I just played a really good gig in Calistoga, St. Helena and Geyserville over last weekend. This is the second year I've worked with a quartet of young Broadway singers, who are recent graduates of the American Musical & Dramatic Academy in New York. Blaire Scheibal, whose parents live in Calistoga, brings 3 of her friends back (this year it was Billy Shaw, Leanne Strahlendorff and Matthew Cassaro) to perform mostly new Broadway repertoire. Most of the rep is from the last 15 years, including a good dose of Jason Robert Brown and Ahrens & Flaherty.

On Saturday evening, we performed outdoors at a small rental house near Bennett Lane Winery. The stage was small and rickety, and I brought a Kurzweil digital piano and amp, for which there was barely enough available power (apparently, the outlet that was powering the keyboard and spotlights began to smoke just before intermission). However, after this inauspicious beginning, the subsequent evenings went much better.

On Sunday, we performed at the White Barn in St. Helena, down at the end of Sulphur Springs Road. This is an actual barn (a carriage house from 1872), where the top floor (hay loft) has been converted into a performance space, including stage lighting and a baby grand piano, with the audience seated in folding chairs. It's a nice space - its only disadvantage being that there is no climate control. On warm days, the temperature in the loft performance space gets up to 80 degrees or so, which makes it a little difficult to perform.

Following the Sunday show, selected guests and the performers were invited to an al fresco dinner at the Wax estate, which is located past a security gate, up the hill behind the White Barn. Henry Wax, a high level realtor, owns the property. The main house is a Mediterranean villa