. . . Happy Birthday dear record, happy birthday tooooooo yooooooou.
on April 7th my record turned one year old.  Time does fly. Actually, I sort of feel like its been two years since it's release, but you know you can't always trust your feelings.

So far 2010, has been a flurry of variety.  I've spent lots of time in LA, opening and headlining out on the road, I went on my first cruise (a rad music festival on a ship called Cayamo) . . .

A couple weeks ago my brother, Sean and I were asked to join Jackson Browne who was to be supplying the music for a benefit performance of Much Ado About Nothing. Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson have put this event on for 20 years now, each year they perform a different Shakespeare piece with a different group of Hollywood actors.
They did an amazing job.  We ran thru the entire play twice during the day, ate a quick dinner and then it was time for the real thing.  I’ve never seen acting or a production like this develop, much less so speedily.  Big name actors worked through the Shakespeare and so quickly adopted the minor direction given to them, remembering it, and then also improvising.  The play itself is so clever and there was a whole lot of hilarious ad-libbing. I had a blast.

Today I'm working on finishing the details for the upcoming week and a half tour.  We fly out tomorrow and I should already be done with the advancing, but I’m not.
The last several days have been gorgeous and my husband's family has been visiting from VA; there are simply better things to do than labor over how much I should bid on Priceline for a Boston hotel room.  However, gear must be rented, and arrangements must be made, so today I have pecked away much harder at my lump of chores.  I’d better finish by tomorrow.
I will be trying out some new material on tour, for sure. Last time I was on A Prairie Home Companion I  played a new songs I wrote with Jon Foreman. Well, I can’t believe it, but APHC is having me back a couple more times this spring! I think I’m going to throw an other new one in the batch. Listen for me on April 24th!
Hope you’re all well!
Sara

Greetings from Glasgow, Scotland.  I really like this city.

The days have been gorgeous and clear and I heard it didn't rain at all for the entire two and a half weeks of the Celtic Connections festival.

I arrived early on Wednesday morning and had the entire day off to settle in and get sorted.  Walking around, stretching out away from the hotel, little, ghosts-like memeories came to me from Nickel Creek days: Walking on Buchanan with Mandy and Chris in 2006, and then I came to a dirt parking lot and had a quick vision of seeing it about eight years ago on our first visti to Glasgow.  I know it now as the corner before Gandolfi's Cafe.

I was invited to Celtic Connections to be a part of the Translantic Sessions, a fantastic show organized by Jerry Douglas and Aly Bain involving a batch of muscians from Ireland, Scotland, England, the States and other countreis as well.  The 11 piece band had two rehearsals to put the show together and, let me tell you, the rehearsal on Thursday was just heavenly.  My main job is to sing a few songs and jump in on harms, although I get to sit in with the fiddle on a few songs too :)

The Transalantic Session band is Jerry Douglas, Aly Bain, Phil Cunningham, Tim O'Brien, Russ Barenberg, Mike McGoldrick, Bruce Molsky, Danny Thompson, Donald Shaw, James Mackintosh and John Doyle.  Good LORD!  Most of these guys have been musical heroes for me and the others are quicky becoming so.  The singing guests are Dan Tyminski, Karen Matheson, Eddi Reader, Mollie O'Brien, Darrel Scott and myself.  When we aren't singing or playing, we all sit on a couple couches on stage with a couple bottles of wine and enjoy the concert.  It's amazing.

Just before my second batch of songs, Karen leavs us all in tears singing her verson of a gaelic song (the name of which I don't know how to spell on my english keyboard) is about a children's cemetery. Right after that Tim sings Hey Joe...You have to understand, the way Tim sings that song is so wickedly awesome, I can't sit still!  I get so amped up I'm in no condition to do anything but run in circles - certainlty not in a good place to sing a sad, mellow song.  It took me until the third verse to sink into it last night.  I have to figure out how to deal with it.

There have been very late night jam sessions.  Last night I went down to the hotel lobby to find Mollie, Eddi, and Karen singing old songs and new ones - accompanied by Phil Cunningham on the accordion.  What a beautiful sound.

We start on the first ever Transatlantic tour tomorow!  Manchester, Gateshead, Belfast, Birmingham and then London.  Traveling in planes, trains and automobiles - it's going to be a blast!

Hi!

I hope you're winter has been safe and sound.

I have been home, off tour, since early December and loving every minute of it.  I'd be bored, but fortunately, there have been many musical activities in LA and a few fun sessions have popped into my schedule too!  For Christmas my husband and I went back to Virginia Beach to visit his wonderful family, and on New Years Eve, we, and a small, last minute, group of friends played scrabble and banged pots and pans out in the street with my neighbors.

Thank you to all of the people who came out to my 100+ shows last year.  It was a surprise and honor that you came out every night.

After that chunk of touring, however, I was pretty tired.  This is the first week where I've been antsy to get back out there, this is convenient timing because I leave next week for Celtic Connections in Glasgow!  I've played this two week long festival once before and had a wonderful time.  This year I was invited to join the Transatlantic Session in which I get to play with a huge list of beautiful music makers including Aly Bain, Tim and Mollie O'Brien, Michael McGoldrick, Jerry Douglas and Eddi Reader.

We're actually going on a little tour in the UK and Ireland a well!  The weather will be cold but the Guiness will not.  Thank heaven.

Oh my gosh! I had my acting debut this month!  All of you True Jackson VP fans be on the look out for a fiddle playing waitress.  It was fun to be on a set - interesting to see how they put a show like that together.  I even had a stunt double! ...she got to do all the cool stuff, like ride the zip line and slam into a wall.

Perhaps best of all, this weekend I was inducted by my hometown into the Vista, California Hall of Fame.  A thousand thanks to local artist Karen Brake who painted my portrait!

Skater Matt Hensley was among the other inductees and there will be other including of course my brother Sean.  The mayor came out, Councilmen, and so did Miss Vista and Miss Teen Vista! Thanks to my aunt Joanie for taking the pictures!  I've posted more of them here

In other news, we got a dog!  He's a one and a half year old St Bernard named Buckley.  You'll probably be hearing about him a lot : )

Wowee!  What a busy fall!  From WPA to driving across Canada, Pavaritti's Limo, countless oatmeal breakfasts at Starbucks, ferrie's, floppy eared rabbits to a great mini-tour with the Infamous Stringdusters.

My last full band show was this past weekend for a special New York broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion.  It has been a wonderful year of touring out with these guys.  Sebastian named us "Sara Watkins Y Los Pantalones". I can't tell you what a sweet bunch of guys they have been, all through hard travel conditions and lack of sleep.  I am so privileged to have these guys on stage with me any night, much less most nights.  When any member, or all the members, of Los Pantalones were unavailable for a show, the heroic and very talented Aaron Redfield, Tyler Chester, Todd Lombardo, Byron House and Zeke Hutchins stepped in.  I can't thank you guys enough.

Thanks to all the promoters who took a chance on me this year, to John Prine and Garrison Kellor for welcoming me to your shows, and to all of you who came out and supported us.  What a remarkable encouragement you are.

All I have left this year are some solo shows in Southern California and the Annual Watkins Family Hour Christmas Show at Largo!  This year's show will benefit a very special foundation called Help Mend A Heart.  Our good friend Jordan's mom developed an unidentified infection and only 10% of her heart is functioning on its own.  She is in great need of a heart transplant and has no insurance to pay for it.  Come support her at our special benefit WFH show December 16th.  OR you can make a secure donation right on that website.

Already looking forward to next year!

Happy Holidays everyone!  Love you! Sara

It has been so good to be home.  It took a few days for me to settle in and for it to feel real, but I’m now in the full swing of
domesticity.  We’ve been re-siding the garage and, yesterday, I even baked gingersnap cookies - Grandma Nordstrom’s recipe. I like em extra snappy, then you put them in the freezer (that’s where she’d store them, and where I’d sneak them from when I was little).

Last night I got to open for Exene Cervenka, from X.  Jon Brion and I learned a few old country songs to do, and Benmont came in on the last number.  That’s pretty good, but wait! There’s more!  My husband, Todd and I had our first on stage duet last night as well! A Dolly and Porter song called Tomorrow is Forever.  It was really fun. We’re gonna have to do more of that.

Tomorrow I’m going up to Ojai to record a couple more songs for that Cy Coleman project that came out earlier this fall. These would just be extra tracks, one is an other beautiful song of Cy’s called See Saw, and the other is a Jimmy Rogers tune I first heard Laurie Lewis do a long time ago called, I Miss the Mississippi and You. Its a lovely, lovely melody.

On Sunday I journey back east for a five show run of Co-Bill shows with the String Dusters. We’ll be starting in PA, then hitting VA, NC and MD.

I’m really excited to be touring with a bluegrass band again.  It’s gonna be a lot of fun.

I've been spitting out little Twitter posts everyday, not realizing that it's been over a month since I've sat down to journal anything longer than 140 characters.

Right now I'm on a flight home where I get to be for two bittersweet days before running off for two more weeks of touring.  I really love touring, and I'm enjoying tour-managing myself, but sometimes I just get tired!  The days at home will rejuvenate me I'm sure.

This last run was in the midwest. I picked up the rental car and gear in St. Louis (using it as a base) and met the band in Omaha.  A couple days later we had made our way up to Rockford, IL where we played the New American Theatre and when Emily met us with
their helpful hospitality -  our stressful day of driving and fatigue and delays was washed away.  The show was super fun, and afterwards the nearby resort (generously lodging up) even gave us a ride there in the 1930's limo owned by Pavarotti himself! This is the first limo that has ever seemed remotely glamorous to me.  It sat only four, perfectly.  I felt like I should be wearing a fur wrap with gloves and veiled hat and pearls.

A reception met us at the hotel and chef, Philippe, treated us to bread and cheese (in may forms) and champagne.   It was an unforgettable night and we all had a ball.

Thanks to everyone who came out in Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio and lo' Kentuck for supporting us and making our shows so fun!
 I'm coming back to the region again in a week and a half! Here's proof :)  Tour dates

I'm really happy right now and love having different musical outlets.  Sean and I have been working together on a couple things lately.  We were offered a chance to pitch a 20 sec theme-song for a TV show out this fall.  It turned out pretty good we think! Between that and joining in on some dates with WPA, I've had a busy fall!

I think if I only had my solo thing or was just part of a band, any creativity would shrivel up and die.  Looking back on times when I only had one musical outlet, I spent a whole lot more time making crafty things - puzzle solving my way through cards and different projects…trying to sew paper together.  Now I wish I could do those things but when I have inspiration, I haven't the time. Isn't that always the way. That's one thing I like about the approach of the Holidays.  Christmas is the great motivator.  I did not make time for indulging creative cooking, makings and gifting - and I felt like I completely missed out on my favorite part of the year.  It was the first Christmas that passed me by.  It felt like an entire parade ran it's course while I was bent over, tying my shoes.

But that doesn't matter now, because all this stored energy from past Christmases . . . I can USE it this year.  There are still a couple more weeks left of touring, I get home on Halloween (perfect) and then OUT come the boxes in the garage and from under my bed!  Paper, thread,  fabric I won't know what to do with, maybe some paint. Oatmeal, cinnamon, pumpkin, electric blankets I'm learning what does it for me - how to make my own Holidays and I love it!  My husband, having spent some years in the world of retail, has developed a foul taste for "the holidays." Hopefully that flavor wears off soon.