"We headed north up 95, into the great unknown..."

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Allow me to take a short break this late Saturday night from our ongoing coverage of the U.S. presidential race. It's time for some music.

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One of my more recent musical discoveries is the wonderful Antje Duvekot (official website, Wikipedia entry), a German-born singer-songwriter from Boston. She reminds me a lot of Shawn Colvin, whom I adore, but there is no doubt that Antje is a formidable artist in her own right.

Her first two albums, Little Peppermints and Boys, Flowers, Miles, are available through her website, and they are quite good, but it is her first major release, Big Dream Boulevard, that is truly remarkable (and available via iTunes). The whole album is strong -- acoustic pop-folk, eminently mature, confident yet humble, brilliant lyrics -- but, to me, the song "Jerusalem" is the highlight.

Highly, highly recommended.

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Here's Antje performing two songs -- "Long Way" and "Dandelion" -- on the show 207 on WCSH6, the NBC affiliate in Portland, Maine: