"Bedtime Stories" by Carter Hinckley

About a week ago I started making up little stories for the boys as I put them in bed to sort of take the edge off having to go to sleep. It's turned into a really funny thing now that they are each taking their turn creating stories on the fly. Here's Carter telling his story from tonight.

Glenn Beck Is Dead On

Join the Reagan Action Revolution

This may be a good rallying point in the future. Give it a look!

All You've Got

Don't tell me this doesn't move something inside you. If not, you're dead...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vB59PkB0eQ

Pickens Plan

Backyard Pirate Ship!

This has been quite a project over the last month! Yes, it's big...and no, I didn't plan on it being that big!
But the boys love it and that was the plan.

One Crazy Weekend...

This past couple days have been very interesting for Nate, Spe, and I. We've been preparing for the Nashville Star Auditions for a couple weeks and after having sent in a video as part of the audition process we received a call from the producers. They informed us that our video submission had put us in a regional finalist category without even having to play live. Yesterday and today they held the National audition in Nashville and we flew Spencer out from Idaho for it.

So here's the rundown. We arrived at the Opryland Hotel at 8:30 Friday morning thinking that we were getting there early but there were already about 2000 people in line. We had gotten a call the night before from the producers telling us that we'd made it onto the regional finalist list and that we'd be able to by-pass the open "cattle call" line that most of the folks would have to stand in. As we began to ask around for this other line one of the producers, Chris, came up to us and started talking to us like he knew us. He acted like he'd already seen us in another city and we had to keep reminding him each time we talked that we sent in a video and that's how he knew us. I guess the 20 hours making the video payed off.

We were told to stand in the open call line for now and that someone would come by in a bit to put us into the short line for regional finalists. After standing in the back of the line for two hours waiting for someone to announce that we could join another line, I sent Spe to see what was going on at the front and he came back saying that the line had already formed and that we needed to go jump in it.

We waited in that line for another couple hours and finally got into the inside holding room. We got our number and started warming up...not realizing that we still had a few more hours to wait. When we finally got the call to go upstairs it was about 4:30 and we were pretty exhausted. Throughout the day we'd see someone every now and then come back from the judges room with a Nashville Star belt buckle shaped ticket that basically says you made it to the call back the next day. So, that was the goal on Friday..to get the buckle that let you come back and actually be considered for the show.

We got into the audition room and did our thing. We played 30 seconds of "When You Say Nothing At All" with me on guitar and Spe on Mando and they really seemed to like it. They gave us our own buckle and we got signed up for the call back day. They gave us more info on what today would be like and they also said that we needed to wear the exact same clothing, same hair style, same everything because they were combining the two days into one on film.

Today we showed up at a much more manageable 3:15 for our appointment at 4:00. There were maybe 25-30 call back acts in the room this time and it was tons more organized. After waiting for a while we noticed some groups and soloists being interviewed and singing on camera off to the side and wondered what was giving them that airtime. I kept saying that we just need to go over there and tell him we want to sing on camera and be interviewed too and a couple minutes later Spe and I did. We asked him if he'd film us singing the National Anthem a capella and he said sure. We motioned for Nate to join us and we hopped in front of the camera. We belted out the song and then he interviewed us for a few minutes. It was cool to know that just making a pro-active move on something would get you where you want to be. I guess we'd have never gotten that camera time if we hadn't gotten off our cans and asked. That's a good lesson to remember. There aren't any rules when it comes to making your own success.

Mom and Dad soon showed up to hang out with us after that. We sat for a while wondering when we'd get to go up for this final audition. This is where the story gets good. the same Chris guy that we'd talked to at the beginning yesterday came walking through the crowd in the holding room and came up to us sitting there waiting to be called. Out of nowhere he said "Hey, you three a trio? Sing for me! Come on...lets hear something good! Let's go! Let's hear you rock it!" It for sure caught us a little of guard but we didn't hesitate. We got out our instruments and immediately started the song we planned to do for the judges. You could feel the adrenaline as we started with all the eyes on us and this guy wanting to be impressed. As we finished the first chorus we cut in and said something like "Damn, you guys are good!" And then he said "Get up! Come on...Let's go ...Are you guys ready to see the judges?" Freaking out, we said yeah and gathered our stuff to head straight up to the judges room. The look on Mom and Dad's faces sitting there witnessing all this so fast was priceless. I looked at Mom as we started out of the room and said "Here we go!"

As we walked with Chris out of the holding room, up the stairway, and through the halls back to the judges rooms he let us in on a couple secrets of the industry. They are secrets and that's how they have to stay...sorry. He told us we just needed to be relaxed and be ourselves with the judges. He let us know that the room was full of producers, label, and industry people and that they had just eaten and were totally bored and uninterested. He was assigning us to wake 'em up and get them excited again. When we reached the holding area outside the room he took us over to the side and had us play for another crowd who was gathered for some sort of conference. I guess it was to loosen us up and get things flowing for the audition. As we stood there out side the room we just said to each other "This is it! This is the shot we wanted when we came here. We can do this". One of the assistants said "Here we go" and we went in.

We were relaxed and confident when we got to our spot in front of the judges panel and the camera. We chatted for a minute with them and they got to know us a little better and seemed excited to know that we were brothers there together ready to rock it for them. We started "When You Say Nothing" and did our thing with it. After some more conversation we were asked to sing another song and we choose "My Hero". A few minutes later we exited the room and just turned to each other and laughed. Suffice it to say now that we felt like the audition went as well as we could expect and that it was a very awesome climax to the two day ride we had been on.

Before leaving they told us that within a couple weeks they would be letting us know something. So keep in touch here on the blog and i'll keep you posted on the word!