After a Friday evening showing of Brad Pitt’s hit movie Moneyball, DCA will present a Saturday morning lecture about the Supreme Court and a Saturday evening concert by popular local bluegrass band Highland Road.

Rick Gordon, Tony Gebauer, Andy Coulson and Tad Gilster... left-to-right

Highland Road will kick off DCA’s Coffehouse Concert series at 7 pm on Saturday, January 14. Highland Road are familiar favorites in the DCA Coffeehouse series, having played to sold-out houses in both 2009 and 2010. Their concert, which will take place on the DCA main stage, will include both traditional and contemporary bluegrass, a bit of country, and a smattering of folk and popular music played bluegrass style.

Highland Road is made up of northern Door County residents Andy Coulson, Tad Gilster, Tony Gebauer and Rick Gordon. They call themselves “back porch pickers”—semi-professional musicians who love the driving instrumentals and haunting harmonies of both traditional and progressive bluegrass. Highland Road’s four members coalesced into a band several years ago and have been playing together ever since. Gilster says, “We love the music. We have fun and we hope that our audiences share our enjoyment of bluegrass.”

The weekend will also feature two other events, both of which are free to the public (though freewill donations are gladly accepted). The 2011 film hit Moneyball will play at 7 pm on January 13. Moneyball is the first installment of this year’s Movies at the Door series, which will play a variety of classic movie hits and current Oscar contenders. The film stars Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and traces the story of the Oakland A’s general manager, who defies conventional wisdom and outsmarts his competition when forced to reinvent his team with bargain players.

The following morning, Saturday, January 14 at 9 am, the DCA’s Distinguished Lecture Series will present an speaker’s event entitled “The Supreme Court and Its Coming Agenda,” given by Charles F. Jacobs, Assistant Professor of Judicial Process and American Politics at St. Norbert’s College. Professor Jacobs will explore the recent work of Supreme Court justices and the decisions proffered by the Court, providing insight into the impact of recent Supreme Court decisions. He will also discuss certain cases currently on the Court’s docket, including the challenge to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), also referred to as “Obamacare.”

The Coffeehouse concerts are sponsored by The Cordon Family Foundation and The Lodge 106.9.  The St. Norbert Distinguished Lectures are sponsored by Dahl Law Firm and Ross Estate Planning. Movies at the Door are sponsored The English Inn and Hart & Hart Ladies Apparel & Sterling Silver Jewelry.  Refreshments for both Professor Jacobs’ lecture and Highland Road’s concert will be available for sale thanks to Base Camp Coffee Shop.

The Door Community Auditorium box office, located on Highway 42 in Fish Creek, is open Monday-Friday, 12-5 p.m. Tickets can be purchased in person, on the phone at 920.868.2728, or online at www.dcauditorium.org.

Join in the conversation at www.facebook.com/DoorCommunity.Auditorium

The Berrymans were some of the first folk musicians booked at the White Gull Winter Concert Series, established in 1985 and they have returned for sold-out performances every January for the past 26 years. Critics describe their original music as “intelligent and wickedly funny material which is never bawdy or risque but is rich with wordplay and witty images.”

Lou and Peter Berryman began their musical partnership in high school in Appleton, Wisconsin, in the nineteen sixties. By the eighties, they had established themselves as a prominent feature of the songwriting subculture of Wisconsin’s capital, playing their original material every week for almost ten years in the run-down but trendy music room of Madison’s Club de Wash. Gradually expanding their circuit, they began crisscrossing the continent and gaining national attention with appearances on such programs as Wisconsin Public Radio’s A Prairie Home Companion and NPR’s Weekend Edition. Regular appearances at festivals and folk music clubs all across the country now serve as venues for the songs contained in their twelve recordings and three songbooks, which have been performed by everyone from Garrison Keillor to Peter, Paul and Mary.

The White Gull Inn will serve an optional pre-concert, fixed price dinner at 6 pm. The menu consists of pork loin chop stuffed with Italian sausage, fennel garlic mashed potatoes and cranberry walnut pie for dessert. Price of the dinner is $19.95.

Tickets for the 8 pm concert, the third in a series of six scheduled at the inn this winter, are $16. Tickets for the concert, dinner reservations and information are available by calling the White Gull Inn at 800.624.1987.

LA-based multi-faceted performer, Kim Manning has quickly become one of Door County’s favorite returning artists. First brought to Sturgeon Bay in 2007 by way of an invitation to participate in Steel Bridge SongFest (SBSF), Kim has since become a dedicated performer at both SBSF and its offshoot the ‘Dark Songs’ week-long, Halloween songwriting and concert weekend – both of which are hosted by The Holiday Music Motel.

Kim’s irresistible talent, her down-to-earth affable personality, engaging stage presence and unique fashion sense have crowned her as a sensual icon, a favorite on the scene both as a performer and as a creative artist whose presence helps enrich and inspire everyone she encounters within the Sturgeon Bay music scene.

On Wednesday December 21 at 7 pm, she will perform in a special house concert at the Holiday Music Motel featuring songs from her upcoming release ‘Good People’ and fresh material just written and recorded at the motel studio.

Tickets for the show are $10 each and can be purchased online at www.holidaymusicmotel.com/tickets or by calling 920.743.5571. A pre-concert reception  begins in the lobby at 6:30 pm. Guests are invited to settle in and enjoy complimentary coffee, tea, cider and snacks (beer and malt beverages are also available for purchase). Concert begins promptly at 7 pm.

Early last spring, The Holiday Music Motel was thrilled to welcome famed rock-centric Sigmund Snopek III to perform in their on-site concert hall and recording studio. The audience delighted in his uncanny ability to combine virtuosic musicianship and humor into a performance of his original compositions that were ranging from serious art pieces to zany polkas about sausages and baseball. His refreshing spontaneity had the crowd uproariously in laughter as he floated between keyboards, a variety of flutes, a vintage harmonium and a 12-foot Alpine horn that echoed throughout the city. That’s right. Alpine horn in downtown Sturgeon Bay.

What’s next? Welcome a man obsessed by the Christmas holiday – his entire Milwaukee apartment enshrines a metropolis of miniature villages complete with working trains, skating rinks and spinning trees.

The Snopek Christmas Concert will highlight works from his 2002 release, “Christmas,” where serious renditions of holiday classics like “Little Drummer Boy” and “Coventry Carol” stand juxtaposed to Siggy’s delightful musical lunacy prominent in songs such as “Pumpkin Pie Polka,” “Turk The Turkey” and “Christmas Cookies” which features an uptempo catalog of everyone’s favorite holiday sweet treats.

This show will start earlier than usual, at 6 pm with an opening reception at 5:30 in the lobby, where concert goers can mingle prior to show-time. Beer and malt-beverages will be available for purchase at the show. Tickets are a mere $10 each and can be reserved through the Website: HolidayMusicMotel.com or by calling the motel direct at 920.743.5571.

The White Gull concert series presents touring acoustic folk musicians from all over the country in monthly performance engagements in the White Gull’s century-old dining room. Tickets for the 8 pm concert, the second in a series of six scheduled at the inn this winter, are $16.

Michael Smith

Michael Smith was born and raised in South Orange, New Jersey, attending those Catholic schools that are later referenced in several of his songs. He bought his first guitar at age fifteen (for $5) and was soon playing in a group called The Kalypso Kids. College in Florida brought a quartet dubbed the Wanderers, with gigs on the beach and at local coffeehouses, then touring in The Talismen, a duet.

While performing at The Flick in Miami, he met Barbara Barrow, who would become his wife and they traveled with a quartet called the Baker Street Irregulars. They signed a contract with Decca under the group name Juarez, and produced one record. The couple’s next recording was called Mickey and Babs Get Hot, followed by a live, acoustic recording of an evening performance at The Raven Gallery in Detroit (where they briefly resided), called Zen.

Steve Goodman had recorded Smith’s song, “The Dutchman” and Chicagoans were discovering other of his songs. Michael and Barbara relocated to the Windy City and became regulars at venues such as The Earl of Old Town, Somebody Else’s Troubles, Holstein’s, No Exit and Orphan’s. They played the Philadelphia Folk Festival, worked with Corky Siegel and John Prine, taught at the Old Town School of Folk Music, and continued to record separately and together. In the late 1980′s Michael was asked to write the music for the Steppenwolf theater production of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, and he toured with that production for two years, winning two Antoinette Perry awards (Tonys).

Smith began to record for Flying Fish, initially produced by Anne Hills, whom he had met when he was playing bass for Bob Gibson. He began to tour more frequently doing exclusively his own material and continued to write songs, now increasingly being recorded by other artists. He created essentially a one-man autobiographical show entitled Michael, Margaret, Pat & Kate, which played at the Victory Gardens in 1994 and garnered four Joseph Jefferson awards, Chicago’s equivalent of the Tony.

With Jamie O’Reilly, Michael created, performed and recorded Pasiones: Songs of the Spanish Civil War, followed by Hello Dali (songs about art), Scarlet Confessions (with Anne Hills), and years later, a holiday CD/show collaboration of The Gift of the Magi. All enjoyed runs at various theatres. Michael self-produced an album of his songs called There in 2000 with the assistance of Pat Fleming. Then, with spouse Barbara Barrow, he created Weavermania, celebrating the works of the Weavers.  A highlight of the Weavermania experience was a concert where Pete Seeger played onstage with them.

More albums followed, including Live at Dark Thirty, Such Things Are Finely Done, Just Plain Folk (recorded with John McDermott), Michael Peter Smith-Anthology One, Love Letter on a Fish and in 2008, the soundtrack to a children’s’ production he wrote and performed in called The Selfish Giant, which featured the puppet wizardry of Blair Thomas. Amidst all of that, he composed the score for a production of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen, in which both he and Barbara performed beginning in 2006 and enjoying additional runs in subsequent years at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, under the direction of Frank Galati.

Michael Smith continues to travel, playing concert halls house concerts, clubs and festivals, and his prolific songwriting has never waned, with now close to 500 original tunes in his catalog.

An optional pre-concert fixed price White Gull Inn holiday dinner will be served at the inn at 6 pm. The menu consists of beef tenderloin with chestnuts and peppercorns, bordelaise, fried spaetzle, crispy potato cakes, spinach salad and steamed chocolate pudding for dessert.

Future concerts scheduled in the White Gull Inn’s winter concert series include: Lou & Peter Berryman on January 11, Garnet Rogers on February 22, The Steel Wheels on March 28 and Special Consensus on April 11.

Tickets and more information on the concerts and the optional dinners can be obtained by calling the White Gull Inn at 920.868.3517 or toll free 800.624.1987, or accessing the inn’s Website, www.WhiteGullinn.com.  If still available, concert tickets can be purchased at the door, although most concerts sell out, so advance ticket purchase and reservations for the pre-concert dinners are recommended.

Following a special 1-hour session of the weekly Writer’s Night at the Holiday Music Motel, Geri X will take the stage from 8 – 10 pm to wow Door County fans once again! A favorite at the Steel Bridge SongFest and regular attendee, performer, and singer songwriter at the recent Dark Songs event, Geri X remains here from her home in St. Petersburg, FL for a few extra days to share her artistry in the intimate studio setting of the Holiday Music Motel. Tickets are $10 per person, beer and malt beverages will also be available.

Geri X is described as “one of the best female vocalists of this era,” by the L.A. Post. She first visited Sturgeon Bay in 2007 to participate in the Steel Bridge Songfest and has been returning to Door County ever since. Geri X played her first concert at the Holiday in October of 2010, and it was a delight to experience her authentic, from-the-heart performance. Her unique style and her adoption of the local music scene in Door County have created a bond between Geri X and her evolving fan base here in Wisconsin.

Here’s your chance to catch this young star’s lilting melodies, moving lyrics, tight instrumental technique and captivating performance style. Attend just one of her shows and you’ll know: one day you’ll be bragging to your grandchildren that you got to see Geri X live. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to see her “up close and personal” in this very intimate venue, quite unlike any other. Seating is limited to about 30 people which is what makes these concerts so special. Click to reserve your seats and hear some Geri X or call 920.743.5571 to claim your spot.

