That’s right folks. I’m pleased to present the official Annie Clements patch. But this isn’t just any patch. It’s a badge of honor. And just like any badge of merit, you can earn one for yourself by completing a few simple tasks. I like to call them “The Magnificent Seven.”

1. Participate in breaking the Guiness Book of World Records record for most people simultaneously dancing the Thriller Dance.

2. Be photographed inside a gigantic inflatable colon

3. Accidentally put your wig on backwards in the dark right before the encore

4. Perform at a Mardi Gras ball where everyone is dressed up like Elvis

5. Decorate the inside of a tour bus for a combination Christmas and birthday party called “Birthmas Bus”

6. Be interviewed by Ronald McDonald for Canadian Television

7. Party on a house-boat with Mr. Bellding

That’s it! Simple enough. Look. I was never officially a girl scout, but I did spend some time in the preliminaries as a Brownie Scout.

Here’s proof:

So I know what it takes to earn badges. It takes guts. It takes breaking and entering. It takes total abject humiliation. And once you complete these seven tasks I’ll be pleased to send you your Annie Clements Badge free of charge. Because you’ve earned it.

But just like anything else in life, if you can’t legitimate earn your stripes, you can buy your way into this exclusive club as I’m offering these patches for sale for the low low price of only 6 bucks a piece!!!

So many amazing things happened while I was here. Let’s run through the Top 10 highlights shall we?

1. Two back-to-back sold out Sugarland shows at the Greek Theater. Sick.

2. Had my first-ever acupuncture treatment. In the basement of the Greek theater. Not sure how many people have acupuncture treatments to the sounds of someone pounding on a kick drum repeatedly somewhere above your head, but I don’t think it had an adverse effect on the treatment.

3. Met frackin’ Katee Sackhoff – star of one of my fave shows of all time “Battlestar Gallactica.” Totally freaked. Turns out she’s a huge Sugarland fan. In a lot of ways my life is a collision of country music and sci-fi fantasy. Kinda like the movie “Cowboys and Aliens.” Something like that.

4. On Tuesday, 7/26/11, began being followed by Katee Sackhoff on twitter. Discovered this fact in the back of the runner van on the way to Sara Bareilis’ after-party. Began flapping and screeching in the back of the van, went completely nuts. Ms. Sackhoff tweeted this pic of us. O . M. G.

5. Took the stage Monday night and within minutes, spotted my sister in the audience, in a crowd of thousands. She told me she was shouting at the top of her lungs and waving, and the people in front of her had just turned around to tell her to cut it out – that I couldn’t hear or see her – when I spotted her and started waving frantically from the stage. Pretty cool. Miss you Wendy.

6. NFL Lockout was resolved. Fantasy Football is back on. League of Lovely Ladies, here I come. This year, we’re playing for cash.

7. The Sorted Noise crew came in to do a showcase on Thursday at Hotel Cafe’. Had a total blast backing up the phenomenal Holly Winter. The CO closed the night and killed it. Thank you Kathie Gunn for coming out as usual. You are beyond sweet.

8. On Wednesday I was a vegan. It’s much easier to do this in LA than in Nashville.

9. Hung out with Laura Bell Bundy at the Sorted Noise showcase. Reminisced about the ACM Fan Jam, including the impromptu dance-off to “Let’s get it on” while we stalled for time for Miranda and Blake’s late arrival. Hilarious.

10. Met a mermaid at a party. For real. She was a hired “water-performer” at this ad agency party the Sorted Noise crew attended. And you best believe I asked her to sing “Part of Your World” from Little Mermaid with me. Good thing Josh got the whole thing on video…

Thanks LA. See you next time…

I must tell you, I was absolutely terrified.

Being a quintessential sideman, I am not accustomed to fronting a band and Berklee is a TOUGH crowd. Thankfully, everyone present seemed to appreciate the music, which was predominantly original material by myself and my father, along with some New Orleans favorites, and most exciting, a cover of Tower Of Power’s “Don’t Change Horses in the Middle of a Stream” on which we were joined by the Tower of Power ensemble horn section – including my old professor Wayne Naus who came out of retirement to join us. A true honor.

Here’s a picture from my days in Tower of Power, circa 2001 – In this one, the photographer graciously photo-shopped out half of my stomach. Nice.

