Hi From Montana - Nathan K

Hi from Red Lodge Montana! It’s your friend in the orange, Nathan K.

Sara Beth and I are here to play at Red Lodge Songwriter Festival. We are competing in the Rocky Mountain Songwriting Contest. Younger me didn’t like the idea of a songwriting contest, but older me thinks it’s a really good excuse to hang out and meet some other amazing people who are dedicated to their craft. It’s really impossible to lose.

What’s funny is, not only are Sara Beth and I competing “against” each other, but my song has her name in it. And our friend Remi Goode, who sings bgvs on the recording of my song is a contestant as well. Her partner (in life, and music) also played some bggs (i just invented that term, it means background guitars!). Reply to this email and I’ll send you a link to listen to the song I’ll be performing. On top of all of that several other sweet friends of ours are part of the “competition”. Again, it’s really impossible to lose. But I do hope the song connects with the hearts of the judges, audience, and other contestants.

Our flight out of Nashville was delayed due to weather, and as we checked our bags, the guy asked if we wanted to “risk it” or not. He was certain we would miss our connecting flight. Playing it safe meant we would fly to vegas instead of denver, and then to Bozeman, but get in several hours later. Which would have then risked arriving after the rental car desk closed (which was also 2 hours away from Red Lodge.) so we risked it.

Throughout the flight we kept checking and it looked like we would certainly miss our connecting flight in Denver, which meant 5 hour layover (hey it’s a nice airport though!) and then getting in way past closing time for rental car. But….. the app said we’d arrive to Denver 5 mins before the Denver flight took off, so we had a small amount of hope (think, Dumb and Dumber “so you’re saying there’s a chance!”). We asked the flight attendant what he thought we should do and he said “i’ve got good news and bad news. We are definitely going to be late… but this flight crew is the same crew flying out of Denver, so they HAVE to wait for us.. You’re good!”

Huge sigh of relief. Plus it was really fun walking on the new plane and saying hi to the flight attendants like “long time no see!!”. One of them even “saved” an overhead bin in the back for my guitar. So nice.

It got me thinking about in life there have been so many times i’ve thought i “missed my flight” or an opportunity or had i been smarter, things would have been so diff. Especially as you look up and see so many planes in the air, and hear about ones your friends are getting on, or just arrived from, etc. But it’s like… you are the flight crew of your life. So it’s while it’s possible to be a little delayed due to weather or whatever else in life, impossible to actually MISS it. because it can’t take off without you. Because it IS you. I am finding a lot of comfort in that thought, and I hope you do too.

Have a great week. I hope that you know you’re exactly where you need to be right now.

Sincerely,
Nathan

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UPCOMING SHOWS: – 6/21: Red Lodge MT: Red Lodge Songwriter Festival (I’m a finalist in the Rocky Mountain Songwriter Contest!)
– 7/3 -7/6: Urbana IL: Audiofeed Festival
– 7/19: Nashville TN: Teakwood Garden
– 8/7: Philadelphia PA: Brittany Ann Tranbaugh Presents: The Meet Cute w/ Simon Tangney & Sara Beth Go
– 9/24-28: Austin TX: SWRFA – (Southwest Regional Folk Alliance Conference
– 10/12: Houston TX: Houston Folklore and Music Society w/ Sara Beth Go

www.nathankmusic.com