The series presents touring acoustic folk musicians from all over the country in monthly concerts in the White Gull’s century-old dining room.  Tickets for the 8 pm concert, the first in a series of six scheduled at the inn this winter, are $16.

Cleveland-born David Wilcox, whose last performance in Door County was ten years ago at the Door Community Auditorium, released his first album in 1987.  He was a winner of the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk award in 1988, and by 1989 he had signed with A&M Records. His first release on the label, ‘How Did You Find Me Here’, sold over 100,000 copies the first year. Now, 17 albums into his career, Wilcox continues to tour nationally and internationally.

Wilcox’s lyrical insight is matched by a smooth baritone voice and a unique and complex guitar style featuring many open tunings.  Considered a ‘songwriter’s songwriter’, his songs have been covered by artists such as k.d. lang and many others. In addition to songwriting and performing songs, Wilcox is a gifted storyteller.

Reflecting on well over 20 years of record-making and touring extensively around the US and world, Wilcox says, “Music still stretches out before me like the head-lights of a car into the night. It’s way beyond where I am, but it shows where I’m going. I used to think that my goal was to catch up, but now I’m grateful that the music is always going to be way out in front to inspire me.”

Wilcox has captured critical acclaim from such publications as the New York Times, which described one of his concerts as “a charismatic performance by a star still waiting to be discovered by a much larger audience.” According to Rolling Stone, “David Wilcox’s ongoing musical journey is… compelling and richly deserving of a listen.”

An optional pre-concert fixed price dinner will be served at 6 pm. The menu consists of Cardamom Scented chicken, sweet corn cakes with shitake mushroom cream, mixed greens salad, and browned butter pumpkin cake for dessert.

The White Gull Inn folk concert series, the first of several now established in the county, was started in 1984 by Innkeeper Andy Coulson, a banjo player and long time fan of live acoustic, folk and bluegrass music. Coulson recently reflected on the scarcity of live music back then during the long quiet Door County winters.

“I thought the White Gull dining room might be the perfect venue for folk 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. 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 recalled. “But we had plenty of room and board, and figured that we had nothing to lose. At the very least, we’d have access to quality live music.”

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. The series has gradually been able to attract in well-known performers such as Wilcox, Tom Paxton, Cheryl Wheeler, and John McCutcheon, all of whom normally play in much larger halls.

Future concerts in the White Gull series will feature Michael Smith on Wed., December 7; Lou and Peter Berryman on January 11; Garnet Rogers on February 22; and the Steel Wheels on March 28;  an April concert date will be announced shortly.

Tickets and more information on the concerts and the optional dinners can be obtained by calling the White Gull Inn at 920.868.3517 or toll free 800.624.1987, or accessing the inn’s Website, www.WhiteGullInn.com. If still available, 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.

At a time of year when many Door County businesses cut back on hours or close their doors altogether, The Holiday Music Motel is featuring a double-billing weekend of studio concerts.

Two very intimate and diverse house concerts take place in their on-site Sturgeon Bay studio on November 4 and 5 at 7 pm. On Friday, Stas Venglevski — world renowned Byan virtuoso — returns to The Holiday to delight audiences by performing works ranging from classical interpretations of Tchaikovsky to folk melodies from his Russian homeland. Joining him will be fellow compatriot Misha Litvin on mandolin. Stas and Misha have toured extensively together including a recent performance at the reputed Pine Mountain Music Festival.

The following Saturday evening, The Holiday welcomes one of America’s favorite songwriters Freedy Johnston. Certainly no stranger to this area—he is a devoted Steel Bridge SongFest returnee—this will be Freedy’s first house concert at The Holiday.  Known for hits such as “Bad Reputation” and “Perfect World,” Freedy has been featured in Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Spin and Musician Magazine, all hailing Freedy as one of America’s best “songwriter’s songwriters.”

Both concerts start at 7 pm following a pre-concert reception. Tickets are $10 per person. To reserve your seat (and/or room), simply visit HolidayMusicMotel.com or call 920.743.5571.

