ANTJE DUVEKOT For someone with an image as a dark-hued, whispery wallflower, Antje Duvekot sure has a high profile. Her provocative, keenly observed chamber folk has been championed by legendary rock crit Dave Marsh, and Duvekot’s highly detailed, tongue-twisting, Ani DiFranco-meets-Tracy Chapman ballad “Merry-Go-Round” was tapped for a Bank of America ad campaign that kicked off on Super Bowl XLI. Most telling, when the Irish-American band Solas decided to expand beyond the folk and Celtic canon, it picked five tunes by Duvekot. Not bad for a German-born girl transplanted at adolescence into the cold new world of America with no English and a profound sense of alienation. Duvekot says at an early age she learned to live “in the space between home and school,” listening to the music of folk master John Gorka. A sense of dislocation, along with the keen eye of the outsider, still permeates her music. Material on her latest CD New Siberia shades to lighter hues, looking back from a wiser vantage point to a troubled younger self. But by owning her darkness, Duvekot transforms the quietly disturbing confessional into something life-affirming.

Pat Moran

Price: $12