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Don Stiernberg Trio Opens White Gull Inn’s 25th Winter Folk Concert Season

Singer, guitarist and mandolinist extraordinaire Don Stiernberg will be featured in the opening concert of the 25th season of winter folk concerts at the White Gull Inn in Fish Creek on Wednesday, November 18.

Considered the country’s premier jazz mandolinist, Stiernberg will be joined by jazz guitarist Andy Brown and Jim Cox on bass for an evening of vintage jazz, interspaced with bluegrass, folk and western swing. For decades Stiernberg has been a fixture of the Chicago music scene, turning up on recording sessions and at performances of all kinds to play mandolin, guitar, other string instruments, and sing. He has recorded five albums for Blue Night Records.

Winter folk concerts at the White Gull Inn were started in 1984 by Innkeeper Andy Coulson, a banjo player and long time fan of live acoustic, folk and bluegrass music. The first White Gull 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.

“I wasn’t sure who would come to a concert on a weekday in winter in Fish Creek,” Coulson recalled. “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 northern Wisconsin.

Upcoming performances in the 25th season of White Gull Inn concerts include: Neal and Leandra on December 16, Lou and Peter Berryman on January 11, Shout Sister Shout – Steppin’ in It with Rachel Davis on February 24, and Jeff Black on April 28.

An optional Pre-concert dinner will be served at 6 pm. Tickets for the 8 pm performance are $15. 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. For more information call 920.868.3517 or toll free 800.624.1987, or visit http://www.whitegullinn.com.

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