Wine & Feelin’ Fine at Landmark Vineyards
Picture perfect: the back garden outside the tasting room at Landmark Vineyards in Kenwood, CA.
On Saturday afternoon (yesterday), I and my buddies Dan “D-Lucca” Parenti and Tommie Bradford traveled up to scenic Kenwood, CA to play as a trio for the Landmark Vineyards harvest celebration. It was a terrific afternoon outside by the tasting room and I had a lot of fun playing with drums and bass again for the first time in a while. We played for about four hours or so to a nice audience of nearly 200 people and were lucky enough to enjoy a little roast pig, hand made, wood fired pizzas, delicious wine, and a few laughs with the attendees and winery staff. At around 4:00pm, Dan and Tommie packed it up, and as we said our good-bye’s while I began to strike my gear, a few folks lingered in, so what was I to do? Play another acoustic set, of course! With ears ringing, fingers nearly bleeding (ok, maybe the finger part is a slight exaggeration), and a voice that was more than more than a bit scratchy after four hours of singing with the band, I busted out some of my favorite originals and my go-to, most favorite cover in the world, “The Wind Cries Mary”. As it turns out, a few of those folks sitting in the group in front towards the end of the day were involved in the wine biz, so we ended up chatting, talking about music, other wine-fueled spots to play up and down the California coast, and upcoming events that Landmark Vineyard and a few other folks have coming down the pike. Lots of fun, great people, and interesting conversation, for sure. In any case, a huge “thanks” goes out to Nick, Brendan, Amber, Melanie and the rest of the gang at Landmark Vineyards for generously hosting me and the band, and for putting on a truly wonderful event. Day two on the road couldn’t have been any better!