KraussCon 2012: NYC edition
UNDER THE CUT: A fairly lengthy review of what happened on Saturday, walking by Miranda Lambert on the street in NYC, the interview and Alison looking at us and recognizing us, the Q&A that Africa, Mindy and myself and I all participated in, then meeting Alison. Alison swearing, speaking German, telling us which AC/DC she REALLY likes, being adorable over dropping her pen cap, and being so comfortable and casual around us, and overhearing Alison tell someone that she has awesome fans.
I don’t even know how to begin this. Just, god. This trip was amazing.
It’s currently 8:15 a.m. and I’m sitting in our hotel bathroom writing this with my laptop (although I'm now adding this in later, I did start this in the hotel bathroom but now finished it at home - Mindy knocked on the door and was like, "The fuck are you doing?" basically, then we got up after that) because I’ve been awake at least two and a half hours and fidgeting and probably annoying the shit out of Kristen because I can’t stay still when I’m awake and I was cold and it was really fucking loud. We slept with the window and blinds open last night so there was the hustle and bustle of NYC down below because we’re right in the city, and then our heater/air conditioner was ridiculously loud and squeaky and I just could not go back to sleep.
Mykal-Ann texted me when we were in the middle of lunch to check Alison’s Facebook and so we did, and we found out that she would be signing autographs after the interview. Cue Annie and Kristen freaking out because they’ve never met her before. And I don’t think many of us ate much more of our food after that.
We split up after that, Kristen and Africa off to find a music store to buy something to get signed and Mindy, Annie and I to the hotel to get Annie’s Lonely Runs Both Ways CD. Mindy and I didn’t really care to have something signed and she got her ticket signed for her dad and I got Alison’s page from the program signed for a friend, so we just went back to the hotel with Annie.
As we were walking, Annie and Mindy and I were talking and we were stopped at a crosswalk and then I heard a voice behind me and I immediately thought, “Oh that sounds like Miranda Lambert!” but then I realized that I’m on a New York City street and it’s not Miranda Lambert. So I turned around to glance at this woman, and then did a double take because it was Miranda Lambert. She had like two friends with her and she was talking or else I would’ve just been like, “HEY YOU’RE AWESOME.” She had on these badass purple tights and knee-high boots and apparently a leopard skirt and not gonna lie, she looked really badass. And how random, just standing next to Miranda Lambert nbd. I kind of love Miranda, so I’m glad it was her.
We made it to the TimesCenter around 3:30 p.m. and just planned to wait until there until it started. We were first in line, obviously, and it was fucking cold. Melissa (a girl we met on Tumblr) came with her friend and joined us and then Kristen and Africa finally came too. Africa got distracted by guitars in the music store. I’ve never been to New York and it’s freezing and I’m not used to it. We made friends with one of the workers there, I guess, and told him we love her and we came from all ends of the country for this and he was all, “Tell me you didn’t come here just for this.” Um, fuck yeah we did. He told us that it’s open seating and that a lot of people don’t like the front row because it’s all up in the person’s face. EVEN BETTER. It was really fun standing in a circle with everyone just talking about Alison and laughing and being together as we’re about to get let into the auditorium to go see Alison. We got in, stood in line for a few more minutes and warmed up and then they let us in. Made a dash down and grabbed the very front row center seats and I kid you not, we were probably fifteen feet from Alison’s chair. I literally had my feet propped up on the stage while waiting for her to come out. Africa and I were on one side and then there was a chair marked “reserved” next to me, and then a chair next to that with a computer screen on it then on the other side of that was everyone else. We had about twenty-five minutes to wait until Alison was supposed to be out.
She came out a little after 6 and as she was walking out, I knew she looked at us but I couldn’t tell if she recognized us or not. Mindy said that Alison later said something like she did recognize us instantly (but I don’t think she knew where she recognized us from) but she didn’t wanna like, point us out or anything. She sat down and god she’s pretty. Like, I could see every facial expression she did perfectly and she had so many. And she was just fucking perfect.
