Door County’s Sturgeon Bay Opens Arms to Live Music

For years the Sturgeon Bay live music scene was sporadic at best, nearly non-existent at worst. The population center of Door County was long thirsty for venues to catch all the local talent on the peninsula, let alone those traveling through.

But when the first Steel Bridge Songfest came to the foot of the Michigan St. Bridge in 2005, it had a lasting impact beyond what most expected. By introducing the city and peninsula to dozens of new musicians, the festival served to whet the appetite of many of them to return again and again to a community with an uncommon lure.

The Blue Heels rock the Hitching Post at their CD release party May 3.

Two such musicians, Adam Mackintosh and Anna Sacks, ultimately moved to Sturgeon Bay permanently. They were told only the heartiest of folks can toil through a winter here, but two years later, they’re at the forefront of a growing year round music scene in the city.

“It’s a tough, hard life; they weren’t lying,” Mackintosh says on yet another gray, rain-drenched April afternoon. “But there are great people and there definitely is a forward-thinking contingency here.”

That contingency is what gives the couple energy. Those long entrenched in Door County politics tend to see change as difficult to initiate, glacial in pace. But Mackintosh, the outsider, views the Door County canvas differently.

Pat mAcdonald plays with Chris Aaron.

“The great thing is it’s wide open. Anything people want created here can be created,” he says, his measured cadence accelerating with a burst of enthusiasm. Sacks picks up where he leaves the thought, explaining why the peninsula is ripening as a musical destination.

“There’s enough support for it here,” she says. “There are a million small towns where people won’t go out at all for original music. This place has always been a haven for artists so there’s something here.”

As Mackintosh puts it, “We don’t have to create it from nothing. You can feel it. I’ve never seen people respond the way they have here to original music.”

Sacks is a singer/songwriter and manager of the Holiday Motel, slated to re-open in late May after a fire shut it down last fall. Mackintosh is a musician and sound engineer who splits his time between Madison and Door County. He’s created a Web site, doorcountyscene.com, to promote live music and local musicians.

James Hall brought his rock show on a swing through the Hitching Post all the way from Birmingham, AL.

Together they host the Songwriter’s Showcase Thursday nights at Café Launch and play regularly throughout the peninsula. They’re big promoters of a scene whose growth is largely owed to Pat mAcdonald, who works tirelessly on Steel Bridge Songfest, which he founded with his sister Christie Weber in 2005, but also to promote other musicians. His connections and dogged enthusiasm are responsible for the appearance of many nationally touring bands and musicians in the area.

But persistence and vigor alone doesn’t a scene make. There are three constituencies that must come together at the same time for live music to thrive. First and foremost, of course, are the musicians. Then there has to be a couple of bars or venues willing to take the risk of hosting. And finally, the community has to come out and support it. Door County, of course, has never been short on musicians and has more coming this way every year, so the onus falls on the latter two groups.

While the common perception among customers is that bar owners spend their days bathing in profit, the reality is much different. Hosting live music usually means adding bouncers and extra bartenders to the payroll, sacrificing a chunk of the dinner hour, and incurring the wrath of neighbors (not to mention attracting a greater police presence). All that extra work for maybe a couple hundred extra bucks if enough people show up – a couple of poor crowds is all it takes for most bar owners to give up, or worse, go under.

If a venue is going to build a rep as a place to see music, the owners have to be resilient, tireless, and thick-skinned – traits that enable them to withstand the nights of empty tills and unbalanced cash flows. Sacks said Mark McClellan and Amy Luckett at the Hitching Post have been two of the biggest supports of live music in the city area, willing to take a risk and bring in new acts, even in the winter when Door County businesses are not known for going out on a limb.

In a little less than three years, McClellan and Luckett have built the venerable Valmy tavern into an unlikely staple venue of the scene. The small, 19-stool cabin of a bar tucked about 15 minutes away from Sturgeon Bay is definitely not your typical music venue, but they’ve made it work because music is important to them.

“We’re both big music fans,” McClellan says. “I’ve probably attended more than 500 live shows in my life, so it fit.”

He’s partial to jam bands like Widespread Panic, but says he loves it all, from rock to hip-hop. Having vacationed down the road from the bar since childhood, the 30 year-old St. Louis native was familiar with his new neighbors, including a fortuitous friendship with musician Todd Carey.

“I used to sit around the fire and listen to him play growing up, and when we took over the place he kind of got us started,” he says. “Then Pat mAcdonald comes in one night and starts doing open mic and it took off.”

mAcdonald spread the word about the Hitching Post to all his Steel Bridge musicians, and pretty soon they had a lively open mic going every Friday night.

McClellan says he and Luckett, 25, had to tread rough waters in the beginning.

“Todd told me, ‘you’re gonna take some heat, but you have to stick to your guns,’” McClellan recalls. “He was right. In the beginning it was choppy, but it has paid off in the long run. We teetered a little bit and questioned ourselves, but we knew in our heart we were doing the right thing. We’re seeing the fruits of our labor now. We get about 30 people out for open mics, sometimes more. We’re definitely sticking with it.”

But no matter how hard-working the bar owner, it always comes down to the community in small towns coming out and supporting the music.

For bars, charging a cover often becomes a sticking point. Loyal customers often balk at being charged even a minimal fee to get in the door, even if that charge is what enables them to see a live show. Mackintosh tries putting it in perspective.

“For the price of two beers they make it possible to get great bands from all over,” he says. “I think that’s worth it. On those nights when people are thinking, ‘I’m tired’, they have to decide they’re going to go out because otherwise the bands are not gonna be there when you want them to be.”

Part of something bigger

As Steel Bridge Songfest ‘08 approaches, Sturgeon Bay is a veritable musical hotbed, with live shows or open mics nearly every night of the week. In addition to the regular Friday nights at the Hitching Post, the Nautical Inn, Red Room, and Café Launch on 3rd Ave. now host regular open mics. The Ladder House, also on 3rd, has been host to a number of live shows this winter and boasts a regular schedule of entertainment beginning in July, as does Stone Harbor.

There are other issues to be addressed in making the peninsula a more attractive place for young adults to live – affordable housing, jobs, public transportation, particularly for bar patrons – but creating a scene was a start.

“It’s about making living here more invigorating,” Sacks says. “If we don’t, this could become a historic and antiquated place that doesn’t know how to draw young people here. And a town that can’t keep its young people isn’t going anywhere.”

While eschewing any notion of a “master-plan,” Mackintosh gives a glimpse of a new vision of the county.

“Ideally, Sturgeon Bay is the center of a county-wide, year-round music scene,” Mackintosh says. “We can get more people everywhere, but historic downtown is key. We have all these venues within walking distance. Maybe we get a public transit to integrate northern and southern door. We can make the problems surmountable.”