Tristan sent in her latest post after scoring a pop culture coup. She was one of last week’s “The Hills” featured songs. After performing in the Rocky Mountains fresh from her “Hills” introduction to the world, Tristan filed this report.

The altitude proved to get the better of Matty last night. I only heard stories, but apparently, after having a late night at the tequila bar across the street from the Bluebird he came back to the hotel and proceeded to through pillows at Chris, who was fast asleep. Now in the van, we have ’Journey: Live from Houston in ’81’ blaring. Matty is in full force doing leg kicks and playing air drums. We are on our way to Fort Collins.

We had a great show last night in Denver at The Bluebird Theater. I love Colorado. We just drove by a motor cross track, where my brother Cody, out here tour managing us, went into full on 12 year old mode, making motor cross bike noises to the bikers going around the dirt track….rerrrr…reeeeerrrr….reeerrrr…raaaarreeerrr. Once a man, always a boy.

Just me and the boys out here on the road….It can get errr rather boy-ish….I am out numbered! Thank God so many girls come out to the shows… Though i prefer wood floors to carpet, i still appreciate the unique blend of people that we get to entertain every night. One girl last night blurted out in the middle of a song, ’I think about you all the time’…’Im not a lesbian though!’ and the girl next to her said, ’but i am!’. I love it, love it all. I also met the hottest asian guy of all time, he was sexy…Many a beautiful people we meet out here. So many beautiful, smiling people across the nation.

My fans are also turning out to be quite the photographers, sending in lovely photos from the shows every night. That is alot of creativity in one room, its inspiring! Check out the photos from last night at the Bluebird courtesy of Brianne Bradfield!

We are really stoked to be out here on the road. Whitley is out with us as well, charming his way across the US. He is pretty amazing, so make sure you come early to check him out. We smuggled him all the way from Australia, so we could share with you what all the fuss is about. Hes got a nice following in OZ, and will surely have one here over the next couple months. Get in on the action early, while you can!

Its still a trip to me, that this is my own tour. We are still warming up, but getting the hang of it everynight. Balancing the new tunes with the old. I forget sometimes, that i have only mostly toured by myself, and that is what most people are used to. The band is def a new territory. The key is balancing the stripped down version of the songs, and the full on versions with the band. Please let us know your feedback. We would love to know? What you are thinking?

Anyhow, well we are here…College Ave…here we come. Last time I played at the Aggie Theater we were with the Southland, there was about four people there and lots of shots of jagermeister. I also remember the people that missed the show and so I played a mini set for them backstage. Good times. Geez, I have been touring for a long time.

Long lived tour!

I want to go surfing now and kiss my boyfriend.

XO Tp!

Tristan begins with her thoughts after an extensive tour with G. Love and Special Sauce, and writes about the emotions swirling before the spotlight shines solely on her.

Sharing the Love
I have toured with G. Love and the Special Sauce a handful of times, this last tour must have been the eighth or ninth tour! I was always such a huge fan of G, and remember driving back from San Francisco the day I got the call to go on tour with him my first time… I was ecstatic!

That first tour we immediately hit it off. Three nights later we had written our duet “Beautiful.” We would sit in the back of the bus and play it over and over. I’m pretty sure we annoyed everyone. It took us forever to record it, it was gonna be on my record and then G’s record… we could never decide. Eventually we recorded it. And it was sounding pretty good — I ended up recording my vocal in the dressing room of an old theatre backstage before a show.

From then on, it’s been on. We have always had great chemistry, and “Beautiful” never fails to bring it out in full force, every time we play it.

I’ve always loved touring with G. Love and Co — they are one of my favorite live shows to go see. So much energy, so much fun and the audiences are always killer, dancing and singing and partying. It’s great.

Sauce for inspiration
I think touring with G. has really helped me become a better performer, its definitely toughened me up a bit, having to deal with rowdy frat guys yelling inappropriate things throughout the whole show…just kidding! It’s not always like that. But it’s nice to see a band just groove and vibe off each other. They’ve always inspired me to not be afraid of stepping outside the structure of the songs and letting them breathe a bit.

This last tour was great, short but sweet. We visited some towns I had never been to. Towns that I would’ve never guessed were hip little hubs for awesome stores and restaurants. Athens, Georgia, had an exceptionally insane selection of amazing vintage finds. I went a little nuts… but at least I will look stylish for the next tour…

On my own
Speaking of the next tour - March 19th at The Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, California — it marks the start of my headlining tour. I have headlined once before, but not with a full band. Now that I have my spicy gentlemen — Matt Delvecchio on bass guitar & Chris Lovejoy on the drums — we are ready to get this party started!

Actually to be quite honest, I am a little nervous. I have been focusing so much time on the new songs off the new record. I fear I have forgotten how to play the older stuff. I’m sure it will come back to me, I’ll just have to find some time in between all this blogging and traveling to practice!

It always takes a minute to get into tour mode, but luckily the G. Love tour was a great place for us to get reacquainted with playing music, being on stage and in front of people. We had a nice little warm up fo’ sho’.

Overall, I am pretty excited. I love having my own shows. I love being able to play the slower, more soulful tunes, those moments when the room is so quiet you could hear a pin drop. I also love the moments when we really bring the rock, haha… I crack myself up! But it’s nice to create a big warm groovy space to revel in. Those are the moments I live for. To be able to bring both those elements out during a show is why I absolutely love what I do.

I look forward to it, I also have the best fans in the world. I feel like this thing (music, my career, etc…) has evolved at such a nice steady pace, that I have been able to grow with my fans and my fans with me. They make me feel like I could play anything and they would still listen. I look forward to expanding my fan family :)

See you on the road, big smiles -

TP