MAKE SURE YOU CHECK OUT THE VIDEO AFTER THE BREAK

K Vintners & Charles Smith Wines will set the stage for a one-of-a-kind evening of music and wine tasting Friday.

L.A. DJ Howie Pyro will spin vinyl at the wineries’ 35 S. Spokane St. location downtown. The evening’s entertainment also includes Vancouver, B.C., rockabilly band Big John Bates and the Voodoo Dollz, a library wine tasting, food and wine.

The doors open at 7:30 p.m. with spins from Howie Pyro. The live rockabilly starts at 10 p.m. Tickets are $30 in advance or $35 at the door. Admission includes the library wine tasting and appetizers while they last, according to the announcement.

A few details about Howie Pyro: He’s known for his radio show Intoxica as well as a collection of more than 30,000 titles in vinyl that range from French pop to surf to old-school punk and everything in between.

He got his start in music in the late 1970s at 16, when he formed a punk band called Blessed. He circulated around the New York music scene with Johnny Thunders and Sid Vicious at CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City.

In the mid-’80s he was at the front of the first wave of ’60s garage rock revivalism with Freaks, a band he formed with his wife, Andrea Kusten. They moved to L.A. and after being involved with other bands, as well as a two-year stint with Danzig, he turned his attention to collecting vinyl, books, record covers and movie posters.

To showcase the bounty of the Valley, Waters Winery hosted their first farm to table dinner at the winery. The multi-course, family style meal on the lawn featured the very best from local farmers, prepared by Chef Andrae Bopp, who has done this masterfully for private dinners at the winery over the past few years.

The band members have diverse backgrounds but their sound melds perfectly together. Erika Ingersoll, the lead vocalist for the band, met Gary Winston, the bands leader and namesake, at church where he was playing in the church band.

One of the highlights of the evening was a guitar solo by Gary to a B.B. King song, I don’t know if Gary has named his guitar like B.B. but she can sure “sing!”

Sapolil is a perfect venue for small bands like Gary Winston’s. The listeners were an assorted group of locals and visitors lead by Bill and his daughter Abigail Schwerin the owners of Sapolil Cellars. I have a sneaky suspicion that they host bands strictly for their own enjoyment but I guess we are fortunate that they let us sit in on their “private show”.

Sapolil host bands every Friday night from 8-11 p.m. Some require a cover charge, but a lot of them are at no charge. They serve their own wines by the glass or bottle and a terrific wine inspired drink called the winearita. This was right up my alley with all the citrus of a margarita and the smoothness of a Sapolil’s crisp, un-oaked chardonnay. Abigail wouldn’t give up the secret recipe but they were making them all night so maybe next time I’ll watch a little closer and see if I can figure it out!

The wines and the drinks were perfect pairings for the small plate pizzas they were serving made fresh from Merchants, Sapolil’s neighbor on Main Street. Merchants created the “Sapolil Special” pizza for the evening which seems to be another secret since we were told that no one had any idea from order to order what would actually come out.

This coming Friday Sapolil will be hosting The Fat Tones, co-sponsored by the Walla Walla Blues Society. There will be a $5 cover charge for this band and they will be playing from 8-11 p.m.

Saturday night Sapolil is one of the host venues for “A little Jazz & Wine Among Friends”. A $20 ticket covers four venues throughout downtown Walla Walla.

Gary Winston and The Real Deal consist of: Gary Winston; lead guitar, Erika Ingersoll; lead vocalist, Pete Crawford; slide trombone, Ken Wilson; keyboard and sax, Glenn Ayers; drums, and Marcel Fowler; base guitar. They play at venues throughout Walla Walla, so be on the lookout for this group – they really are the “real deal.”

Sapolil Cellers is open daily for tasting 11-4 daily and Friday evenings until 11pm.