Midway through her set at Club Passim last Friday, right before
covering Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee,” Antje Duvekot remarked on
something she’d read about the Great Depression. “Lighthearted
entertainment became important to people,” said the Somerville-based
singer-songwriter. “They needed it to get them through it.” A beat of
silence, and then laughter rose from the crammed, brick-walled,
basement folk club.
The unstated punch line of Duvekot’s
self-depreciating joke had been made evident by the first half of her
show, the second of four sold-out gigs promoting her just-released
second studio album, The Near Demise of the High Wire Dancer (Black
Wolf Records). Duvekot, who’s become one of Boston’s folk darlings over
the past five years or so, writes songs soaked in
