Concert Review: Peter Mulvey with Antje Duvekot

Peter Mulvey aspires to be a working class intellectual, or at least look like one.


Antje Duvekot aspires to be religious, or at least write songs about the subject.

Both artists played at Godfrey Daniels in Bethlehem, PA Saturday, October 20, 2007. If you know nothing about this 32 year old listening room, visit their site for further study. It has a rich history of famous musicians getting their start there.

Antje took the stage first and opened with an Irish sounding song with little accompaniment on guitar and lyrics about a widowed who’s husband died in Viet Nam. Leaving behind two kids. Antje looked on the verge of tears the whole song. In fact, most of the folks in the room, looked to be on the verge of tears.

Antje’s sings like a bird. That is to say her “song” is unique. When you hear it, you know it is Ms. Duvekot.

Her set was made up of more moving songs broken up, maybe even juxtaposed with witty banter between the ditties. Peter joined her on stage for two songs (Antje would return the favor doing Peter’s set). She closed with a John Gorka cover, who got his start at Godfrey’s years ago.

If you haven’t heard Peter Mulvey before, this is what you are missing: imagine Richard Thompson, growing up in Milwaukee, WI, going to a Jesuit college, falls in love with Tom Waits records, voice drops an octave and occasionally sounds like Greg Brown (in song and story).

Peter is a jokester. His set was peppered with his own jokes, ones Antje told him and one thrown in from the doorman at the show they played the night before.

When he sings, Peter looks like he is improvising the lyrics on the spot. Which would be an amazing feat, considering they are deeply metaphoric, have more elements of poetry than some bookstores and are well researched like a good piece of nonfiction. In fact, you can tell from his songs and his between songs banter, that Peter is well-read.

He uses many different tunings for his songs, which gives him time between songs to tell stories and jokes. Everything about him, reminds me of the Midwest. And nobody sings an “oooh” better than Peter.

If you get a chance to see either of these two musicians on tour, I strongly recommend you buy that ticket. Plus, they enjoy talking to their fans after the show. See some impressive guitar work, hear some incredible songs and maybe make a new friend.

Peter’s Further study:
Website
myspace
Wiki

More MP3s:
Hype Machine
elbo

Antje’s Further study:
Website
myspace
Wiki

More MP3s:
Hype Machine
elbo

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