Just how good is Antje Duvekot? The Boston Globe picked Big Dream Boulevard as the #1 folk release of 2006, above Springsteen. I'm not sure how one could call either Duvekot or Springsteen folk, but who's to argue? The point is that Duvekot produced, with the help of Black Wolf's Ellis Paul and Ralph Jaccodine, a major league album which holds its own against and surpasses most of what is accepted as the cream of today's crop. And they did it alone, without the deep pockets which are seemingly at times the only thing keeping major labels major. God love the album that thrives on the strength of the music. Big Dream Boulevard does just that.
A handful of critics have compared Duvekot to Dar Williams. Dave Marsh, former "Rolling Stone" guru, thinks Duvekot has it. Duvekot is, as Marsh says, "the whole package" and anyone who doesn't hear it one minute into the lead track, Dandelion, is stone cold. An upbeat light-hearted rocker, it fades in magnificently, the pop in the background instruments perfectly supporting her solid vocals. Folky, maybe, but more rock, and downright catchy.

www.AntjeDuvekot.com

8/2 & 8/9

Jake Armerding is the most gifted and promising songwriter to emerge from the Boston folk scene in years," writes the Boston Globe. A musical product of 1980's pop radio, years of classical violin lessons and his dad's eclectic bluegrass band Northern Lights, Armerding discovered songwriting in high school and soon began to fuse these genres together to create his own sound. The singer-songwriter-fiddler's new release, Walking on the World, is "sharp, original, quietly intense, and rewarding for any who'll listen with both ears" (Lansing State Journal).

www.jakearmerding.com