Petaluma Music Festival draws diverse crowd for good cause

Some music festivals bank on world-famous, big-name superstars, drawing crowds the size of a good-sized city, but the Petaluma Music Festival stays close its roots, and local fans love it.

Some 4,000 music lovers gathered Saturday at the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds in Petaluma for nearly 10 hours of live music on four stages at the ninth annual event, featuring nationally known California acts, regional stars and local heroes.

“We come here every year,” said Kasey Deis, 43, of Forestvllle, with her three-year-old son Rowan, outfitted with a headpiece to cover his ears. Evidently he could still hear the amplified bands well enough to bop along with the music.

“I came here when I was pregnant with him,” Deis said of her son. “It’s a great family event, one everyone can enjoy.”

There were times during the afternoon and evening when several acts were playing at the same time on different stages, and fans could walk among the food booths at the center of the fairgrounds (with fare ranging from hot dogs and honey-and-bourbon glazed chicken wings to Thai food) and hear a collective sound something like the ultimate jam session.

The festival did more than just showcase beloved Sacramento singer-songwriter Jackie Greene and long-established rock guitarist and bandleader Steve Kimock of Sebastopol. It also aimed to support the musicians of the future.

Founded in 2008 by Petaluma High School band teacher Cliff Eveland, the annual event has raised more than $145,000 so far for music programs at Petaluma-area schools.

At Saturday’s event, wearing shorts, a short-sleeved shirt, baseball cap and tennis shoes, Eveland, 50, looked more like a hometown coach than an impresario, pitching his cause from the stage.

“This is a nonprofit festival,” Eveland told the crowd. “It’s all put on by volunteers.”

“I love the Petaluma Music Festival,” said Santa Rosa second-grade teacher Tricia Walker, 52, who was camped out a blanket on the lawn with several friends in front of the Festival Stage, the event’s main venue. “It’s a good cause and it’s so well-organized.”

White-bearded Robert Gregg Johnson, 60, came from San Jose to hear David Nelson of Petaluma and his band. He schooled strangers on the musician’s history while sipping beer.

“David Nelson was the leader of the of the New Riders of the Purple Sage back when Jerry Garcia used to play steel guitar with them,” said Johnson, who described himself as a member of the “Ohana,” or family, that follows Nelson from show to show.

“There are 200 or 300 of us,” Johnson said.

Music buffs got a full day of tunes for their tickets - $45 in advance, $60 at the gate. More than a dozen bands played, including the Highway Poets and Kingsborough of Sonoma County, Bay Area favorites Moonalice and The Mother Hips, and others, each adding their own followings to the crowd.

Guitarist Kimock conducted a tour of diverse musical styles during his set, with elaborate instrumental breaks, a sing-along of sorts, a touch of reggae and a blistering rendition of the blues classic “Tore Up.”

Singer-songwriters David Luning (who had a brush with fame at the televised “American Idol” tryouts a few years back) and Sam Chase teamed up for an acoustic set on the festival’s small indoor stage before each fronting their own bands later in the day.

By the end of the day, when Greene hit the stage in full-out rock mode, afternoon sunshine had given way to evening chill, but the crowd didn’t care, grinning and swaying to the music.

The combined daylong wave of music drew on a variety of roots - rock, folk, blues, country and more - with a heavy emphasis on a loose and sometimes improvisational “jam” style.

Asked for a music label, veteran fan Johnson cheerfully rebelled: “Jam bands? This is art!”

You can reach staff writer Dan Taylor at 521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com. Read his Arts blog at arts.blogs.pressdemocrat.com.