The singer/songwriter is touring in support of her latest album, “New Wild West”
Antje Duvekot is a singer/songwriter who has been a mainstay at festivals across the U.S. and Europe, performing at places such as The Newport Folk Festival, the Celtic Connections Festival in Scotland, and the Tonder Festival in Denmark. Over her career, she has won the Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition, the prestigious Kerrville Best New Folk Award, and a Boston Music Award for Outstanding Folk Act.
Upcoming Performance at Jammin Java
Duvekot will play a gig at Jammin Java on Feb. 23, beginning at 7 p.m., with Maia Sharp opening the night. “Maia and I will each play an individual set, but we will guest on each other’s songs,” Duvekot said. “Both of us have a very conversational style and tend to tell the audience the background of the songs and why we wrote them. There’s a personal, emotional nature to the show.”
Duvekot shared she loves performing and creating a space where audiences can forget themselves for a while. “I think as far as my evolution goes, my sets tend to be more fluid these days and less scripted than they once were,” she said. “I will allow for a thought or song to pop into my head and harness the energy in the room more than I used to.
Passion for Performing
Performing was always a dream of Duvekot, and she is thrilled that she has made a career out of her art. “I was intensely moved by singer-songwriter music growing up,” she said. “It felt like a gift to me to receive the songs of that genre, and so I wanted to give back and to be part of that collective conversation and that is what I did. I still feel extremely lucky to have pulled it off.”
About the Album “New Wild West”
Last year, Duvekot released her new album, “New Wild West,” an album she described as a “pivotal juncture of mid-life.” “My songwriting almost always mirrors issues I have been thinking about in my own life, and lately that has been around the knowing of oneself and the richness of having history with people and the evolution of self that comes with middle age,” she said. “There is a stronger center and greater sense of resilience setting in, so a lot of new songs are about that.”
The album tackles some heavy themes related to trauma and healing, showing the powerfulness of the songwriter’s work. “I make sure there is a good balance of dark and light,” Duvekot said. “Most of the songs of mine that allude to trauma are filled with hope and some version of coming out victorious, or if they are not, I make sure nobody feels worried or uncomfortable, as there is no need for that.
Music is altogether a positive process of healing, so I don’t think it is heavy, as the word trauma would suggest, but rather more hopeful and cathartic.”
“New Wild West” also features collaborations with notable musicians like Mark Erelli, Zack Hickman, Seth Glier, and Richard Shindell—something Duvekot enjoys doing for her recordings. “I am lucky to have a lot of talented peers,” she said. “There is a kind of mutual respect and a kind of sense of honor around getting to work on each other’s songs, getting to co-write, getting to record together. It’s a joy being part of a folk music scene around Massachusetts and Boston that has great talent in it.”
Regrets About Album Cover
For her album cover, she used an AI design, which is a choice she regrets making to some extent. “It was still a novel thing, and I suppose I liked the novel component, especially with the album’s theme being around entering a new out-of-comfort zone, one’s ‘new wild west,’” she said. “Since that time, however, I learned more about the exploitation of artists’ original works by companies like Open AI and if I could do it over, I would not have an AI design my album cover.”
For tickets or more information about the show, visit www.jamminjava.com.
