Reviews
Review - Maverick Magazine (UK) - The Near Demise of the High Wire Dancer (April 2009)
THE NEAR DEMISE OF THE HIGH WIRE DANCER
Black Wolf
"A beautifully crafted album of contemporary folk from an award winning singer-songwriter whose intimate and visceral lyrics strike an emotional chord"
This is Antje Duvekot's second full studio album and justly fulfils the potential promised when in 2006 she won both a New Folk Award at Kerrville and Best Folk Act in the Boston Music Awards. Featuring seven new songs, three re-recordings of songs previously featured on her early live albums and concluding with a children's song in German—a nod to her own ancestry—the album also sees Richard Shindell in his first outing as a producer. He brought in well-respected folk singers, John Gorka and Lucy Kaplansky to add their flair to the album as well as in-demand guitarist Duke Levine and the result is a beautifully crafted CD, which draws heavily on Duvekot's personal life experiences, as well as taking inspiration from the world around her.
The lead track, Vertigo, a co-write with another respected Boston based singer-songwriter, Mark Erelli, is about the character featured in the CD's title and whilst on the surface it is about a high-wire dancer with a fear of heights, the song is an allegory about the fear of falling in love and committing to one person. Her voice has an ethereal quality which sometimes belies the darkness behind the lyrics so you have to listen carefully to understand the song's underlying message and then she prefers to leave this to the listeners own interpretation. For instance, Coney Island, a song about a couple enjoying a Friday night date, speaks to me about making the most of the moment as tomorrow everything will be as it was before. On this track she accompanies herself on acoustic guitar with Victor Krauss providing the bass.
Shindell's influence is apparent, he features as vocalist and instrumentalist on many tracks and his production work in bringing out the beauty of Duvekot's vocals on Long Way, Dublin Boys and Reasonland is so sympathetic and really does take these three re-recordings to another level.
Duvekot's star is on the rise and this CD will establish her firmly as a powerful lyricist whose haunting, gentle voice really brings out beauty and hope in a sometimes dark world.
•-Jela Webb, Maverick
4/6/09
Black Wolf
"A beautifully crafted album of contemporary folk from an award winning singer-songwriter whose intimate and visceral lyrics strike an emotional chord"
This is Antje Duvekot's second full studio album and justly fulfils the potential promised when in 2006 she won both a New Folk Award at Kerrville and Best Folk Act in the Boston Music Awards. Featuring seven new songs, three re-recordings of songs previously featured on her early live albums and concluding with a children's song in German—a nod to her own ancestry—the album also sees Richard Shindell in his first outing as a producer. He brought in well-respected folk singers, John Gorka and Lucy Kaplansky to add their flair to the album as well as in-demand guitarist Duke Levine and the result is a beautifully crafted CD, which draws heavily on Duvekot's personal life experiences, as well as taking inspiration from the world around her.
The lead track, Vertigo, a co-write with another respected Boston based singer-songwriter, Mark Erelli, is about the character featured in the CD's title and whilst on the surface it is about a high-wire dancer with a fear of heights, the song is an allegory about the fear of falling in love and committing to one person. Her voice has an ethereal quality which sometimes belies the darkness behind the lyrics so you have to listen carefully to understand the song's underlying message and then she prefers to leave this to the listeners own interpretation. For instance, Coney Island, a song about a couple enjoying a Friday night date, speaks to me about making the most of the moment as tomorrow everything will be as it was before. On this track she accompanies herself on acoustic guitar with Victor Krauss providing the bass.
Shindell's influence is apparent, he features as vocalist and instrumentalist on many tracks and his production work in bringing out the beauty of Duvekot's vocals on Long Way, Dublin Boys and Reasonland is so sympathetic and really does take these three re-recordings to another level.
Duvekot's star is on the rise and this CD will establish her firmly as a powerful lyricist whose haunting, gentle voice really brings out beauty and hope in a sometimes dark world.
•-Jela Webb, Maverick
4/6/09