Luxe Beat Magazine AUGUST 2014 | Page 86

T wo of my favorite pleasures in life are music and wine. The third might actually be marketing, and when I stumbled upon David Pack’s Napa Crossroads CD, I found all three bundled into one. David Pack, is a musical trailblazer and the more I have gotten to know him during the interview process, the more impressed I become. David is a Grammy Award-winning musician and producer. He began his career as the lead vocalist and guitarist with the rock group Ambrosia, popular in the 1970s and 1980s, with top hits like You’re the Only Woman (You & I) and my personal favorite Biggest Part Of Me. He has sold over 40 million units worldwide as both a performer and producer combined. He’s produced for incredible artists like Wynonna, Phil Collins, Aretha Franklin and Kenny Loggins, to name only a few. He served as music director/producer for former President Bill Clinton’s inaugurations in January 1993 and 1997. This guy has been making and driving the most popular music we’ve been listening to for decades. David Pac Napa Crossr a Toast to M By Sherrie Wilkolaski Somewhere in between his top 40 hits and Grammy Awards ceremonies, he’s found the time to enjoy wine. I mean really enjoy wine. He takes as much pride in his music as he does in being an oenophile. Out of his passion for both art forms blossomed the Napa Crossroads project. Here is what he has to say about the venture. “Napa Valley and me are old friends. The grapes speak to me, the land soothes me, and the people move me like nowhere on earth. This project is my love letter to Napa Valley. Every song was written and recorded there. The primary inspiration is my five winery partners who contributed greatly to make this happen. We worked joyously to weave their life-stories into these songs and create a time capsule to preserve the memory of friends and a time that will never again be.” The CD is a compilation of 15 songs, performed by David and other talented musicians such as Alan Parsons, Bela Fleck and Todd Rundgren to name a few. I had seen the list of performers on the cover, but decided that I didn’t want to go through the song list, that I would just listen. It was just about cocktail time, so I called a dear friend of mine to get together for a drink, as I wanted to get the full experience. I poured myself a glass of my favorite Napa Valley chardonnay and my friend Carol a glass of Pinot Tap to play a song from David Pack’s Napa Crossroads my love for the music became deeper. I started off asking David about where his love of wine came from. It turns out a fellow musician got him hooked with a bottle of French wine. Grigio. She typically drinks an Italian varietal, but we grabbed her second favorite, which is from Napa, to stay with the theme. We touched our glasses together and made a toast to Napa Valley and hit play. We were not disappointed. It is perfect mood music, from start to finish. “Alan Parsons introduced me to French wine in the mid 70s when he was involved in both mixing and producing our first two Ambrosia As I learned more about the project, 1 albums. Then he was producing Al Stewart’s ‘Year of the Cat’ record, asked me to sing on it, and Al turned out to be ‘the man’ when it came to collecting, and extolling the virtues of the best of French wine–including La Tache, which he bought caseloads of yearly. “That awakened me to the ‘fine art’