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One of the first wineries visitors encounter as they drive north on Arnold Drive, seeking a day of good fun and great grenache, is Viansa. Situated on a pretty hillside perch with dramatic views reaching to Kenwood, Viansa is a very popular spot to grab a few tastes before hitting the more crowded valley floor.
In addition to the views, Viansa offers standout wines, delicious food and, yes, live music.
When the winery was first founded by Sam and Vickie Sebastiani in 1990, there was little emphasis placed on music, relying to wow its visitors with the wetland views, the wine and the very picturesque setting. In recent years, however, live music has been offered both Saturdays Sundays. The bands get going just as the first wave of visitors arrive, about 11:30 a.m.
The musicians tend to have their choice of where to play. One orientation might have the band facing the courtyard, where visitors are seated at tables and enjoy personal service. The other choice has the bands playing to the folks gathered on the lawn just to the south of the main large reception room.
The schedule of performers is full of musicians, both solo and bands, capable of playing music that is at once enjoyable to listen to and that still allows commerce to transpire. That is no small achievement. There is great skill involved in delivering entertainment that supports the venue’s efforts.
Several musicians have multiple gigs there this season, namely Sean Carscadden, SR Laws, Aki Kumar, Clay Bell and James Patrick Regan. Other local favorites, such as Acoustic Soul and Solid Air, have only one or two scheduled appearances. This, of course, makes those dates all the more interesting for music lovers with a penchant for pinot.
This weekend’s musical acts are Sean Carscadden on Saturday and Aki Kumar on Sunday. Carscadden is a homegrown Sonoma kid, now a veteran musician of several bands, tours and albums. He is a three-time winner of the North Bay Bohemian Norbay award for Best Americana Artist (2018, 2019 and 2020), This paper’s readers made him the two-time winner of Best Local Performer. The guy is the real deal.
He is scheduled to play solo at Viansa. But if you ever get a chance to see him with his band, do so. They are Mikey Cannon on drums and Cliff Hugo on bass, and they are peerless. They put on quite a show, pairing perfectly with Primitivo.
Sunday’s act, Aki Kumar, is a blues guy, but that is only a very small part of the story. Kumar is an interesting fellow. He was reached by telephone, and said, “I was a software programmer for many years. Typical Indian H1-B visa story.” A resident of the South Bay, he continued, “I started going to blues clubs, listening to all the great players and I lost my mind. I started taking harmonica lessons and started my own band.”
When Kumar plays at Viansa, he will sing and play the harmonica and will be backed by a “top notch blues guitar player” named Rome Yamilov. The pair will play a blues based and laced style of song but will slip into what Kumar calls “Bollywood blues” if he thinks his audience will be appreciative. Listening to Kumar should be quite an interesting experience.
Viansa’s website, viansa.com, currently lists the musicians through the month of August. Check it out and plan a couple hours of sunny views, yummy wine and tasty music.
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