TEMECULA: Ronnie Laws, Phillip Ingram playing at winery

Ronnie Laws

On July 21, 2012 it was a Romantic Evening of Jazz, Soul and R&B on the enchanting concert and wedding lawn at Leonss Cellars.

Just about a month before this event Ronnie Laws called me to see if I would like to perform with him at the Leoness Cellars Winery as his Special Guest. Of course the answer was 'yes'.

Ronnie and I go back quite a few years. As SWITCH was recording their 2nd Album, Ronnie Laws was working on a project at the same studio and we met back then in 1979 and have remained friends over the years. I've sang backgrounds on a couple of his projects and about 2 years ago we did the 'Jazz Informance' along with Walter Beasley.

Wedding Lawn at Leoness Cellars

It turned out to be a great intimate evening. There were a little over 300 in attendance and they all had a great time. We performed where they have weddings on a regular basis, so the view was spectacular. The Wedding Lawn overlooks the Leoness Vineyards with the rolling mountains in the background.

The show started with M.C and Opening Act, Kim Horn. Kim is a great singer and another dear friend of mine whom I've also known for many years. Kim does Jazz like Nat King Cole and does a great job with it. So Kim opened up the show.

Another spectacular view at Leoness Cellars

Kim was followed by Joel Reese who came up and did a little bit country. After that I came up and performed "Most Of All", which is a song that I co-wrote with Todd Carlon and is the #1 downloaded and played song on the Phillip Ingram App.

After that I called up Ronnie and we performed "I Can't Make You Love Me",  it seems that this song stole the night with my portion of the performance. After the 2nd chorus Ronnie and I went back and forth with some improvisations and the crowd thoroughly enjoyed it.

Ronnie, doing his thing...

I finished my 3rd song with the Duet "Wonderful", which I sang with Nikki Harris on the JPG Project. I had Dana LeBlanc do the duet with me at the show, and she also did a great job. Ronnie played on this as well and then we danced our way down the aisle on the ending of the song while the audience was singing the chorus.

After that Ronnie did his thang performing many of his hits. His encore song was a tribute to Grover Washington where Ronnie performed "Mr. Magic".


This was a first for Leoness Cellars. They never put on a concert of this caliber but from the success of this particular concert I think we may be seeing more 'intimate evenings' at Leoness Cellars.

Until Next Time - Phillip