Even more terrifying was the “clinic” I gave earlier in the day, where I spoke about my journey from Berklee to Sugarland and everything in between, offering my best advice on how to take advantage of everything Berklee has to offer, how to survive and thrive on the road, and how to add value to your career in addition to just playing your instrument. Again, everything seemed to go smoothly and the small but mighty crowd clapped enthusiastically in response to the videos I showed, a few of which I drew myself, using stick figures. I am a terrible artist. Look at this…

Here’s a picture from one of my slide shows,  answering the question I get most often – “How did you get your gig?” – depicting bassist David LaBruyere on the phone with Kristian Bush, recommending me to audition for Sugarland. My rendering of Kristian’s cowboy hat is particularly abysmal.

During the talk, I gave pointers on how to reach out to people via social media, including warnings against “vague-booking” and suggestions for interesting conversation starters, reminding people that sending a message to someone you want to engage with or impress that simply says “Hey. How’s it going?” doesn’t get very far with most folks. You know how it’s going. It’s right there on their facebook page.

I mention this only to share the highlight of the talk, which was the Q&A portion at the end. Both my mother and father were present (although I insisted they sit in the back of the room) and it wasn’t long before they both started asking me questions. I was standing at the podium, exasperated, as mom raised her hand yet again.

One of the best things about Berklee is the massive international community. Kids from all over the world end up here to study music. My brothers told me they’d befriended a girl from Sweden named Billy. I found Billy, literally lying on the sidewalk on her back, at the entrance to their dorm, wearing a mini skirt and ripped-up stockings. She sat up to shake my hand.

The backstory here is that I had of course sent 6 massive boxes to the school of items I knew my brothers would need for the dorms. I blew it out on amazon – silverware, plastic cups and plates, a fan, a lamp, dry goods, toiletries, extra pillows and sheets, hangers, the works. I went a little nuts. I also sent them my new favorite item which I recommend to everyone to purchase, The Bobble.

Back to Billy on the sidewalk. She lays back down after the initial introduction. I reach into my purse and pull out my own Bobble and take a refreshing swig. I begin to hear a faint chuckle from the ground, building into a massive full-on laugh attack. Through the cackling I make out these words…

(In a heavy Swedish accent)

“Yoooooooou have eet toooooooo!!! Their seeeester has eet tooooo!!! Baaaybee Bottle!!! Hahahahaahahahaha!!!!

I wanted to kick her right there on the ground. But mostly because I felt old and nerdy, which isn’t Billy’s fault.

So I guess I’m officially old and the things that I think are nifty are completely uncool to 17 year-olds. Ouch.

All in all, it was great to be back and to see my brothers blossoming at Berklee. I really can’t take it, I’m bursting with pride. I wanted to move into their dorm room and stay for the rest of the program. But you gotta let ‘em fly at some point. Thank you Austin, Tyler, Gina, Kit, and dear old dad for joining me onstage and making my return to Berklee such a wonderful experience. Trying not to cry here people.

Love,

Annie

Here’s a great video of them being interviewed on the news over yesterday! Ahh! They gave me such a sweet shout out, but they deserve full credit for this monumental achievement!

Watch it here!

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My dad purposefully hid ELO from me.

Dad and I agree on a lot of stuff (like that The Beatles are the best band EVER, and that we both can’t stand Steely Dan – something we finally admitted to each other my first summer home from college; I know, I know, every musician is supposed to love Steely Dan. Sorry.) Anyway, there were some disappointments along the way, like when I got REALLY into Queen in 7th grade and dad begrudgingly gave me the epic Live at Wembley (on VHS!) for Christmas. He was literally shaking his head and clucking his tongue as I squealed with delight upon opening the gift.

But this latest revelation is shocking. I should’ve known, but I’m still reeling. He will be most disappointed to learn that my life now revolves around what sorts of tasks I can do while listening to one side of my ELO Greatest Hits record. Because I listen and flip all day long, I know precisely what I can get done before having to get up and flip it over again.

While listening to one side of my ELO Greatest Hits record, I can:

…make a Banana Breeze Pie. And you should too. Here’s the recipe.

