'Just like a free runnin' river'- A Day trip to the Bloodroot Ramble

Thousands of music lovers descended upon the small town of Healdsburg, California this past Saturday, June 6 for the intimate music festival experience known as The Ramble. There was a special kind of magic in the air as folks gathered in the community center field for a day of music and merrymaking. 

The Ramble was founded by local Healdsburgian vintners Noah & Kelly Dorrance of BloodRoot and Reeve Wines. The festival was envisioned as a non-profit music festival with 100% of the proceeds going towards philanthropy. Their website reads, “Impact is not an add-on, it’s the foundation.” 

My first real encounter with The Ramble occurred in Napa as concert goers poured out of the  BottleRock music festival in 2024.

As the festival ended and folks left in search of their next adventure, standing In the middle of the street was Bloodroot wines co-founder Noah Dorrance handing out flyers for that year’s Ramble with Lord Huron. 

I watched as many of the large crowd ignored Dorrance or passively took a flyer from him, but it didn’t seem to phase him. There he was in the middle of the streets working to meet people and personally invite them to the party. It immediately endured me to him and his brand. 

This year I was finally able to support the event and experience what Noah and his wife Kelly, were working to build one flyer at time. 

The drive in from Santa Rosa was easy. The weather was damned near perfect. It was hot, but with a gentle breeze that would pick up throughout the day. 

As we walked through the entry gates of the Abel de Luna Community Center Fields, I was struck by just how small and intimate our adventures for the day would be. 

The Ramble felt much more laid back and relaxed compared to the luxury themed BottleRock in Napa and that’s by design. It instantly put me at ease, which was of course part of the magic of the Ramble.

Spoon is one of my favorite bands. The only time I had been able to see them had been from the nosebleed seats at Red Rocks Amphitheater outside Denver. This Saturday, I would finally be able to experience the band in relatively close quarters.

While $100 a ticket in today’s economy can be a bit pricey for some, I felt the Ramble was worth the cost and the price made the event much more accessible. That accessibility was reflected in the many young folks and the many families that proliferated the community center grounds that afternoon. 

My lady love and life partner Claire and I had a lazy Saturday afternoon and sadly missed the garage-pop stylings of Salt Lake City’s The Plastic Cherries. They must have been a fantastic way to kick off the festival. Their brand of laid back pop songs that remind me of Shannon And the Clams. I hope they return to a local space like Little Saint in the near future.

Claire and I wandered the festival grounds soaking it all in. There were local vendors selling their wares along with a number of local area food vendors. Moonlight Brewing had donated the beer and there were lots of wine offerings from BloodRoot, Reeve Wines and other wineries from the local community. 

I had a bit of a sticker shock when observing the food and beverage prices. $16 for beer and wine is pretty standard for a music festival, but with the local event I was hoping it would be priced a little more reasonably. 

However, as I pursued the vendors I discovered that ALL proceeds, including tips, for the entire weekend would go towards the GIFFORDS, an organization dedicated to saving lives from gun violence. Giffords was chosen as a way to honor the Dorrance family's niece Evelyn, who was lost to gun violence in the Nashville Covenant School shooting in 2023.

Suddenly I didn’t mind shelling out $16 for a delicious local beverage. My money wasn’t going to a corporate behemoth like Live Nation, it was going to do some good out in this world.

Our favorite beverage vendor was inside the Rambler Sparkling Water caravan with their delicious Ranch Waters or the Paloma-like Love Dove cocktails. They continuously had the longest lines of the day and always the friendliest of bartenders. 

We settled in for the second act of the day, Los Angeles’ Tropa Magica. They made me think of the fantastic food trucks and fusion of culture you can find in the most unlikely of places. The band has a unique sound that combines Latin, Cumbia, and psychedelic rock in a way that can only come from a cultural melting pot (emphasis on pot, wink wink) like LA. 

Each song in their set was delivering a different flavor and feeling, while overall welcoming the listeners in and making bodies move. 

My favorite moment of the day happened during their set as the band rallied Clo the Cow, the Clover dairy mascot, to lead a conga line with the growing audience. Smiles were everywhere while the cow danced and got people moving.

Clover Dairy easily won the day with their delicious free ice cream, while a dancing Clo the Cow set the tone for a family friendly affair. 

The best surprise of the festival arrived at 5pm when Devon Gilfillian and his kick-ass backing band took the stage performing neo-soul rock n roll that would make the greats such as Marvin Gaye or Sam Cooke proud.

Gilfillian came to the festival with one mission in mind, win over the hearts and minds of those in attendance and by god he did it with a gigantic smile on his face. He blew the audience away with his powerhouse vocals and the band’s heavy R&B and soul influences.

