Country music is all about place. Songs and locale, joined together. It’s a relationship so ubiquitous within the music we often lose sight of it, forest for the trees. But there would be no country music without… well, the country – or without rural places and their communities; without farms and ranches; without Texas or California; without Appalachia or the Southeast. Country also wouldn’t exist without urban centers, and the country folks who migrated to cities to find work, or reunite with their families, or build a better life. Even in concrete jungles seemingly divorced from country ideals, whether drawn by homesickness or nostalgia or longing for home – real or imagined or aspirational – country music and place always go hand-in-hand.
Lucky for all of us, this is a genre well-suited for a variety of places, from honky-tonks to front porches to internationally appealing festivals. Or even Napa Valley, California, vineyards.
Last month, we attended Live in the Vineyard Goes Country, a production of Austin, Texas’s Forefront Networks, an intimate three-day event that effortlessly denoted and celebrated that relationship between country and place. Guests, industry professionals, and country artists – from festival headliners to fresh discoveries – gathered at gorgeous locations on April 21, 22, and 23, throughout Napa and Napa Valley to enjoy stripped-down and essential performances, gourmet farm-to-table meals, delicious organic and biodynamic wines, and the lovely weather, views, and settings of California’s wine country. The eighth installment of the country edition of Live in the Vineyard, it showcased the genre with an elite yet still approachable level of quality, care, and intention.
Guests enjoyed a welcome reception featuring Jackson Dean, Lauren Watkins, and Chandler Walters on day one, sipping bubbles at Chandon in Yountville during golden hour. From there, separate groups of attendees were sorted into waiting coaches to be swept off to dinner for delicious food paired exquisitely with local wines – and still more small, up-close-and-personal musical performances. Our green group dinner, for instance, were treated to hilarious and touching stories and songs shared by Lauren Watkins and her husband, hit songwriter Will Bundy, at Cakebread Cellars over jaw-droppingly delicious chardonnay and perfectly lacquered short ribs.
Though days one and two were punctuated with bursts of spring rain, throwing a logistical wrench into the works, the Forefront and LITV teams reacted with grace and ease, allowing attendees to relish the rarity of rainfall in Napa Valley without a second thought, and increasing the magical feeling of country music and country people basking in such a space. Day two began with the Texas Music Scene Tailgate, featuring performances by Sunny Sweeney, the Braun Brothers, and a songwriter round including Wade Bowen, Shelby Stone, and Cody Canada. During the live taping for Texas Music Scene’s long-running TV series, guests relaxed between sets by strolling the grounds, eating fresh Napa-grown produce, enjoying complimentary wines and sweets, and ducking in and out of the Frog’s Leap Winery barn to catch country songs sung amid the bright brass vats.
On the evening of day two, the entire Live in the Vineyard Goes Country entourage traveled together to the Uptown Theatre in gorgeous downtown Napa for the headline show of the event, featuring sets by Abbie Callahan, Alex Lambert, and Marcus King. Once again performing in pared-down, intimate setups for the around 800-seat venue, the crowd was nevertheless animated and engaged, hooting and hollering as if they were polishing the floorboards for rowdy, full-band sets on a stage wrapped in chicken wire, rather than a gilded theatre in wine country. Even in as manicured and lovely a location as Napa Valley, the old saying holds: You can take the folks out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the folks!
On day three, already feeling like Live in the Vineyard was much too short, attendees gathered at Raymond Vineyards in St. Helena, California, for one final hoorah, a lovely send-off brunch featuring a mimosa bar, lemon-blueberry pancakes, JCB Wines, and performances by Frankie Ballard and Zach John King. In the shade of palm trees and snacking on scratch-made frittatas, it was clear – from start to finish – that Live in the Vineyard Goes Country gives this genre, the folks who make it, and the fans who love it the treatment they all deserve. Yes, country is made for barn dances and radio shows and flatbed trailers in pastures, but isn’t it made for Napa Valley, too? For barns aging fine wine, for farms growing gourmet salads, luxurious wines, and handmade breads?
Country is a music for everyone, for every setting, and for every place imaginable. The GC team was excited to be on hand for Live in the Vineyard Goes Country 2026, capturing lo-fi photos with our trusty Camp Snap camera and reflecting on how delicious country music can be when it’s made with this level of intention and care in a beautiful setting such as this. Scroll to enjoy even more photos and dispatch notes from our trip with LITV to Napa Valley.
If you missed Live in the Vineyard Goes Country, don’t worry, Forefront Networks have more music and roots music events on the docket so you, too, can experience country in gorgeous places like this. For a near-immediate fix, Hill Country Reserve will take place in November 2026 in Fredericksburg, Texas. And stay tuned for future editions of LITV, Elevation Bear Creek, and more from Forefront.
All photos by Justin Hiltner, shot on Camp Snap.
