I spent countless hours as a child listening to my parents’ records. There were Beatles and Stones, Ike & Tina, Mamas & Papas, Miriam Makeba, and Otis Redding. There was also Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Mozart, and Bach, but my favorite, then and still, is the soundtrack to The Harder They Come.

The Harder They Come featured the driving rhythms of Desmond Dekker, Toots and the Maytals, and the Slickers, but the storyline hangs on the soulful and powerful tracks by Jimmy Cliff, the star of the film. Cliff wrote the stirring ballad, Many Rivers to Cross, in 1969, when he was a 21-year-old musician in England. The lyrics are simple, but the despair in those words, and the beauty of the music, brings me to tears every time I try to sing the song, either alone, or along with Jimmy.

Jimmy Cliff turns seventy this Sunday, April 1st, and while I don’t know if he is a  wine drinker - Wikipedia says: Cliff is not a member of the Rastafari movement, although he briefly was before converting to Islam from Christianity. He now describes himself as having a "universal outlook on life", and does not align himself with any particular movement or religion, saying that "now I believe in science" - I hope you’ll join us this Easter Sunday, when we raise a glass – or three - of Gamay to the legendary Jimmy Cliff.

But first…TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights - Spanish Whites & Italian Reds - $12 from 4-8pm

SATURDAY, March 31st: California Rosé Flights – the 2017’s are rolling in, and the sun is out – Trail Marker, Bedrock, and Horse & Plow - $15 – from 2-5pm

SUNDAY, April 1st: French Gamay Flights – three fresh, fruity reds from Beaujolais, the Rhone valley, and the Savoie - $15 – from 2-6pm – & APRIL WINE CLUB PICK UP Party!

See you soon,

Max