‘Reel’y good weekend shows in Sonoma

It’s going to be a big weekend at The Reel in El Verano.|

It’s going to be a big weekend at the Reel in El Verano. The westside roadhouse is hosting a popular local band, Train Wreck Junction, on Friday, and on Saturday night the legendary Pancho Sanchez.

Friday night’s band, TWJ, as they are called, got their start in 2012. Frontman and founder Nick Kardum apparently had wild hair buggin’ him about starting a band. So, he did what founders, inventors, and CEOs always do, he placed an ad on Craigslist.

The pieces – drums, bass, guitars and steel – soon fell into place. Kardum bosses the stage with his baritone, and the band delivers that good old “true country” music.

Kardum said via text, “We always love playin’ for the Sonoma crowd and are looking forward to everyone cuttin’ a rug on that big ole dance floor at the Reel.”

Local multi-instrumentalist Josh Yenne offered this observation about TWJ and its leader: “Nick sure knows how to get a room riled up.”

Train Wreck Junction makes its whet-your-whistle stop at 9:30 p.m. Friday night.

Saturday’s 9 p.m. headliner, Pancho Sanchez, got his start over three decades ago in a suburb of Los Angeles. He was raised in a household awash in music of all types. He taught himself how to play several instruments, but eventually settled on becoming one of the world’s best conga players, or conguero.

In this show, co-sponsored by the Sonoma Valley Jazz Society, Sanchez will be paying tribute to two titans of Latin jazz: conga drummer and composer Chano Pozo and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. Sanchez’s new album, “Chano y Dizzy,” will be released on Sept. 27. His website says that his music is a “fiery stew of straightahead jazz, gritty soul music, and infectious melodies and rhythms from a variety of Latin American and South American sources.”

All that, and the yummy food served up in the kitchen, will make for one tasty night at the Reel.

thereelfishshop.com trainwreckjunction.com. eventbrite.com

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