No-Cook Filling:
1 package (8-oz.) cream cheese, softened
1 can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)
1/3 cup pure lemon juice (measure accurately)
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 medium size ripe bananas
2 tbsp. lemon juice
pre-made graham cracker crust

Beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add the condensed milk. Blend thoroughly. Add 1/3 cup lemon juice and vanilla; stir until thickened. Slice 3 bananas; line crust with banana slices. Turn filling into crust. Refrigerate 2 to 3 hours, or til firm. (Do not freeze!).

Cut fourth banana into thin slices; dip in remaining lemon juice. Garnish top of pie with sliced bananas.

Serves 8

*Note* – I did not have enough time to lick the entire bowl clean, but I did get the pie in the fridge before I had to turn the record over.

Check out this awesome pie!

While listening to the other side of my ELO Greatest Hits record I can:

…refinish the antique table we found in the attic.

So we found this awesome table in the attic at Sorted Noise studio which had been left there by the previous owners. I came THIS CLOSE to spray painting the thing hot pink. Instead I took it down to the epic garage sale I had this winter and started to reconsider a pink paint job when it got so much interest from all of the creepy dealer-types who showed up an hour before we were scheduled to open. One guy, after offering me $40, finally admitted that it was a Victorian-era parlor table from the mid-to-late 1800’s and if we could find the marble top it would be worth anywhere from $600-$1,000. Oops.

Turns out one side of an ELO Greatest Hits record was all the time I needed to give the table new life with some Murphy’s Oil and to secure the new top we had cut for it with some silicon glue.

Lovely!

In this digital era, perhaps few will understand the simple joy of flipping a record, admiring the cover and pondering the Great Questions of history like, “Why did everyone look so old in the 70’s? Were musicians just older back then? The dudes in ELO look like medieval monks. What gives? And what’s up with that guy rocking the Britney Spears ‘hit me baby’ T-shirt knot?”

These are life’s greatest mysteries. Now go check your attic for treasure, eat some pie, and start blasting some ELO people!

Love,

Annie

It was quite a whirlwind, I must say. It blows my mind to think that I’ve done the ACM’s enough times that I actually have traditions and routines that I stick to, but suffice it to say those were out the window this year as we kicked off what will hopefully become a new tradition in Vegas; The Fan Jam.

The Sugarland band (or Sugarband) became the backing band for several artists who performed at the Jam at Mandalay Bay immediately following the awards. We rehearsed all day for 3 days. Which meant I didn’t go outside for 3 days. Literally. I never left the casino. I’m still in a bit of a fog so I’ll just list the top 10 highlights…

1. I got to play ‘Little White Church” with Little Big Town. Heck yeah.

2. I also got to play “Giddy On Up” with Laura Bell Bundy (who hosted) AND got to do the sassy call-and-response parts on the bridge. Love it.

3. I fell in love with the Band Perry, who closed the Jam. We started calling everything related to the Band Perry “The ____ Perry.” For instance, their drum set became “The Drums Perry” and their parents are “The Parents Perry.”

4. I learned the term “Hangry” – a combination of hungry and angry. A super helpful term for me since I’m always hangry in the morning.

5. I was informed by Scott and Thad that Rihanna is tall and smells good.

6. During dress rehearsal, Blake and Reba had to walk around me to get off stage after introducing “Tonight.” Blake shouted at me “Get out of my way!” as a joke, which was extremely hilarious and unexpected.

7. Head’s up, dinner and drinks costs an average of $42/person at the Mandalay Bay.

8. This is more of a lowlight than a highlight, but halfway through the fan jam, 2 drunk women fell FROM THE UPPER BALCONY to the balcony below and were so drunk that they stood up and walked away unscathed. Wow.

9. When we left the fan jam, we came out from backstage and accidentally walked directly into the throngs of people leaving the theater. I panicked and grabbed Scott (since he’s the most recognizable with that hair and all) and tried to hightail it before being spotted but this only drew more attention to myself, plus I ran the wrong way. Awesome. The best part is that no one tried to ask us for autographs anyway.

10. The second best part is that we ended up riding in the elevator with people who had just seen the show but had to get out right as they started talking about whether they liked it or not. Guess they didn’t recognize us…

I had a great time at any rate! Hopefully this whole crazy thang will happen again real soon!

-Annie

Shot from “Tonight.” That’s me on the right.

Thad, Scott and RiRi – standing tall and smelling sweet!

