In Nashville, they call it a “writer’s round.” Three or six singer/songwriters grab seats in the center of a room and take turns playing acoustic instruments, sharing the personal stories behind their songs, and accompanying each other when appropriate.
The format was made popular by the Bluebird Café, an iconic “listening room” where small groups of music lovers can go to get up close and personal with artists and their craft.
Next month — July 16-18, to be exact — it’s coming to Healdsburg.
This “in the round” experience is the heart of an annual intimate acoustic music event dubbed Songwriters in Paradise (SIP). This summer marks its fifth consecutive year in Sonoma County. Every session the program brings together some of the hottest names in modern songwriting in front of audiences of no more than 100 people.
This year the SIP Healdsburg lineup even includes a singer/songwriter who has just been named poet laureate of his native South Carolina.
That poet-in-residence is none other than Patrick Davis, the artist who created SIP more than 10 years ago. For Davis, the Healdsburg event is a chance to play music with old friends and share the wonders of songwriting at several different wineries in North County.
“The goal of SIP Healdsburg is to take that intimate and exclusive experience that we do all the time in Nashville, pair it with great wine and food, and bring it to Sonoma County,” he said. “We want people to feel like they’re sitting in a living room and kicking back with good friends and family. It’s hard not to enjoy music when you hear it like that.”
Growth of a legend
SIP began in 2013. After years of writing songs in Nashville, Davis was given the opportunity to bring a small group of musician friends to Hope Town on the Bahamian island of Abaco for an intimate, multi-day weekend of music and storytelling at a popular resort. He’d never done anything like that before, but he figured it would be a great opportunity to connect with buddies and make music together.
People loved it. Davis returned with a group of singer/songwriter friends for several years. Every time, SIP sold out. Every time, musicians and music lovers alike raved about the experience.
Demand continued to grow and Davis added a second SIP event in Cabo San Lucas.
Eventually, in 2019, with the help of wine industry titans David Duncan and Jeff Gargiulo, he brought the event to Napa.
The leap to Napa was significant because instead of hosting every night of SIP at the same resort, Davis partnered with different wineries to host each night. This, of course, made wine and food part of the equation, elevating the SIP experience to something that titillated all senses.
Expansion to Healdsburg
Serendipity brought SIP to Healdsburg and northern Sonoma County shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fresh off the success of SIP Napa, Davis was looking to expand elsewhere in Wine Country. At the same time, Mike Brennan, director of sales for the Mill District development in south Healdsburg, was seeking to start some sort of high-end music event in town.
Brennan’s father had been a musician, and Brennan knew Healdsburg was ready for a high-end music event. So when singer/songwriter friend Django Walker told Brennan that Davis was looking to expand SIP into Sonoma County, the men certainly felt like the stars had aligned.
Davis and Brennan met at Market restaurant in St. Helena to discuss the idea. The men hit it off. In the weeks that followed, Brennan connected Davis with vintners at Robert Young Estates, Bricoleur Vineyards, Calegari Vineyards, and more.
Finally, in the summer of 2022, SIP Healdsburg was born.
“This is Patrick’s event; I get no money from it and do what I can to share this music with everyone in Healdsburg because it is so special,” said Brennan. “I was 50 when I started this and I hope we’re still doing it when I’m 75.”
How it works
As Brennan notes, there’s nothing quite like a SIP show.
Just like at the Bluebird, SIP sessions typically are broken into rounds. Each round comprises three singer/songwriters. During each round, every artist plays one song in sequential order, then they repeat the cycle with the same artists two more times.
By the end of each round, the trio of artists have performed nine or 10 songs. Most SIP shows comprise two rounds, for a total of anywhere from 18 to 20 songs in all.
“We really try to set it up so every night you’re getting artists who are completely different,” explained the 49-year-old Davis, who received the poet laureate designation from his home state of South Carolina earlier this year.
Because the performers are friends and the format is so flexible (and also because there’s a lot of wine), something magical and unscripted usually happens at SIP shows. Case in point: A SIP Napa show earlier this year, when James Otto’s 15-year-old daughter Ava popped up from the audience, took the microphone, and performed two songs.
Fittingly, the older Otto recently described SIP shows as “family reunions,” noting that the events are often the highlight of his touring calendar every year.
“It’s writers/artists that I love and admire that are also my friends, so the time I spend on and off stage are full and feel like catching up,” he wrote in a recent text message. “I think that really translates to the audience, too. I’ve made countless friends from folks I’ve met at SIP. It doesn’t hurt that as the name suggests takes place in paradise and they’re pouring incredible wine.”
What to look for
This year’s SIP Healdsburg comprises 11 singer/songwriters. Tickets start at $350 per night.
While there are several VIP events earlier in the week, the first official night will be July 16, at Calegari Vineyards in Healdsburg. Here, the artists typically set up right at the edge of a vineyard. The first round will feature Otto, Radney Foster, and Lauren Jenkins, and Round 2 will be Davis, Marc Broussard, and Levi Lowrey.
The second night will take place inside the Winery Barn at Bricoleur Vineyards in Windsor and will feature Davis, Walker, and Jerry Flowers in Round 1 and Jenkins, Lowrey and Kristian Bush in Round 2.
This year’s SIP Healdsburg culminates on July 18 at Robert Young Vineyards in Geyserville. This location is by far the most spectacular; the artists sit on a stage with the entire Alexander Valley spread out behind them. The lineup for that night comprises Walker, Flowers, and Ashley Campbell and Thor Jensen in Round 1, and Bush, Davis, and Foster in Round 2.
At some point each night, Davis will put on his poet laureate hat and share details about youth storytelling programs he’s building everywhere SIP stops.
The program in South Carolina is just getting going; Davis is calling it the South Carolina Storytellers Initiative and he’s aiming to shine a light on young South Carolina poets, songwriters, storytellers, and spoken-word artists who have something real to say about the places and people that raised them.
He plans to launch a similar storytelling program in Sonoma County next year, and he hopes the program will include a writing contest that will give winners a chance to read their work at future SIP Healdsburg shows.
“The way I see it, this is a beautiful way to connect SIP to the local communities, support young creative voices, and give a few students a stage they’ll never forget,” Davis said.
It certainly makes for a great story.
For tickets and to learn more about SIP Healdsburg, visit https://www.songwritersinparadise.com/aboutsiphbg.
Audience members listen as singers and songwriters perform as part of a Songwriters in Paradise (SIP) Healdsburg event in 2025. Photo by Everett Zuraw
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Audience members listen as singers and songwriters perform as part of a Songwriters in Paradise (SIP) Healdsburg event in 2025. Photo by Everett Zuraw
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