Antje Duvekot, Matt the Electrician Opens

Antje Duvekot has solidified her reputation as one of Boston’s top singer songwriters with “Big Dream Boulevard” her debut studio release and “the Near Demise of the Highwire Dancer” and “New Siberia” her follow-up albums. The debut CD was produced by Seamus Egan, founder of the Irish super group, SOLAS and the project was released on songwriter Ellis Paul’s label and quickly attracted international attention for Antje. It was voted “#1 Folk Release of 2006” by the Boston Globe and was named to the “Top10 Releases of the Year” by National Public Radio’s, Folk Alley. Her follow up albums “the Near Demise of the Highwire Dancer” and “New Siberia” were produced by Richard Shindell and along side with Richard feature other “folk royalty” such as John Gorka, Lucy Kaplancky and Mark Erelli.
Antje has won some of the top songwriting awards including the Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition, the prestigious, Kerrville (TX) “Best New Folk Award” and in one of the nation’s top music markets, she won the Boston Music Award for “Outstanding Folk Act”, three of the top prizes in the singer songwriter world.
Antje has extensive touring experience, criss-crossing the US and Europe many times. She is a compelling live performer and has been invited to play some of the top festivals including The Newport Folk Festival as well as the Mountain Stage, Philadelphia and Kerrville Festivals. Internationally, she’s headlined the The Celtic Connections Festival in Scotland and the Tonder Festival in Denmark.

Despite the name, Matt the Electrician is no longer an electrician, focusing instead on a music career that has spanned the course of two decades, a dozen records, and literally thousands of shows. It’s folk music for a modern age, rooted in lyrics that focus on the realities and challenges of the 21st century as opposed to, say, the old-school thrill of hopping trains.
With his newest project, Matt gets by with a little help from his friends. Throughout 2015 and 2016, he’s focusing on a string of 7-inch vinyl singles. Every new release will focus on collaborations with different artists who’ve crossed Matt’s path over the years, including the bluegrass band Wood & Wire (who appear on the very first installment of the vinyl series), experimental solo musician Little Brave, and others. Rather than record an entire album’s worth of material, then carefully plot the album’s release for months, Matt the Electrician will release the 7-inch records as they’re finished, with each new release following its predecessor by three or four months. The goal? To get new music to his fans as quickly and creatively as possible. The icing on the cake? Matt gets to extend the collaborative spirit that’s been present in his music ever since his very first gig in Pacific Grove, CA, when he invited his high school classmates to join him onstage.
“The coffee shop paid me in tips, free coffee and a sandwich,” he remembers of that teenaged gig. “I had to fill three hours, and I only had two songs, so I invited all the friends I knew kids from the school orchestra, friends, other kids who had started writing songs and the show wound up being ‘Matt and Friends.’ That was 25 years ago and that’s what I’m still doing.”

Sesh by The Boston Calendar | Advertise Terms | Privacy Policy | About