Off the Cliffe

 Three-time returnee Mark Pickerel comes to Live! at The Cellar on friday, September 25.  With his full-house crowds and tremendous back-and-forth with the audience, Mark always brings a great time along with his dynamic urban-country Americana croonings.   If you missed Mark at The Cellar before, make this three time’s a charm and get your tickets (only $12) to this performance just as soon as you can reach your phone or computer!  For more info and to buy through our webstore, visit http://www.sagecliffe.com/cellar.htm, or simply call the winery at 509-785-3500.  We guarantee you’ll be glad you did.  See you September 25!

  July 10 will be a great night.  Front man Cody Beebe, with his band The Crooks, comes to The Cellar for a show full of Americana Rock–some rock, some folk, some country…all blended together into their unique foot-stomping sound.

The Cellar seats 60 max and has fantastic acoustics, thanks to one entire wall formed from giant basalt boulders.  There is Cave B wine for sale, as well as light meals from Chef Scriver.  Lots of different seating and standing choices, and always a great experience!  Come eat at Tendrils, take a walk in the early evening air, then make your way to the tasting room for the show start at 8:30….or just come at 8:30 and settle in!  Tickets are $12 and can be purchased on our webstore or by calling 509-785-3500.  See you there!

If you have not had the chance yet to come to a rock performance in The Cellar, this would be an unbelievable first visit:  to see Vicci Martinez in a three-person acoustic set this Friday, March 20.

What is The Cellar?  It is a long, intimate room with one wall comprised of giant basalt boulders from the property.  It adjoins the Cave B Estate Winery, has standing room and a creative use of all sorts of seating arrangements to suit your mood and style.  And most importantly, it is simply an oustanding music venue for strong and talented emerging Northwest rock musicians.

 To put it succinctly:  It’s a fantastic space to experience really great music.  Good times in The Cellar…it’s what you’ll have.  Go to our webpage to learn how you can purchase your tickets:  http://www.sagecliffe.com/Cellar.htm.  They are only $8.  Vicci Martinez is a powerhouse who is about to explode upon the national scene.  Come hear her so you can say you “knew her when!”

Have you come to a Live! at The Cellar performance yet? 

Have you parked in the upper parking lot, walked along the winding gravel path above the Spa and Chef’s garden, rising higher until you reach the giant doors of the old tasting room?  Have you laughed and talked with your friends while you continued on toward the giant Roundhouse just down the path, your breath making frosty puffs before you in the cold night air?

Have you burst into the tasting room like an exploding party favor–all high spirits and noise–and laughed and talked your way as you rubbed your arms briskly and move–immediately and happily–toward the tasting room bar? 

Have you had the pleasure of chatting up Winemaker Freddy Arredondo or tasting room extraordinaire Joe France while they pour you a glass of deep red Cave B Wine or white wine so clear and crisp it’s like winter in a glass?

Have you caught a glimpse of the performers as they linger in the back hall, or had the pleasure of realizing they are the very person you’re casually chatting with while you take your first sip and place your order for your oh-so-perfect BBQ slider?

Have you moved with anticipation through the doorway from tasting room to The Cellar and stopped, struck and amazed, when you see the tremendous basalt boulder wall, the musician’s instruments and microphone, the perfect overhead performer lights, the flickering candles around the room, casting the lively faces of the crowd inside into rosy high relief?

Have you stood at the back of the rock-lined room, your glass of SageCliffe 100 red or Cave B Cabernet hovering between your mouth and the wine-barrel bistro tabletop, as you’re too engrossed in conversation and listening to the performer to remember you’re holding it? 

Or have you moved to the front of the room, where there are pillows on the floor, tables with chairs, a bench, a barrel–all mere feet from the performers–so you can sit and sip, hearing every lyric and note, fully engaged, totally appreciative of this person there before you, singing their heart and soul out on this cold night to this merry band of travellers?

Were you there last October, when Ellensburg native Mark Pickerel picked up his guitar and took possession of the mic, the room, and everyone’s heart?  Have you heard his words, his urban country twang, his rockabilly sensibility? 

Have you made plans for 8:30 p.m., Friday, February 13?  Have you figured out how to get out of them so you can come experience Mark Pickerel’s return to The Cellar at precisely that time?  Have you?

  Last Friday night, November 14, Live! at The Cellar was truly alive and jumping.  Singer-songwriter Kristen Ward, accompanied on guitar by musician Gary Westlake, played and sang their rock-country-soul hearts out to a crowd of true music appreciators and animated minglers alike.

