Today’s artist is a gifted singer-songwriter — Antje Duvekot (say Aunt-yuh Doo-va-Kott) — who’s “The Near Demise of the High Wire Dancer” caught my attention several years ago. Her sweet, clear voice captured my heart on the first listening of that album, and her 2012 follow-up CD “New Siberia” just sealed the deal, as far as I was concerned. So, when I discovered she was coming to one of the best listening rooms in New England on March 23, I reached out and discovered she was willing to chat with me again. I called her number and found that she was out walking around Boston where she now resides.

Q: I’m pretty certain that you have performed at One Longfellow Square before, is that indeed the case?
Duvekot: Yeah, I’d say pretty consistently, once or twice a year, and it’s actually literally one of my favorite venues to play in the Northeast … I really love it.

Q: Well, it’s extremely intimate where you can make eye contact with everybody in the room.
Duvekot: Yeah, I actually like that.

Q: The last album I know about from you is “New Siberia” which came out in 2012.
Duvekot: Well, I have a newer album that came out on Sept. 15 last year so it’s still rather fresh.

Q: The one I interviewed you about the first time we chatted was “The Near Demise of the High Wire Dancer” but I can’t remember when that CD came out.
Duvekot: I want to say that one came out in 2008, I think?

Q: That seems about right, I knew it was quite a while ago. Were you coming up to One Longfellow at that time?
Duvekot: Yes, I had already been playing there then, so that makes sense.

Q: Great, mystery solved. Now, will folks coming to the March 23 performance be hearing some of the material from this new album?
Duvekot: Yes, and that album that came out in September is called “New Wild West.” I do play a lot of the songs from the new album right now … it does feel the most kind of current to me and I think the rooms where I’ve been playing are enjoying the songs on it; but I always throw in some old favorites, as well. I understand that people want to hear some of those tried-and-true old songs intermixed with the new.

Q: Now for this show, is it just you on solo guitar or do you have some backing musicians?
Duvekot: Mostly it’s solo. I sometimes get a backing musician like an electric guitar or such. I’m not actually completely sure if I’ll have a side person on the Portland show. I’m still kind of waiting on some answers, but most likely it’ll be solo. I play guitar, and for backing, I usually have more like electric guitar or bass.

Q: So in actuality, the way you present your music is how it was created to begin with, right?
Duvekot: Yeah (laugh), I’m in a pretty standard folksinger/storyteller vein.

Q: How long does it take to get enough material together for an album — are you a fairly prolific songwriter?
Duvekot: No, I’m a kind of crafter, I suppose, I’m not prolific, I want every song to be like the best that I can write. I will definitely work on a song over months until it is just so much better than what I started with … I just write really slowly and deliberately over a long period of time, so it does take me a while to get a catalog together.

Q: Do you find that on a given album there’s a theme that runs through or are the songs just microcosms unto themselves?
Duvekot: It’s not that I set out to write about a theme but the theme really reveals itself, like this last album, I think the theme ended up being about middle-age growth and wisdom, getting past some of the search for identity from youth, and more like finding one’s identity I think is a big passage. I didn’t set out to write that album to explore whether that’s the format in my life — I’m turning 50 next year, so I feel like I’ve learned a thing or two (chuckle) and the songs are actually reflecting that. For me, that’s usually how it ends up when I write an album and then it’ll have a theme (laughter) — a lot of it is introspective, I suppose, but I also think it’s universal in that people will identify with it, as well.

Q: Now that you’ve moved to the Boston area around a decade ago, how far afield do you get touring, is it more East Coast or do you get out to the “Wild West”?
Duvekot: Well, New England is nice in that it’s kind of an epicenter for folk music to begin with, so I get to tour a lot regionally here in New England — the coffeehouse scene has always supported me locally. I also do tour nationally, but I would say that I have the most kind of capital built up in my area here in the Northeast, although I do travel nationally all year ’round most of the country.

Q: How long have you been doing this?
Duvekot: It’s been almost 15 years, I think, for a living, and before that I was just kind of starting out.

Q: Did you go to school for music?
Duvekot: No, I wish I had (chuckle) — I went to school for history and never used the degree. I just went into songwriting. Although history and songwriting are not that unrelated because they share a storytelling format, so maybe I am using that degree — I’m just not sure (laughter).

Q: And now, my closing question. Is there anything, Antje, that you’d like to pass on to the folks reading this article?
Duvekot: Oh, that’s a good question. If there are people who don’t know what I do, I suppose it might be good to stress the intimate storytelling, personal nature of my songs; I think that’s what people are into it for and that they really like the openness and the down-to-earth sharing part of my lyrics and the emotional depth … that’s what I do; and I really appreciate you getting the word out about the show.

Lucky Clark, a 2018 “Keeping the Blues Alive” Award winner, has spent more than 50 years writing about good music and the people who make it. He can be reached at luckyc@myfairpoint.net if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.

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