The interview was kind of lame to be honest and it’s on video so I won’t go into too much detail but my favorite part was when the interviewer asked if she saw a singer or a fiddler or who she saw when she looked in the mirror and she was all, “Someone who probably needs to take a shower,” and we just died laughing because ALISONNNNN. And then she was talking about Wolfmother and liking them and there was a point where she looked directly at me during that and I was like asdkjhfadjskf. The interview was a lot of standard questions, and Africa and I would give each other, “wtf?” looks at stupid questions and we’d just answer her own questions for her, basically. To be honest, I don’t know half of what she said in the interview because I was just focusing on the fact that she was in front of me and that she was pretty. I don’t think you’ll see it in the interview, but Alison’s right hand was totally gripping her chair half the time. But I was proud of her, she wasn’t as awkward as she usually is but she was still very guarded and quiet in this interview, not like she is in person at all. Girl likes to talk, but not in front of a camera and a billion people unless it’s at a concert and she’s in her element or something.
But then came the Q&A part. We weren’t sure if there was going to be one, so we all were like, “What should we ask her?!” but then Mindy took off and went toward the microphone and I was like, “holy crap we’re doing this!” And then Africa went and I was like, “What are you asking?” and she didn’t even have a question, lol. I had a few things in mind but they were just random questions but I figured I’d regret it if I didn’t ask her anything, so I went up and stood behind Africa (Mindy went to the mic other side of the auditorium).
Mindy went first and asked if she spoke any German because her father was German, and she said not really. And then Mindy wanted to ~clear things up for Wikipedia~ so she was all, “What is your middle name?” and indeed, Alison’s middle name is Maria. And then for some reason Mindy turned and pointed to Africa and I and was like, “HA!” and I think that’s when Alison kinda like narrowed her eyes and pointed at us and it clicked that we were the girls from Knoxville.
And then we went to Africa and it was…unusual. Africa rambled and just talked to Alison and at one point she was like, “I know her, that’s why she’s touching me,” because I like had my hand on her back (and then you can see I poke her a bit jokinly) and idk, you’ll see it in the interview and I don’t know what she asked but she was up there for a while and at one point she asked Alison where she learned to pronounce “Georgia” because she says it weird in “Oh, Atlanta”. I was trying to speed Africa up too but it wasn’t going so well. Alison was so ridiculously amused though and she was laughing, so it’s all good.
So then they went across to the other side of the room for the other person’s question and I was messing with the microphone because it was way tall for me and I nearly dropped it and that would’ve been horrible. But then some guy came to my rescue and then fixed it before I spoke. You can actually hear me messing with it while the guy before me was talking, oops.
Buuuuut then it was my turn and I was still shaking and thank god I met Alison before because I would’ve been a mess and I would not have done as okay as I did in terms of being a geek and having sentences come out. I started with just, “Hi!” and it was just awesome just like, talking to Alison and asking her questions in an interview nbd. I mentioned how she said today and previously as well that she likes AC/DC and asked if she’d ever sing some (she shielded her eyes from the lights so she could see me ♥) and I don’t even know what she answered to be honest, but I THINK it was a hesitant, “…yes.” I actually think I might have begged a little and I know I was like, “You Shook Me All Night Long?” or something. Then she was all, "I'd have to find the right song." She thought about it for a moment and started off all, "Probably..." then she paused and shook her head and was like, "No, I can't say it!" lolol. Then I was all, “Okay, one more quick question!” and said that I’m a fan of some other artists who have recorded songs or albums in another language, despite not speaking said language, and asked if she’d ever consider doing that and she said she’d never thought of that. But then she said she sang harmony for someone in Gaelic but they had to like, phonetically write it out for her. I need this song in my life like whoa. And so I just said thank you and went back to my seat.
I think there was one or two other people that went but then we had to wrap it up, and when Alison got up she looked at us and pointed and like whispered, “What are you guys doing here?!” in like, a good way though, like she couldn’t even believe it. It was awesome. It’s on video and it’s my favorite thing ever. She’s adorable.
So then we went downstairs to where she would be signing and god, it was so cool to be in a room with probably like fifty to a hundred people only. So amazing. We were about halfway through in line and we pushed Annie, Kristen and Melissa up front because they’d never met her before and we all figured out how this was going to work and I begged Annie to get a picture of me hugging Alison because that’s all I’ve ever wanted in my life and she said she’d try. We noticed Alison was drinking a Coke and Mindy kind of loved her ten times more for that. At one point, Alison apparently just got sick of sitting down behind the desk and just got up and walked around it and stood in front of it instead so she could greet people and take pictures and I just fucking love her for that. We got to the point where we were a few people behind in line and Africa did a facepalm at Alison in like an, “I’m so sorry I can’t believe I did that,” and Alison just smiled and giggled a little.
