Matt & Gunnar, under the stars in Nelson

Last night we had a great time in Nelson county. Located to the southwest of Cville, the county is home to Wintergreen Ski Resort, the real home of 'The Waltons', and Veritas vineyards, and it was named after Matthew and Gunnar Nelson of the band 'The Nelsons' ("the ONLY family in history to have unleashed THREE successive generations of #1 hitmakers!"). With Matt & Gunnar providing the tunes, we headed out to Veritas for their "Starry Night" concert and wineapalooza.

We decided to go last minute with some neighbors, so we missed 1/2 of the evening, but the final half that we did make was fantastic. The vineyard puts this concert series during the summer that features a live band, catered food, and a bonfire. You're invited to come early and picnic along the grounds [you can bring your own food], which is what the other half of our group did. With a new puppy [see here if you hadn't heard of this not-so-recent development], we figured we couldn't do a five hour evening, so we decided to grub here and catch the tail end of the fun.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this far exceeded it. There must have been at least a thousand people there when we arrived at 8:30 [doors at 6:30]. For $10 a head you got admittance and a cool Veritas wine glass. Wine was, of course, on sale there for somewhat reasonable prices, and the lady and I split a nice bottle of the house Viognier. The neighbors were incredibly hospitable, making us feel welcome and sharing their leftover food; this only added to the enjoyment of the evening.

The band for the evening was Ban Caribe, a blend of Carib & Latin music from Richmond. They were a good option for the not-so-hot evening, as they played a good mix of hits. Besides, who doesn't like a steel drum at an outdoor summer concert? My favorite thing about the band had to be the percussionist. Last night the 7 members of the band were older [50's ish] black musicians who were very talented; sitting in the middle of them, however, was one person who didn't appear to be with them band. He was a white kid with flaming red hair in a fro who probably is still gearing up for his senior year [of high school]. He was playing the bongos and other drums, and he was having a blast and was very talented. Lots of people around us remarked that they never would have expected a red-headed white kid to be the percussionist for this band, but he seemed at home in the middle of the group; he made us smile all night.

After a couple of hours of fun, we had to head home to release the dogs for the night. Surprisingly we encountered no traffic on the way home, which was amazing considering the amount of people in such a small venue with limited access to main roads.

All in all it was a great night, and I have to give credit to the Mrs. for pushing me out to this fun and unusual event. The next one appears to be in September; maybe we'll round up a group for an evening of fun under the stars.