Winter Concert Series

White Gull Inn winter concerts feature contemporary and traditional folk and bluegrass artists from all over the country, who perform in an intimate and acoustic setting in the White Gull dining room. The concerts are held approximately once a month in winter, usually on Wednesday nights. Each 7:30 PM concert is preceded by an optional 5:30 PM dinner, featuring a special fixed price menu prepared by the chef, which varies each month.

Weary Ramblers
Wednesday, January 27, 2027, 7:30 PM
Tickets: $35

Award-winning Iowa Americana duo Weary Ramblers bring years of experience to the stage with Chad Elliott on guitar and harmonica and Kathryn Severing Fox on fiddle, mandolin and more.  Iowa Public Radio said, Weary Ramblers are nothing short of an Iowa-based super duo.”

Elliott and Severing Fox formed Weary Ramblers in 2022, releasing their first, self-titled album in 2024.  The album held the #1 spot on the Contemporary Folk Album chart for seven weeks, according to Roots Music Report.  Their song “Pretty Lights of Denver” reached  #1 on the Contemporary Folk Song chart in addition to winning a Josie Music Award for “Americana Song of the Year.”  In 2025, their second album, Driftwood, hit #1 on the Contemporary Folk Album chart and #1 on Folk Album chart.  The album’s song “Kentucky Never Seemed So Blue,” received an International Acoustic Music Award for best country/bluegrass song.  And the duo was awarded the overall grand prize winners by the International Acoustic Music Awards in 2026.

Songwriting is a joint effort for Elliott and Severing Fox, who co-write their material, drawing from life experience and stories from the road.  Storytelling is a pivotal piece of their performance. The genre-defying music of Weary Ramblers has allowed them to earn accolades in many areas of music.  In 2026 alone, Weary Ramblers received awards in American, bluegrass, folk and blues categories.  Currently the duo is touring nationwide and writing songs on the road for their third album.

Optional fixed price dinner served at 5:30 PM.  Menu: Beef Bourguignon over Yukon gold mashed potatoes, French bread, salad with spinach, pear and toasted walnut salad in a sherry vinaigrette, and Apple Crisp for dessert. $28.95

Third Coast Bluegrass
Wednesday, February 10, 2027, 7:30 PM
Tickets: $35

We are delighted to welcome back Wisconsin-based Third Coast Bluegrass, which  has deep roots in the Great Lakes bluegrass scene going back to the 1970’s.

The band includes:  Marc Edelstein, bass & vocals; Ken Finkel, banjo & vocals; Peter Knupfer, fiddle; Don Stiernberg, mandolin & vocals; Jerry Wicentowski, lead vocals and guitar. Edelstein was a founding member of the Special Consensus.  Long time Door County bluegrass fans will remember Finkel and Knupfer from the band Grass, Food and Lodging, and Don Stiernberg was a member of the Morgan Brothers.  Both groups toured in Door County in the late seventies and early eighties.  Wicentowski has performed extensively in Wisconsin, including with Fish Creek’s Highland Road Band and most recently with the Creek Pickers. Third Coast Bluegrass’s repertoire spans bluegrass classics, originals, and adaptations from other songwriters. The band highlights Wicentowski’s “true to the tradition” vocals and instrumentals by   Stiernberg, Knupfer and Finkel.  As Stiernberg says, “Back to the roots of the hard grass with admired colleagues who are also great friends. What could be better?”

Optional fixed price dinner served at 5:30 PM.  Menu:  Shepherd’s Pie, Winter Salad with roasted butternut squash, pumpkin seeds, and Sartori black pepper Bellavitano cheese tossed in sherry vinaigrette, French Silk Pie for dessert. $28.95

Nick Dumas & Branchline
Wednesday, March 3, 2027, 7:30 PM
Tickets: $35

Nick Dumas & Branchline is a high-energy bluegrass powerhouse fronted by one of the genre’s most respected young vocalists and mandolinists. A three-time IBMA award winner and Grammy nominee, Door County resident Nick Dumas first gained national attention during his four-year tenure with the legendary Chicago-based bluegrass band, Special Consensus. Now leading his own touring band, Dumas has assembled a "who’s who" of elite pickers to form Branchline.

The band features a lineup of award-winning musicians, including two-time Wisconsin State fiddle champion Hana Dumas, IBMA Momentum Vocalist of the Year Daniel Thrailkill on guitar, Skyline Records CEO Will McSeveney on banjo, and Andrew Knapp on bass. Together, they deliver a seamless blend of traditional heart and contemporary drive, showcased on their chart-topping singles like "Afraid to Say Goodbye." 

Optional fixed priced dinner served at 5:30 PM  Menu: Guinness braised short ribs served over mashed potatoes, White Gull house salad with dried cherries, toasted pecans, and parmesan cheese, tossed in a balsamic vinaigrette, and Baileys Irish Cream cheesecake for dessert. 

Richard Shindell
Wednesday, April 7, 2027, 7:30 PM
Tickets: $35

Originally from New York, now living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Richard Shindell is a writer whose songs paint pictures, tell stories, juxtapose ideas and images, inhabit characters, vividly evoking entire worlds along the way and expanding our sense of just what it is a song may be.  During the pandemic, Shindell stayed in Argentina, out on the wide open Pampa, reading, writing, and doing a little experimental recording. He now returns to the road for a limited number of performances. Innovative, original and occasionally spiritual, Shindell’s songs weave tales that interchangeably champion the downtrodden, exalt the disaffected or wax empathetic to those lost to society’s fringes. From lighthearted ballads and adulterous love songs, to dirges and diatribes that skillfully skewer politics, prejudice, war and religion, to the comic point-of-view of a cow stuck in a barbed wire fence, he has a unique ability to morph into the soul of the many and varied personalities he casts as narrators in certain songs—veritable novellas framed in haunting acoustic melodies.