Melissa I believe went first and I couldn’t hear anything she said, but she was so cute and really nervous about meeting Alison. Kristen went and told her how she’d been a fan since she was eight and just, awwww. Annie handed me her camera and so I took pictures while she met Alison (I don’t really know what any of them said and you can’t hear it on the audio) and I am so happy they all got to meet her!
At one point, Alison dropped the cap of the pen she was using to sign and she was just like, “Ugh!” and bent down to pick it up and I remember thinking she’s adorable and Africa kinda moved the cap closer to Alison with her foot and I remember thinking, “Why did none of us bend down and pick it up for her?” along with, “Oh hey that’s her hair right there and now I see how they did it and how are those tiny clips holding all that hair in place?” But it was just a cute random moment because of the fact that she didn’t even hesitate before bending down to pick it up herself or think that one of us would. She’s just really cute.
This next part is really hazy because meeting her this time was just so different. I didn’t feel as starstruck or just like, “MUST REMEMBER EVERY WORD SHE SAID AND MEMORIZE EVERY LINE ON HER FACE!” and I wasn’t nervous or spazzy, I legit just felt like I was talking to a friend or something. That is the best fucking feeling in the world when you feel like your favorite person ever is just a friend. I honestly didn’t even feel like I was meeting Alison or like it was a huge deal or something. I feel kind of bad saying it, and I don’t mean to sound like meeting Alison ISN’T a huge deal because it fucking is because it’s Alison Krauss but it was just so different this time around. I think it helped that she knew us and was comfortable and relaxed with us.
There wasn’t much of a line when it got to us really, we were all just a group there talking to Alison and oh my god, she mentioned something about the AC/DC song and she was like, “I'll tell you guys which AC/DC song...” and then she used her finger to like, motion us to come closer so we all huddled together with her and she told us what song she'd sing ♥. And omg, this makes my life complete. Because she was comfortable telling us yet she wouldn't say it publicly. AND WE DIDN'T EVEN ASK HER, SHE VOLUNTEERED THE INFORMATION. Can I just die now. This will be our little secret with Alison. ♥ ♥ ♥ You could tell she was so amazed that we all came to see her again, and when Annie was all, “Idaho,” Alison was all, “Idaho?! SHIIII--! Really?!” and we made Alison swear and my life is complete because I basically heard her say “shit” and I have it on audio and I keep replaying it over and over and it’s amazing. She even knew where Mindy was from again and she just had that, “oh my god!” kinda thing about her when she saw us, but god. I told her it was freezing here and that I’m bummed it’s 80 degrees back in LA. I’m not even trying to brag or anything, but you can tell she fucking loved us. At one point Africa was apologizing for her Q&A thing and she said something about how she wasn’t very coherent and Alison’s like, “I’m never coherent!” and I wanted to be like, “ We know,” lolol.
So then it was my turn and I swear to god, I didn’t even feel like I was meeting Alison again, I felt like I knew her and it was just nbd, just saying hey to Alison again. We hugged and Annie got the picture and then I had her sign something for a friend, because tbh I don’t want an autograph. I thought she was going to say something to me but she didn’t, so I started talking because Mindy had just told her that we just used our Christmas money to come out and see her. She asked us when we all got in. I told her that I literally booked this like three days ago and told her about all the tourist things Annie and I did that morning (Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, 9/11 Memorial…) and told her it was my first time here and that it was a double whammy being able to come to this interview and be able to see NYC too. She asked when we were leaving twice (I wanted to be like, “Why? Wanna come hang out with us, Alison?” lolol) and we told her tomorrow. I kinda stepped to the side I think and we all were still around Alison and Africa went next and I don’t even remember what she said to Alison but I guess she said something about being crazy and Alison was all, “ You can’t be more crazy than me!”
(The smile on her face, I can't even. This is my favorite thing about this picture.)
Mindy was last and explained that she met her like three times and her dad wanted an autograph so Mindy gave Alison her ticket. When we were in line, there was a woman handing out post-its being all, “Does anyone want anything personalized?” and she’d hand us a post-it with the name to stick on there but Mindy didn’t get a post-it and was just going to have Alison just sign it I guess. But when Mindy said it was for her dad, Alison asked her dad’s name and signed it to him anyway. ♥ Mindy was talking about how she doesn’t want to ask Alison for anything ever and she didn’t really want an autograph and didn’t need a trophy~ and I said something about how I don’t really want an autograph because I’d rather have the memories and talk instead and Alison just kinda like, nodded in agreement.