Howard Fishman and The Hot Holy Mess share the stage, serving up an aural smorgasbord of avant-jazz, neo-bluegrass, and progressive roots-rock.

Acclaimed singer, guitarist, and composer Howard Fishman’s exuberant, spontaneous music has made him a favorite of audiences and critics alike. The ever-evolving Fishman blends New Orleans jazz, Brooklyn soul, open-hearted country, blues, and gospel music to create a sound entirely his own. Since beginning his career on the streets of New Orleans and the subways of New York, Fishman has played at some of the United States’ most prestigious venues (including Lincoln Center, Steppenwolf Theatre, and The Great American Music Hall) and with a wide range of America’s most renowned performers (including Odetta, Yo-Yo Ma, and Nellie McKay).

On Thursday afternoon, they hosted a free Songwriting and Improvisational Workshop for Gibraltar High School music students. And Thursday evening, they provided Husby’s clientele with a little sneak preview of their upcoming show and even managed to win a straw poll over the impending World Series Game on TV as folks clapped for more music…

Rounding out the evening will be The Hot Holy Mess, a progressive roots band from Brooklyn specializing in funk, gospel, avant-jazz, and bluegrass. Always surprising in their musicality and compelling in their live performances, The Hot Holy Mess are fast gaining popular and critical attention. Beacon Pass writes that the band has “strong folk roots, but they surpass the boundaries of the genre with music that embraces opposites—folksy and discordant, easygoing and frenzied—in search of transcendence.”

Tickets for the Friday, October 28 concert range from $22 to $35 and can be purchased in person at the Door Community Auditorium on Highway 42 in Fish Creek, on the phone at 920.868.2728, or online at www.dcauditorium.org.

The list of creative performers reads like a “Who’s Who” of Steel Bridge Songfest’s regulars: Geri X, Kim Manning, James Hall, Johnny Lowebow, Corinne Lee, Adrienne Hatkin, Andrea Wittgens, Lumberjack Cash and others. They travel from all points to join with local bands of musicians that include Purgatory Hill, Early Thomas and the Tyranny of Evil Men, Darcade, Abnormal Cattle, Dead Horse, Dirty Deuce and others for a week of songwriting and recording.

After a deep immersion into the intensive and dynamic process of collaborative songwriting first introduced by pat mAcdonald as a founding element of The Steel Bridge Songfest, the musicians take to the stage for two nights of performing waves of freshly written songs for the public. But, in this case, they are Dark Songs, seasonally quite appropriate for the Halloween spirit of death and decay. Pat originally dubbed the follow up concerts the Edgar Allan Polka.

Dark Songs 2011! Halloween Weekend Concerts at Cherry Lanes, confirmed artists include: Geri X, Kim Manning, James Hall, Abnormal Cattle, Darcade, Johnny Lowebow, Corinne Lee, Adrienne Hatkin, Purgatory Hill, Dead Horse, Early Thomas and the Tyranny of Evil Men, Andrea Wittgens, Chris Aaron, Miss Meaghan Owens, Rick Wood, Charlie Cheney, Mojo Perry, melaniejane, Mike Bleck, Bruce Reaves, “Tireless” Fred Young, Jimm McIver, Landon Capelle, Jim Schwall, Troy Therrien, Richard Whitney, Lumberjack Cash, Anya Kopischke, Craig McClelland, and more!

This year both concert nights will also feature burlesque artists Savage A-Go-Go who exclaim and explain, “We will rock your face off! with a certified Heavy Metal lovin’, burlesque inspired, sequin infused, go-go dancing, rip-roarin’ good time!” Savage-a-Go-Go’s, Mandie Savage, Ruby Stardust, Shanna She-Devil and Judo perform a variety of acts that combine elements of comedy, burlesque, dance and circus arts.

There will be costume contests and prizes both nights at Cherry Lanes, 127 N. 4th Avenue in Sturgeon Bay, $5 cover. For more information, visit EdgarAllanPolka.com.

Join in the conversation on Facebook: Dark Songs / Edgar Allan Polka.