Optional fixed price dinner served at 5:30 PM.  Menu: Italian Sausage Lasagna, served with garlic herb focaccia. Caesar Salad, Carrot Cake for dessert. $28.95

The White Gull Concert Series Turns 43

In 1983, on a cold November evening, a small group of Door County visitors and residents gathered at a local inn, enjoying the first of what has become a popular tradition: monthly winter folk concerts. During this time, more than 175 talented folk singers and songwriters from all over the country have performed at the White Gull Inn.

The concerts were conceived by the Innkeeper Andy Coulson, a banjo player himself and lover of traditional and contemporary folk music. Coulson was frustrated by the lack of live entertainment during the long quiet Door County winters. The first concerts were loosely based on the "house concert" concept, in which traveling folk musicians, often on tight budgets and in need of work, are invited into the homes of fans along the route of their travels. The fans provide the musician with food and lodging in return for a concert to a small group of friends, often right in their living rooms. A collection at the door goes to the artist to help defray expenses.

The house concert circuit has provided work and travel expenses for generations of singers and brought folk music to many rural areas that are too small to otherwise provide such entertainment. "I wasn't sure who would come to a concert on a weekday in winter in Fish Creek," Coulson recalls thinking in the beginning. "But we had plenty of room and board , and figured that we had nothing to lose. At the very least, we'd have some quality folk music in Fish Creek."

In the beginning, it was not easy finding artists willing to come so far for such a small turnout. However, as word got around, more and more musicians decided that a "working holiday" in the quiet beauty of the Door Peninsula was worth the trek to the north country. The series has gradually been able to attract in more and more well known performers, such as Anne Hills, Ruth Moody, Chris Smither, Tom Paxton and Cheryl Wheeler, many of whom normally play in much larger halls.

The pre-concert dinners, now almost as popular as the concerts, were added in recent years at the request of local residents. White Gull chefs responded by offering an optional fixed price dinner, served at 5:30 pm for each concert.

Concert tickets can be purchased at the door, although most concerts are sold out, so advance ticket purchase and reservations for the pre-concert dinners are recommended. You may purchase tickets at the White Gull front desk, or you can do it by phone, using a credit card.

Folk Musicians Previously Featured at the White Gull
Date: 1983-2026

Musicians who have appeared in the White Gull folk concert series in the 43 seasons since its inception in 1983: Tom Paxton, Cheryl Wheeler, John McCuen, Bob Gibson, John McCutcheon, Chris Smither, Michael Smith, Bill Miller, Fred Alley, Vance Gilbert, Neal & Leandra, Lou and Peter Berryman, Michael Johnson, Garnet Rogers, Pat Donohue, Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum, Joel Mabus, David Mallett, Suzzy and Maggie Roche, Cindy Mangsen and Steve Gillette, Bill Staines, Buddy Mondlock, Bryan Bowers, Peter Keane, Mark Dvorak, Anne Hills, Willy Porter, Michael Miles, Bob Bovee and Gail Heil, Jim Hurst and Missy Raines, Dave Moore, Cathie Ryan, Small Potatoes, Matt Watroba, Peter Mayer, Kenny White, Natalia Zukerman, Eric Lewis, Tommy Burroughs, Andy Ratliff, Hans Christian, David Roth, Brooks Williams, Steppin In It with Rachel Davis, James Keelaghan, Chuck Pyle, L. J. Booth, Johnsmith, Dan Sebranek, Clay Riness, Tom Pease, Louise Taylor, Christopher Shaw and Bridget Ball, Mark Dvorak, Priscilla Herdman, Claudia Schmidt, Moe Dixon, Susan Smentek, Heartwood, Cosy Sheridan, Becky Schlegel, Don Stiernberg, Victoria Vox, Wil Maring and Robert Bowlin, Michael Johnathon, May Erlewine and Seth Bernard, Peter Mulvey, Jonathan Byrd, Jerry Rau, The Special Consensus, Phil Passen and Highland Road, Antje Duvekot, the Waymores, the Honey Dewdrops, David Wilcox, The Steel Wheels, Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellys, Paul Cebar, Dayna Kurtz, Kelly Joe Phelps, Count This Penny, Carolyn Martin, the Stray Birds, Molly O'Brien and Rich Moore, Nora Jane Struthers and the Party Line, Rita Hosking, Red Molly, Jake Armerding, Tim Grimm, Mipso, 10 String Symphony, Robbie Fulks, The String Ties, Molly Tuttle Band, Scott Cook, Ruth Moody Band, Robinson & Rohe, Harmonious Wail, Claire Lynch Band, Freddy & Francine, Susan Gibson, Mile Twelve, Joshua Davis, and April Verch Band, Slocan Ramblers, Third Coast Bluegrass, Nick Dumas & Branchline, Western Flyers, Joe Newberry & Kenny White, Christine Lavin, Showman & Coole, and Ellis Paul.

The concerts are held approximately once a month, January through April, beginning at 7:30 pm, after an optional dinner served at 5:30 pm.