Africa asked Alison to say something in German and she had to think about it for a minute and then we all like, leaned into her and she said something and we were like, “What does that mean?” and she was like, “Birthday.” Lol what even Alison. Out of all the German words she could have said, she chose that one lol. So yeah, we got Alison to swear and speak in German. Pretty awesome.
We started talking to Alison about how Africa is going to go to Merlefest and how Annie and I will probably go to Strawberry and about how we’d have glowsticks (dammit, now that I think of it, I wish I would’ve asked her if she liked the glowstick party in Knoxville…) and she was totally amused by it. I THINK, I’m not entirely sure, she said something like, “See you guys later!” and Africa said, “See you soon!” and I just love that Alison wasn’t like, “Nice to see you again,” but instead, “See you later!” like, “Totally wanna see you again!”
We were in this like, lounge thing with chairs and people hanging around and snacks and drinks so we all just kinda hung around and looked at pictures and geeked out and then halfway through we were like, “We should wait and ask for a group shot,” because Alison totally would have for us, and so we waited and kinda scooted toward her a little bit. Then Africa sorta shyly steps up to her and Alison mimicked the way Africa walked up to her and it was just the most adorable thing of my life. I guess Africa called her “Ali” and asked for a group shot and she was like, “Sure!” So we huddled in and then I dropped my phone and I picked it up and looked right at Alison, who was watching me, and was like, “Sorry!” Like I just have this need to constantly apologize to her or something, I don’t even know.
But then we took it and I turned to Alison and was like, “Can we do something fun?” and now that I think about it, I hope she didn’t think we were inviting her out later or something, because I meant a fun picture. But she was like, “Sure!” and I guess someone was trying to usher us out or pull her away from us and she was like, “No, they want to do a fun picture!” so we all kinda just looked at each other for a minute and I was all, “Does anybody have any ideas?” and Africa suggested we do the “rock on!” sign thing so we huddled next to Alison again and did it, and it was just awesome.
I didn’t hear this next part, but when Alison walked away from us, she was talking to Paige (her bff/hairdresser/makeup person), she was all, “I have awesome fans.” Can I die now. Not only does my favorite person in the fucking world know who I am, but she thinks we’re awesome and loves us. Best feeling ever.
In a way, this topped Knoxville for me because just the way I felt was so different. In Knoxville, I was so awestruck by her and was in total fangirl mode but here I felt so much more relaxed and less spazzy and just talked to her like a normal person instead. And I feel like Mindy was right - that insane fucking cognitive dissonance that happens after meeting her the first time kinda goes away.
And I just had a hard time connecting the person on stage with the person I met, and I just…don’t? I don’t know. It was like a switch that was flicked, maybe the same switch that had me in fangirl mode the first time and just normal person mode this time. But I didn’t feel the need to scream or run or jump (tbh Africa did enough for that for all of us) like I did last time. I mean, don’t get me wrong - in no way will I ever take this lightly because I just fucking met Alison Krauss again and I had butterflies a little and I couldn’t even eat when we were at Ruby Tuesday but I just didn’t feel as like, “HOLYFUCKHOLYFUCK THAT’S ALISON KRAUSS!” and I love feeling like this better than feeling like so awestruck.
Also, I snuck it by my grandpa - he doesn’t know. I officially regret nothing about this trip and I can’t even tell you how glad I am I went on this. If this all would have happened and I wouldn’t have been there, I would have been so sad and so depressed. I almost didn’t go too, I was at the point where I COULD have gone and *I* was the one that stopped myself. But I didn’t and I just think that with how much insane luck I had, something was meant to be here. I feel so incredibly lucky and so blessed to be able to do things like this, and have everything work out as beautifully as it is. I wanted things like this for Reba and Celine and I remember watching other girls do things like this and being so incredibly jealous of them, but now I’m getting to do it with Alison and it’s just…I can’t put this into words. ♥
INTERVIEW
Click to viewStart around 1:00:36 for the very start of Mindy, Africa and I. (I absolutely hate the way I look and my facial expressions but whatever it's Alison Krauss and I talking).
Go to 1:14:00 to see her look at us and laugh and point and go, "Crazy! What are you guys doing here?!" ♥