Mix Tape for a Wine Festival

Movies are better than life only in that they come with a soundtrack. Life’s lack of soundtrack is a serious deficiency–especially when it comes to wine festivals.

This weekend, I kicked back (i.e. tripped over a tent stake) and upended a few bottles of wine (i.e. pouring it into customers’ glasses) while enjoying the sunshine (i.e. the spot lighting under the tent) and crisp breeze (i.e. the not quite gale-force winds that toppled the tent overnight) in the beautiful North Carolina mountains (that part is literal) for the Blue Ridge Wine and Food Festival in Blowing Rock.

All that was missing was an appropriate soundtrack for the weekend. You know what they say: when life gives you lemons…No, that’s not what they say. No one wants lemons at a wine festival. If you build it they will come...No, that’s not quite right either.

Suffice it to say, I’m making a playlist for the soundtrack of a wine festival, if life were as awesome as the movies. In other words: Dearest wine festival, in the spirit of the 90s, I’m gonna make you a mix tape.

Day 1

• One More Cup of Coffee (Bob Dylan)
• Non Dairy Creamer (Third Eye Blind)
• Upward Over the Mountain (Iron & Wine)
• Boxes & Bottles (Fish & Bird)
• Tent City (Dead Swans)
• Wine After Whiskey (Carrie Underwood)
• Red Red Wine (UB40)
• The Nights of Wine and Roses (Japandroids)
• God of Wine (Third Eye Blind)
• Watch the Wind Blow By (Tim McGraw)
• Chill Out Tent (The Hold Steady)

Day 2

• Dismantle and Rebuild (The Ramona Flowers)
• Wine Slow (Gyptian)
• Half Full Glass of Wine (Tame Impala)
• Summer Wine (Nancy Sinatra)
• Red Wine, Success! (Cold War Kids)
• More, More, More (Bananarama)
• Wandering Eye (Fat Freddys Drop)
• Excuse Me, My Eyes Are Up Here (Ian Evans)
• Evil Eye (Josh Ritter)
• Don’t Drink That Wine (N.W.A.)
• Going Unsteady (Daedelus)
• Spill the Wine (Eric Burdon)
• Red Wine, Mistakes, Mythology (Jack Johnson)
• All the Wine (The National)
• Wobble (Wobble Baby)
• Please Drink More Water (Jakewolf)
• Last of the Summer Wine (Palma Violets)
• Half Filled Boxes (Three Legged Fox)

I love you, wine festivals!