greenberg, three local musical genuises.  I'm so lucky to be playing with serious pros like them.  Can't wait!  Those gigs are on the 8th and 9th of July, and you can read more about that on my last blog post.  I'm also playing later tomorrow evening at the Kountry Korner Cafe from 5:30 to 8:30.  They've got great food and service, and if you're around, I'd love to see you all there.  It's gonna be a lot of fun!  Any requests?  You can comment below if there's a certain song you'd like to hear. :)

Things are all set to head down to Nashville in a few weeks.  I'll be playing in a round at the Bluebird Cafe with CJ Watson, Dani Carroll, and Billy Dawson.  I'm ecstatic, it's going to be so much fun!  CJ and Dani are both good friends and co-writers who I've had the pleasure of working with and getting to know during the time I've spent in Nashville.  They're both great people and fantastic musicians.  I can't wait to see them both again.  I haven't yet met Billy, but he seems like a really cool guy!  He's played with people like Skillet, Sara Buxton, Rivers Rutherford, and Lady Antebellum.  His music is awesome, you can listen to it on his MySpace page:  http://www.myspace.com/billydawson.  Check it out!  

The annual HMDSS Young Songwriter's Contest deadline is this Saturday.  Yikes!  I need to get going on that.  Going into speed songwriting mode for the next few days.  By then, school will be out and I'll have nothing to do with my time (ha, right...).  Summer is almost here, despite the insane amount of precipitation and minimal amount of sunshine we've had here for the past few weeks.  I'm determined to make this the best summer yet.  After gigs in Wyoming, I'm going to band camp!  And don't even start with the "one time at band camp..." jokes. :P  I'm headed down to Cody, Wyoming for Yellowstone Jazz Camp.  It's awesome!  After that, I'm really looking forward to getting to spend some time with my extended family who I haven't seen in a while.  And then home again in August for... you guessed it... Driver's Education!  Still not sure if I'm all too excited to be on the road, I'm a pretty awful driver.  We'll see how it goes.  Watch out world, here comes Courtney!  

Well, that's all for now.  Thanks for reading and for all of your support.  See you the next time I update!  Stay cool, everyone.  

Rock on,

Courtney

I've got some big things coming up this summer.  We'll be winging to Nashville for a busy week in June.  The highlight of the week will be a performance at the world-famous Bluebird Cafe with friend, mentor, producer, co-writer and all-around good guy CJ Watson, Dani Carroll and Billy Dawson.  The Bluebird gig will be June 23, 2011.  We're hopeful that some industry reps will be there to hear us.  Thanks to CJ, Bart, Sheree and everyone at NSAI for including me.

I will also be playing two big shows in Laramie, Wyoming during the annual Jubilee Days festival.  Friday July 8 I'll be playing at the Alibi Lounge backed by my mentors and friends Jake Fleming, Craig Hall and Adam Greenberg.  Then the next day, we play the Jubilee Days Main Stage to kick off the Saturday events downtown.  It will be a lot of fun.  I'm really excited to play with the guys that have taught me so much about music.  Right now, I'm charting over 40 songs -- both original and covers from the 1970s to the present -- and setting up rehearsals.

I'll also be playing around Bozeman.  I have played a couple Thursday nights at the Kountry Korner Cafe and will be doing that more through the summer.  I got a couple of Sunday dates scheduled at Weebee's Cafe and hope to play at Opus Deli and some other local spots.

Then, in August -- a right of teenage passage.  I'll be doing Driver's Ed.  Look out for Courtney on the road!