“Winterbloom a budding folk supergroup”
by Dan Gewertz

Read full story with photos and video at:
http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/music/general/view.bg?articleid=1270637

This year’s Lilith Fair boasts some big names. But there’s major under-the-radar talent getting top billing, too.

Hundreds of female-fronted bands and solo women songwriters vied for a chance to perform at Lilith’s New England stop Friday at the Comcast Center. The winner of the prize gig was Winterbloom, a supergroup of four darlings from the local folk scene: Antje Duvekot, Anne Heaton, Meg Hutchinson and Natalia Zukerman. All four are performing songwriters with successful solo careers.

And to make their appearance even more special, Somerville-based folk singer Rose Polenzani, who played the last Lilith Fair in 1999, will perform as Winterbloom’s special guest.

Duvekot, Hutchinson, Heaton and Zukerman first played together in 2008 at a Campfire Festival at Club Passim in Cambridge. The audience response was so enthusiastic, the women came together as Winterbloom and recorded 2009’s “Winterbloom: Traditions Rearranged.” The focus was on winter and holiday songs, but not typical Christmas fare.

“We wanted to create our own traditions,” said Zukerman, daughter of famed violinist Pinchas Zukerman. “We wanted to be a throwback to a time when you got together in the dead of winter to warm yourself with song.”

Now Winterbloom will flower in midsummer atthe reborn Lilith Fair. Zukerman is thrilled to be opening a touring festival that played a historic role in the evolution of women’s music. She attended the initial Lilith Fair.

“Now there are so many more opportunities for women. Yet it’s not outdated,” she said. “We go to large events to feel a part of something bigger. Humans need contact and safe spaces. Those spaces should be celebrated and I’m hoping Lilith still will be.”

http://www.lilithfair.com/artists/winterbloom

Lilith update – we are in the top 20, vote for Winterbloom in Boston!
http://www.ourstage.com/judge4?channel=2..48-lilith-local-talent-search-boston

by Diana Nollen, Eastern Iowa Life/SourceMedia Group News

Full story with photos at http://www.easterniowalife.com/2009/11/28/review-winterbloom-rings-in-the-season-in-song

CEDAR RAPIDS — Winterbloom hauled out the hippest holly and put up the brightest string of highlights to launch their Christmas tour at CSPS on Friday night.

Every song this indie folk female foursome sang was packed with emotion and memories, perfect for an intimate gathering of family and friends.

Each young singer-songwriter has pursued her own successful musical path, but after joining forces last year for a couple of gigs, they decided to team up and record some traditional tunes with non-traditional twists.

The result is even more fun to see than to merely hear, although the new CD would give a nice snow-globe shake to tired holiday music collections in any household.

Antje Duvekot, Anne Heaton, Meg Hutchinson and Natalia Zukerman bring a variety of musical backgrounds and traditions to the fold.

Duvekot, who was born in Germany and moved to Delaware at age 13, brought us a touch of lovely old-world elegance with “Stille Nacht” (“Silent Night”). The others joined her in angelic four-part harmony in her native tongue, but someone must not have counted the verses. Suddenly, Duvekot started another round and no one joined in, which cracked her up. Soon they all were giggling. The mood was shattered, but the moment was utterly human and utterly charming.

That’s part of what made the concert so fun for the 80 people in attendance. Each singer brought an easy conversational style, with a gentle, laid-back delivery that was so enticing.

Zukerman, daughter of acclaimed violinist Pinchas Zukerman and flutist Eugenia Zukerman, grew up in Manhattan amid a swirl of classical music. Despite that immersion, her heart beats with a bluesy country ardor. She lays down a smoking dobro guitar slide under several songs, a few swampy licks here and there and passionate fingerpicking and fiery strums under the others.

With a self-conscious laugh about being “Jew-ish” and singing Christmas carols, she gave the evening a Yiddish flavor with “The Riddle,” putting a new spin on her grandmother’s favorite folk song, “Tumbalalaika.”

Heaton, who grew up in the Chicago area, created many lovely moments with her lilting soprano and twinkling piano lines. Her prayer of St. Francis was breathtakingly beautiful. Her most personal offering, however, was the toast she wrote for her best friend’s wedding, using sing-speak to recount the teenage crush and awkward angst that eventually led the couple to the altar.

The cynical side of life came with a smile from Massachusetts native Hutchinson, who told the audience, “I like to write cheerful songs about depressing topics. So here’s a cheerful song about manic depression for the holidays.”

