Jim Quick & Coastline at Blackmon Amphitheatre: Pair the Show with Yadkin Valley Wine Country
Jim Quick & Coastline at Blackmon Amphitheatre: Pair the Show with Yadkin Valley Wine Country
Beach music fans, mark your calendars. As listed on Eventbrite, the Surry Arts Council is bringing Jim Quick & Coastline to Blackmon Amphitheatre on Thursday, July 9, 2026, as part of their Summer Concert Series. This Carolina beach music band has been the soundtrack to summer evenings across the Carolinas for decades. And if you ask me, a concert in Dobson is a pretty good reason to build a full wine country day around it.
Why This Combination Works
Blackmon Amphitheatre sits in the heart of Surry County, which puts you within minutes of some genuinely great Yadkin Valley wineries. That's not a coincidence I'm going to let you waste. Jim Quick & Coastline's feel-good sound fits the valley in summer about as well as anything I can think of. You can spend the afternoon tasting wine on a shaded porch, then walk into an outdoor concert with that easy mood still carrying you.
The anchor stop I'd point you toward is Surry Cellars. It's right there in Dobson, on a campus setting that gives the whole place a different feel from most wineries in the region. They have an educational focus built into the experience, so if you're newer to North Carolina wine, it's a comfortable place to ask questions and actually learn something.
Build Your Afternoon Before the Show
Give yourself a real afternoon at Surry Cellars before the concert. The campus setting and vineyard views make it easy to slow down, and their lineup covers dry reds, dry whites, and fruit wines, so there's usually something for everyone in a group. Plan for an hour or two. That's enough time to work through a tasting without feeling rushed heading into the evening.
One thing worth knowing: Surry Cellars leans into the educational side of winemaking in a way that's pretty uncommon. If you've ever wanted to understand what actually goes into a bottle of NC Cab Franc or a Seyval Blanc, this is the kind of place that makes that accessible. It's not a lecture. It's just context that makes the wine taste better.
After your tasting, grab lunch in downtown Dobson before you head to the amphitheatre. There's enough going on in town to fill the gap between an afternoon tasting and a Thursday evening show.
Concert Night
Arrive at Blackmon Amphitheatre early. General admission outdoor shows fill in fast when the weather is good, and July in the valley runs warm and clear most evenings. Bring a blanket or low-back chairs, bring water, and check the venue's current policies on outside food and drinks before you go. Jim Quick & Coastline plays high-energy sets. You'll want to be comfortable.
Summer nights out here have a specific feel to them. The light goes soft around 8 PM, there's usually a breeze moving through, and the air still smells like the day's heat coming off the hills. A beach music show in that setting is hard to beat.
Turn Thursday Into a Weekend
A Thursday night concert is a natural setup for staying through the weekend. The Yadkin Valley has more than 40 wineries spread across Surry, Wilkes, and Yadkin counties. You won't cover them all, but you don't need to. A Friday spent driving the back roads between a few well-chosen stops, with a good bottle in the cooler for the ride home Saturday, is the kind of trip people come back for.
The region's Cabernet Sauvignon and Viognier get the most attention, but don't overlook the blends. Some of the most interesting bottles I've tried out here don't fit neatly into a single grape category, and the winemakers are getting more confident about that every year.
Plan Your Trip
If you want help putting the pieces together around the July 9 concert, build your itinerary at ValleySomm. I can help you map the afternoon stops, figure out the right order, and make sure you don't miss anything worth tasting in that corner of the valley.