Award-winning bluegrass band opens the 39th winter dinner concert series at Door County inn

FISH CREEK - The 39th season of winter dinner concerts at White Gull Inn opens Dec. 6 and 7 with a return visit by two-time Grammy Award-nominated bluegrass band Special Consensus, launching a run of six concerts by five national and international touring acts over the next five months.

The White Gull series debuted in November 1983, with concerts by some of the nation's top folk, bluegrass and Americana musicians and bands held roughly once a month from November through April. The concerts are preceded by an optional fixed-price, fixed-menu dinner prepared by the inn for audience members.

Over nearly four decades of concerts, the series has attracted artists such as Tom Paxton and John McCuen among the more than 200 who have played at White Gull. Paxton and McCuen are among the Grammy-nominated artists who have played the series, along with John McCutcheon, Robbie Fulks and Claire Lynch, while others have won numerous folk and bluegrass music awards.

Special Consensus is one of the more honored bands to play the White Gull series. It's earned seven International Bluegrass Music Association awards, including this year's Male Vocalist of the Year award for Greg Blake and Collaborative Recording of the Year for their rendition of the Gordon Lightfoot song "Alberta Bound," along with Grammy nominations for their albums "Scratch Gravel Road" in 2012 and "Rivers and Roads" in 2018.

The band is no stranger to Door County, having played several sold-out shows at White Gull, most recently in 2021, along with two concerts at Door Community Auditorium and numerous appearances in Fish Creek's summer Concert in the Park series. They've proven so popular with White Gull audiences that the Dec. 7 concert was added to the schedule last week after the Dec. 6 one quickly sold out, and it's not the first time that's happened with their shows at White Gull.

As well as consistently touring across the U.S., Canada and around the world, the group has released 21 albums since it was founded by banjo player/vocalist Greg Cahill in 1975, including this year's new release, "Great Blue North," on which all songs were written by Canadian songwriters and numerous Canadian musicians made guest appearances.

The optional pre-concert, fixed-price dinner has Santa Fe stew, cornbread, a spinach and pear salad with citrus vinaigrette, and brown butter pumpkin cake.

The remainder of the 2023-24 season is:

Feb. 7: The Western Flyers

The Texas-based Western swing trio won the Western Music Association’s Western Swing Album of the Year Award in 2018 for their debut record, "Wild Blue Yonder." They're led by vocalist/archtop guitar slinger Joey McKenzie, a multi-instrumentalist who has won five Texas State Guitar championships and more than 100 fiddling titles, including three world championships.

McIntyre's not the only fiddle champion in the band, as Ridge Roberts (vocals as well as fiddle), a student of McIntyre's, is the 2018 world champion and has won numerous other titles on the instrument. Joining them is upright bassist Matthew Mefford.

The optional pre-concert dinner is shepherd’s pie, wedge salad with buttermilk blue cheese dressing, and French silk pie.

March 6: Joe Newberry and April Verch

Old-time music legend Newberry and Canadian fiddling champion Verch came together in 2016 to bring the traditional, rootsy sounds of their homelands − Appalachia by way of the Missouri Ozarks for Newberry, the Ottawa Valley of Ontario for Verch − to concerts and festivals around the world, including the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Wide Open Bluegrass Festival and the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow, Scotland.

Known around the world for his work on the clawhammer banjo, Newberry also is an acclaimed guitarist, singer and songwriter, with songs he wrote or co-wrote winning IBMA awards in 2012 and 2013. He was a longtime guest on the hit National Public Radio show "A Prairie Home Companion."

Verch was the first woman to win both the Canadian Grand Masters and Canadian Open Fiddling championships, and she's an accomplished stepdancer as well. Besides working with Newberry, her April Verch Band has performed in 18 different countries, and she has released 14 solo recordings to date.

The menu for the pre-concert dinner is to be determined.

April 10: Cheryl Wheeler and Kenny White

Longtime folk music star Wheeler, who's played three sold-out shows at White Gull, is known not just for the powerful, moving songs she writes − which have been recorded by artists like Dan Seals, Peter, Paul and Mary, Kenny Loggins, Garth Brooks, Suzy Bogguss, Bette Midler and Kathy Mattea − but also for the stories she tells between songs that elicit laughter. Or it might go the other way around, with serious commentary followed by a song rife with laughs.

White has toured with Wheeler for many years and recently completed an 18-month tour performing his original songs while traveling as the opener for Stephen Stills and Judy Collins. An accomplished pianist and guitarist, White is especially known for the clever lyrics in his songs. He also was known as a producer in the 1980s and '90s, producing and arranging hundreds of commercials for TV and radio, such as for Chevrolet’s “Heartbeat of America” campaign and Coca-Cola.

The optional pre-concert dinner is ragu alla Bolognese; focaccia; mixed greens with butternut squash, pumpkin seed and black pepper bellavitano cheese; and tiramisu.

April 24: Joshua Davis

Another artist returning to the White Gull series, Davis already was heavily into a touring and recording career, both as a solo musician and with the band Steppin’ In It, (featured at White Gull in 2007 and '10), when he got a call from producers of the NBC-TV show “The Voice." He eventually got on the show for Season 8 in 2015 and placed third, becoming the first artist to sing an original song on the show.

Davis' most recent full-length album, "The Way Back Home," mixes his grit with Midwestern charm and his a soaring vocals and deft guitar.

The optional pre-concert dinner is coq au vin served over mashed Yukon gold potatoes; spring greens, asparagus and fresh herb salad; and rhubarb torte.

White Gull Inn is at 4225 Main St., Fish Creek. All concerts start at 8 p.m., with dinners served at 6 p.m. Tickets are $35 for concerts (except $30 for Joshua Davis), $27.95 for dinner; reservations are strongly recommended for both, as concerts and dinners have usually sold out. For reservations or more information, visit the inn, call 920-868-3517 or visit whitegullinn.com.

Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or cclough@doorcountyadvocate.com.

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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Two nights of bluegrass open this Door County dinner concert series