Don’t let her fool you, though. Her smoky alto and superb songwriting skills can wrap the most unsettling topics in a beautiful bow, like the poignant “True North” about her parents’ divorce and the wistful “Of the Magi,” based on the O. Henry short story of sacrifices made in the name of love.

How lucky we were to receive Winterbloom’s magical gifts of song.

“The women of Winterbloom find the simpler joys of the holidays”
The Boston Globe by Scott Alarik

Read the full story with photos at:
http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2009/12/18/the_women_of_winterbloom_find_the_simpler_joys_of_the_holidays/

Could your holiday traditions use a little rearranging? Move the office party until that accountant who thinks he’s Brad Pitt is on vacation, Facebook Grandpa’s fishing stories so he can enjoy them by himself, or find a carbon-neutral way to dispose of Aunt Emma’s fruitcake. Perhaps we could just put the whole thing off until July, when the weather’s better and we have some time to deal with it.

If thoughts like that disturb your holiday cheer, four decidedly 21st-century songwriters may have the balm. Winterbloom: Traditions Rearranged is a seasonal ensemble of rising folk stars Meg Hutchinson, Natalia Zukerman, Anne Heaton, and Antje Duvekot. Offering fresh takes on holiday standards, and original songs about the season’s modern pitfalls, they’re on a 12-city tour that visits Club Passim Sunday.

The tour has the quartet pondering what tradition means in the age of Twitter. The old rituals were designed for such a different time, when December was not only the darkest but the slowest time of year. In a wired-to-the-world society, it is often the most hectic, stressful time. Silent night indeed.

“We have so many devices now,’’ Hutchinson says. “We’re constantly checking our e-mail and social networks and blogs. That translates to family gatherings, too; everyone has their little gadgets they’re busy with. When we used to go to my grandmother’s house in the Vermont woods, there was this timeless feeling. We’d all be in the house for days, and what was special was just lying around the fire, picking through old magazines, finding some old book on the shelf. That downtime was so restoring, and brought us so close. I think we’re forgetting that.’’

For Winterbloom’s eight-song EP, Zukerman updated an old Jewish riddle song, in which women line up to be quizzed by a prospective husband. But in this version, the woman who knows the answers also knows a jerk when she sees one.

“I thought, yuck, I’m so sick of that Cinderella thing of lining women up and auditioning them for the role of wife,’’ Zukerman says. “So I wanted to find a way to share the fun of the riddles, without making young girls feel like they have to prove themselves to be loved.’’

Heaton sings a bluesy wish that we will be seen as we really are at family reunions, and not perpetually as the brats we were. Duvekot contributes a Christmas kiss-off song, for those moments when the wrong gift finally convinces you he’s the wrong guy (“When have you ever seen me wear a thong?’’).

Hutchinson wrote a song updating O. Henry’s holiday story “The Gift of the Magi,’’ about a poor man who sells his watch to buy his wife expensive combs, only to find that she’s sold her long hair to buy him a watch fob. But Hutchinson’s version ends uncertainly, reminding us that love needs steady attention more than dramatic gestures.

“When I took inventory of the relationship that inspired me to rework that story,’’ she says, “none of the beautiful things were physical gifts; they were just the feelings we had, the time we shared. I also wanted to capture that it’s never just a jolly holiday for me; it’s always bittersweet, a time I contemplate the things I love, which are magnified by the things that I miss.’’

This way of updating old traditions used to happen all the time. Much of our American holiday, from “Season’s Greetings’’ to Santa Claus, revamped older religious rituals, so that everybody felt included, regardless of faith or background. Maybe the trouble is not that we don’t honor old traditions, but that we don’t rearrange them to fit our lives today.

“I think it’s harder to fight for time in our lives, to not just get together as a family and start showing each other the latest app on our iPhones,’’ Zukerman says. “On the other hand, you can get Grandma on iChat now, which is great. But at some point, I hope we can turn the machines off and get back to people around the table, sharing a meal. It’s such an elemental thing – like harmony.’

Share holiday stories, traditions @ facebook.com/winterbloomholiday

12/7/09 – Ron Olesko’s Folk Music Notebook, WFDU FM Traditions

“The show started with what is quickly becoming my favorite song of the season (and maybe the entire year!) – Antje Duvekot’s “Thank’s For the Roses(Merry Christmas”, part of the new Winterblom project. Winterbloom: Traditions Rearranged is the enw 8-song EP from the collective team fo Antje Duvekot, Anne Heaton, Meg Hutchinson and Natalia Zukerman. Each of these extraordinary singer-songwriters brings something to the table – using their different backgrounds and musical styles, they have created a unique seasonal offering that is going to replace Bing Crosby in my house!”

www.ronolesko.blogspot.com