Lucky seven in the lineup of  Live! at The Cellar performers, Kristen Ward’s deep, sonorous voice and thought-provoking lyrics entranced those seated on the floor, chairs and benches near the duo at the front of the room.  The cadence and lyricism of Kristen’s music pulled in the audience who had come to hear a truly up and coming artist sing with her heart on her sleeve.  Gary Westlake, assistant to the manager of Pearl Jam for the last 25 years, brought his own amazing guitar work and rock and roll sensibility to the performance, strongly complementing Kristen’s youth and femininity with his own rock-veteran solidity. 

Kristen’s prime cheerleader, Gary was the individual who introduced Kristen to her now-mentor, Mike McCready of Pearl Jam.  After hearing Kristen’s music playing in Gary’s London hotel room one night, Mike asked the proverbial “Who is that?”  A short few weeks later, Mike had laid down a track on Kristen’s second CD, and their mentor relationship was off and running.

For SageCliffe, the opportunity to host Kristen Ward and Gary Westlake at The Cellar completed a wonderful kind of circle, as Gary had stayed at Cave B Inn several times in the past with Pearl Jam, when the band played at the neighboring Gorge Amphitheater. 

This time in a different role, as guitar-player, Gary had returned once again to Cave B.  The Cellar is our new, emerging venue, and Kristen Ward and Gary Westlake are on their own emerging musical path….it seemed fitting that the two came together last Friday; perhaps the full-circle nature of the event is what brought out the full-house crowd that listened, talked, ate, drank, made new friends and went home humming Kristen’s songs-from-the-soul. 

Live! at The Cellar has hit its stride; we look forward to many more full-circle moments, and full-house crowds.  See you in February!

Were you at The Cellar for Kristen and Gary’s performance?  Tell us what you thought by leaving a comment!

To see more Kristen Ward/Gary Westlake performances, visit Kristen’s site: http://www.kristenward.com.

Last Spring the SageCliffe team put their heads together and decided to turn the cellar–a dramatic basalt-rock lined room off of the winery tasting room–into a music venue. 

It seemed to have all of the elements; terrific “no echo” acoustics, a size and shape ready-made for an intimate nightclub-type setting, immediacy to the winery for enjoying Cave B wine during the show….fantastic.       

And owners Vince and Carol Bryan had thought of, built, run and eventually sold the Gorge Amphitheater next door, so they had some experience in these things. 

But even so, how do you declare, create, market, and launch a music venue in the middle of central Washington?  Who should play there?  Where should they come from?  What genres of music should it be?  We did not wish to create a “mini-Gorge.”  Rather, the wish was to provide another kind of music venue; more like you would find at many a club in downtown Seattle.  But instead it would be here:  in Quincy.  150 miles from Seattle or Spokane.  At a destination winery resort. Would it work?  Would people want to come? 

When faced with the launch of a music venue, one thing becomes very clear very quickly:  it’s good  to have performers.  But where do you start?  How do you tell if they’re any good?  How to know if the eastern Washington audience would like them?   

It seems the wine and rock gods were looking out for us, or at least there had been a recent article on how wineries were the next big venue for musicians, because we began to receive emails from singers and songwriters. 

The first was from TJ Sherrill:  a Seattleite who wrote a very polite, very professional email introducing himself.  We listened to his tracks off his MySpace page.  He sent us a CD.  We listened to that.  We let him know how much we could pay, and he didn’t tell us to go jump in the Columbia.  So that boded well.   We named the venue performances Live! at The Cellar, and hoped people would understand we didn’t want them to live at the cellar. 

TJ did ultimately end up being our first performer in The Cellar.  He and his wife Jess arrived hours early so they could go on a tour of The Gorge Amphitheater with Carol and Vince Bryan, who entertained them with story after story about the first, early days at what used to be called the Champs de Brionne Amphitheater.  Jessie Colin Young was the first musician to play there–TJ later said hearing that, coupled with the later Bob Dylan stories and tales of all the other ensuing musicians who’d played at The Gorge, brought him to a state of acute nervousness before his own show in The Cellar.  But he told us that afterwards, good man.  For the show itself you never would have known.  He kicked off the venue well.  The room was nearly full.  People bought and drank wine, sat at their tables…and shushed each other. 

Somewhere along the process we had neglected to mention that these performances were to be lively; like a club.  You didn’t need to sit in silence, like at a classical music performance at a winery.  But it was too far into the night to change that particular perception, so the shushing continued.  Vince and Carol Bryan were shushed, which elicited chuckles from them and stern looks from others.   Hm.  Good show, but a little….”shush-y. ” There was more work to do.    

Were you at The Cellar for TJ Sherrill?  Tell us what you thought by leaving a comment!