It was awesome to stand back and watch as his performance drew so many concert goers closer to the stage. This is a guy that's got what it takes. Expect him to be on bigger and bigger stages in the years to come. (He’ll return to the Bay Area on 10/09 with a show at the Independent in SF.)

At this point, Claire and I sat in our shaded area and enjoyed a damned good margherita pizza from A16. We sat far, far away from the stage, which brings me to my only real complaint of the day- Blanket bums. 

Blanket Bums, you know… the folks who throw down their blankets and chairs in a way to mark their territory for the entire day. 

It was rough during Gilfillian's set, I tripped over a chair as I tried to navigate my way to see him. Folks who had posted up super close to the stage refused to move or accommodate those festival goers looking to get closer to the performance. It grew even worse as more folks worked their way to the stage as Lucius began their set. 

I hope in the future The Ramble works to create designated spaces for these blankets, like the larger festivals do. It helps make the space safer from trip hazards and more accessible for all concert goers. 

Lucius would take the stage at 6:45 and I have to admit, I knew nothing about the group. They have somehow completely missed my radar over the years, but I was drawn in by their initial dirty guitar sound mixed with pop vocals, creating a chill vibe. Their set progressed between genres. They had a bit of everything in their sound, a little folk, indie, pop & garage to make an interesting set.

Lucius’ Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig had a backing band that could have headlined the festival in its own right, brothers Taylor & Griffin Goldsmith from Dawes joined the powerhouse vocalists for the evening. 

Together this supergroup would pepper in covers from Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd along with the Dawes classic, “All Your Favorite Bands.” 

It was a pretty cool treat, but I was never able to lock in to their performance. Everywhere I looked were people enjoying the hell out of their set. There was a gentleman a few feet in front of me rocking out and throwing up the devil horns. Sidestage, members of all the other bands watched with gigantic smiles. 

As Lucius ended their set, I wondered what I was missing. It just wasn’t my thing, but I really enjoyed being surrounded by people absolutely loving it. 

As the sun set, our fearless leaders Noah and Kelly Dorrance would take the stage to thank the crowd and to let us know we had raised (at least) $10,000 towards gun reform.

The two of them spoke of their love of Spoon and how special a day this had been. Kelly took a look at the setlist at her feet on the stage and excitedly announced they would play her favorite song of the night. They smiled ear to ear from the stage, as they took in the results of all their hard work. 

When Spoon finally started, I genuinely couldn’t believe how close I was to the stage. They had a bit of a rough start, but it worked in their favor, giving them a raw and more electric edge that they would carry with them throughout the night. 

Throughout their performance, I tried to stay in the moment and soak it all in, but my mind kept drifting to the house I shared with 5 other artists circa 2007. It was there that I discovered a love for Spoon. I thought about the bright, warm kitchen we would spend so many hours hanging out while cooking meals, drinking terrible beers and laughing into the wee hours of the night. 

The flood of memories filled my head and my heart in ways I wasn’t expecting.

I would catch glimpses of Noah and Kelly Dorrance dancing along the front of the stage with gigantic smiles and a pure sense of elation extruding from the two of them. I knew they would get what I was feeling, because they were feeling it too. 

I looked around and I saw that same elation on the face of the many concert goers surrounding me. 

I didn’t keep too many notes during most of their set. I let myself go and sang along. 

In the moments they played my favorite song, “Underdog,” I thought about how invisible I felt when I discovered that song. How that song, along with those people I shared so many nights in that kitchen, helped me finally feel seen. I thought about how music and art can bring us together and how I’m hundreds of miles away from where I expected to be, singing my heart out to a favorite band in a field with strangers having the time of my life. 

As the festival ended, I found myself rambling down Healdsburg Ave towards downtown, once again in search of more adventures. The street was alive with people for many blocks. People singing and dancing with couples walking arm and arm. 

I thought of the halcyon days when jam bands and hippies took up root in these small Northern California towns and built their own festivals and communities. That magic still prevalent in the DNA of what the Dorrances were building here today.

I thought again about Noah standing on the streets of Napa handing out flyer after flyer and how in those few moments I watched as folks ignored him and his handouts. He kept an upbeat, open and friendly vibe. He just kept doing the work. 

And on this one Saturday all that hard work brought us all together.

Congratulations to The Dorrances, everyone in attendance at the Ramble, and especially the town of Healdsburg. You’ve got something special going on up there. Cherish it.

I can’t wait to continue Rambling in the years to come. I can’t wait to see what else they can accomplish, one flyer at a time.