My brother Joey is approaching the end of his first semester at the University of New Orleans. If you’ve met Joey then you know that he is a special kid. He is hilarious, with an unusually loud voice, wild, unruly Harry Potter hair, a touch of ADHD for good measure, and the blessing and curse of having no social filter, like the time I was getting ready for a gig and he came into the bathroom and announced “Sis, you look fat…er.” pausing dramatically before adding the “er.” I nearly throttled him but he’s not malicious so I knew to take it in stride and up my game on the treadmill. That’s just Joey.

Despite my mothers protestations, the administration at UNO would not allow her to accompany Joey to register for his classes and it was with great relish that he emerged from the building and announced to her that he had selected Human Sexual Behavior as his elective. Over the years, when I return home in between tours, I always visit joey at school, picking him up, coming inside so he can parade me around, yelling at his friends to “keep your hands off” or delivering Taco Bell to his entire Study hall, Joey having texted me the classes order earlier in the day.

So I did not hesitate to accept his offer to accompany him to his Human Sexual Behavior class the day before Thanksgiving.

Kids these days don’t know how good they have it. I don’t know what happened between 2003 (the last year I sat in a classroom) and 2010, but it’s a whole different ball game now. First of all, each student is now equipped with a sort of magic-wand-remote-control-device which a boy sitting near me explained transmits radio waves to a receiver above the power point screen and is how the teacher takes attendance. Just point and click, like magic! (This same boy mercifully thought I was 22 years old when Joey invited everyone around us to guess his sister’s age and gleefully proclaimed that I was, in fact, an ancient 30 year old. Awesome.)

The teacher, a young, intelligent, brunette woman dressed in all black like a beatnik, approached the podium and began the class by stating “I think all of you are crazy for attending class the day before Thanksgiving. You will all receive extra credit.” What? Extra credit just for showing up? I soon discovered that extra credit is like candy in college now and this teacher was dishing it out like it was Halloween. Any student who voluntarily raised their hand and answered a question, not even entirely correctly, was instantly awarded extra credit.

The intended purpose of this delicious chocolate fountain of credit became clear to me as I surveyed the students, many of whom could’ve cared less about the riveting information I was absorbing from the lecture. To my right, two students (in the 3rd row!) were brazenly sleeping, their heads on their backpacks on top of their desks. A boy in my row (the 2nd row!) had one ipod earbud in his ear and was jamming out, only half listening. I guess the line of thought is that you can’t punish adults for snoring through your class so you entreat them with candy credit instead.

So I’m recovering from last night’s Paul McCartney concert. I’m still in shock. We waited over 45 minutes just to get in the front door of the arena. Definitely gave me a healthy respect for those of you who go to our shows and slug it out. Just as I squeezed through the entrance, the sky opened up and drenched the crowd still shoving it’s way in.

Then the tornado sirens started going off. Not good.

Totally worth it though.

This was Paul’s first time playing Nashville and the guys in the Sugarband pooled their resources and called in favors to get me a ticket. 10th row. That’s right. Kenny Chesney was in the 4th row. How he got better seats than me I’ll never know. Emmy Lou Harris was sitting next to us. I hope I didn’t scare her.

Cause I was rockin’…

Any time they played a Beatles song I went completely berserk. Jumping up and down, flailing around. The waterworks started during Paul’s tribute to John, “Here Today.”

“And if I say, I really loved you

and was glad you came along

then you were here today

for you were in my song.”

Waaaaaaaaahhhhhhh! (Sound of me crying)

Then the George tribute. Paul rocked the ukulele on “Something.” Unbelievable. Pictures of George flashed in the background. It didn’t help that he looks EXACTLY like my little brother Austin. It was too much to bear.

What the hell? (Austin’s on the right in case you couldn’t tell them apart.)

Baaaaaaahhhaahhhaaa waaaaahhhaaaahh! (Uncontrollable sobbing)

I didn’t take a single picture. I was too overwhelmed. But my friend Kenny Corbett took over 300 pictures.  Most of the ones of me look like this…

At one point, a woman in the audience held up a sign that read “Paul, I have your Hofner bass tattooed on my back. Will you sign it?”

Paul said, “What the heck, get her up here.” This poor woman was shaking and sobbing in front of 20,000 people. She turned around and sure enough, right below her neck was an 6 inch miniature of Paul’s bass. She asked if he would sign underneath so she can tattoo over his signature. This poor creature was a complete wreck. It was truly an amazing moment. I was half screaming, half crying, along with everybody else. Good God.

