San Geronimo
Holding Cort
The San Geronimo Valley Community Center makes a birthday wish on behalf of its recently retired youth team director, Howie Cort, and invites community members to celebrate her “Birthday Palooza” with her band, Howie’s Persuasion, with the release of their new Aunt June’s Basement. The gig starts at 6pm, Thursday, April 6 at Giaco’s Valley Roadhouse, 625 San Geronimo Valley Dr., San Geronimo. This is the first of several fundraising concerts hosted in partnership with the center and roadhouse—proceeds will benefit the center’s food bank, youth tutoring, childcare and athletic programs, and myriad arts and events. Tickets are $50 and are available at bit.ly/howie23.
Santa Rosa
Dynamic Duo
Montana natives turned Angelenos turned traveling musicians Joselyn & Don find their way to The Lost Church at 8pm, Thursday, April 1, where they will share the bill with local folksters The Musers. The duo perform a mix of modern folk/Americana with additional hues of blues and jazz (their recent release, Seeds & Bones, is currently number five on the Roots Music Report’s Americana Album Chart). The Lost Church is located at 427 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa. Tickets are $20 and are available at tinyurl.com/JoselynDonTheMusersApr1.
Petaluma
Whiskey School
Barber Lee Spirits head distiller Mark Barber invites whiskey fans of all persuasions (novice to expert) to an epic info dump that could aptly be titled, “Everything you wanted to know about whiskey but were afraid to ask.” The educational evening and tasting will explore the liquor’s different production methods, ingredients, the secrets to decoding whiskey labels, as well as the various histories of different whiskey styles by country—from Scotland, Ireland and the U.S. to Japan and Canada. Class begins at 7pm, Thursday, April 13 at Barber Lee Spirits, 120 Washington St., Petaluma. Tickets are $40 (and include notes, snacks and water). Visit bit.ly/whiskey-class.
Napa
Little Italy Historic Walking Tour
On Saturday, April 15, local retired judge and native Napan Ray Guadagni conducts a walking tour of Napa’s Little Italy neighborhood, which thrived in the mid-20th century. The two-hour tour begins at 10am, Saturday, April 15, in front of Avow Restaurant, 813 Main St., Napa (which is the site of the former Fagiani’s Cocktail Lounge and Liquor Store and where, incidentally, one of the most infamous murders in Napa history occurred. In fact, Guadagni presided over the 2011 murder trial and wrote the book, The Napa Murder of Anita Fagiani Andrews: A Cold Case That Caught a Serial Killer). Refreshments will be served at the tour’s end. For more information, visit Napacountylandmarks.org.
