Hi, my name is Jimmy Joe Natoli. I am a musician and a school bus driver.  I’ve been driving a bus for nearly sixteen years, less than half as long as I’ve been playing guitar. I am married to my musical partner Chrissie Natoli. Together we perform and record as The Better Halves (www.thebetterhalvesmusic.com). We live deep in the outskirts of Austin, TX. I drive a bus in Austin and I mostly enjoy it. Waking up at 4:37 am is not one of the more enjoyable points but I have come to appreciate the relative quiet and peacefulness of my world at that time.

Around the turn of the millennium I started to write down some of the crazy things the kids would say and do. Later on I began to add these snippets to my music newsletter. Over the years School Bus News became the focal point of my newsletters. Few people would come to my shows but many would ask when the next “episode” of School Bus News was coming out.

Life got too busy for me to do my regular newsletter and it nearly faded into oblivion. While on our west coast tour in the summer of 2014, my friends Jean Synodinos and Sofia Echegaray helped me set up my new blog. I hope you like it.

Jimmy Joe