Check it:

Um, amazing.

When they kicked off the final encore, I disintegrated. When they went into The End medley, I was toast. I jumped up and down for the entire guitar solo, which lasted about 4 minutes. I could barely walk when it was over.

And it ended like this:

All I could say was “Thank you.” I just kept screaming “Thank you!” Throughout the evening, I realized how much the Beatles have defined my entire life. Every chapter of my childhood is marked by whatever Beatles record I was absorbed in at the time. I remember jumping on my mom’s bed, age 7, singing along with the movie Hard Day’s Night and having the realization that I was singing harmony for the first time. Age 11, I was (still) playing Barbies and wearing out Magical Mystery Tour. At 13 I took a disastrous ski trip with Camp Ozark and sat in the back of the bus listening to Abbey Road, shivering and crying. (This ski trip would make a great blog actually.) I was a camp counselor at age 14 and would sit on the swing set listening to the White Album on cassette during my breaks. At 15 I weened myself off of falling asleep to the television by coming full circle and falling asleep to Hard Day’s Night on my CD player.

The Beatles are, in my opinion, the greatest band in the history of Rock and Roll. And I’m so grateful that I got close to greatness last night. Thank you Kenny and Sugarband for this amazing gift. I know that some of you out there consider Sugarland to be the soundtrack of your life and I’d like to state that I’m honored to be a part of their show. I hope to do my best every night to take people to a place of wonder and leave them with a heart filled with gratitude for the gift of music.

Thank you Paul! You’ve changed my life!

Me on Mardi Gras day, 2006

I get tons of emails from people asking about cool places to visit and great restaurants to check out while in New Orleans so I felt it prudent to simply compile them in a blog for general reference. It’s hard to be a tourist in your own home town so I’m just including links to the stuff that I like to do when I’m home. You should probably do a swamp tour, riverboat tour, cemetery tour, eat some crawfish, etc…

Ok, here we go!

Restaurants (in cool neighborhoods that you should explore)

Adolfo’s -Located in The Marigny

Le Crepe Nanou -Uptown

Cote Sud – Riverbend

Cafe’ Degas – Mid city

Port of Call – French Quarter

Bars/Music Venues

The Chillun’s at Tipitina’s, Jan. 2010

Tipitina’s - Uptown. This is where I play every year with the Chillun’s. Considered New Orleans’ premier music venue.

Snug Harbor – The Marigny. Great jazz. A real listening room. Great food as well.

Mimi’s in the Marigny – The Marigny. Relaxed, lounge atmosphere. My dad plays here on Sunday nights with Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Review. Killer spot.

Rock and Bowl – Uptown. Bowling and live music. So much fun, good food too. I had my 18th birthday here. And yes, I was the house band at my own birthday party.

The Maple Leaf – Classic New Orleans bar, live music. Located uptown in the Carrolton area. Same bar where scenes from the movie “Ray” (the Ray Charles movie) were filmed.

Carrolton Station – Uptown/Carrolton. Played this bar a lot when I was a kid. My dad’s band Twangorama plays here a lot. Great atmosphere, great music.

The Circle Bar - This is my uncle Dave’s bar. Located downtown on Lee Circle. Dark, vibey atmosphere, I played here a lot with Davis Rogan, the inspiration for Steve Zahn’s character on HBO’s “Treme.”

Snake and Jake’s Christmas Club Lounge – Another establishment of Uncle Dave’s, this is a local favorite hole in the wall bar uptown. Don’t show up here until around 2 am. That’s when the party gets started.

Things to do:

Walk up and down Magazine Street – Daytime boutique shopping, restaurants, tons of fun!

The Marigny/Frenchman Street – Super cool neighborhood adjacent to the French Quarter. So many great music venues. This is the new scene and the place to be at night.

Decatur Street - Shopping and eating in the Quarter without all the madness of Bourbon Street. This is where I did all of my vintage/thrift shopping as a teen.

Walk around The Garden District - Beautiful old New Orleans architecture and cemeteries. A lovely, relaxing way to take in the charm of New Orleans.

Of course this is just scratching the surface of all the wonderful things to do, see, and eat in New Orleans. Feel free to follow up with comments about any of your favorite spots! Enjoy exploring this wonderful city!