Over the Rhine

If you like a variety of music, I suggest you checkout: Over the Rhine (their website).

You can listen to one of their albums online, Record Player.

In one of my classes, we are working through a book called “Culture Making.” Over the Rhine is answering the call to be culture makers through creating and cultivating it.

Here are a few quotes from their website . . .

Who is Over the Rhine?

Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist are the songwriting team that perpetuates Over the Rhine. Linford has always viewed his job description as “creating spaces where good things can happen.” He continues, “Karin and I write songs that allow her voice to bloom, and we find musicians who know how to take what we do and make it spark and breathe, twitch and moan. We try to work with musicians who inspire us, people whose company we enjoy. And we try to write music that in little ways helps to heal the wounds that life has dealt us or the wounds we’ve dealt ourselves. We try to write songs that can hum joyfully at the stars when something good goes down. We try to write tunes capable of whispering to a sleeping child that in spite of everything, somehow, all is well. We try to write words that help us learn to tell the truth to ourselves and others. That’s a big part of all this. Music is a wonderful platform for discovering what we believe is true. But Over the Rhine is ultimately the music that Karin and I find within and without for her to sing.”

And . . .

“Believe me, we don’t want to waste anybody’s time,” elaborates Detweiler. “When we stop believing we’re doing our best work, we’re done. Every song has to be good, every record has to be great, every concert has to have some spiritual significance—something that we can’t quantify, something bigger than all of us.”

Over The Rhine may not be a household name, but to call the act’s followers “fanatical” would understate the point, and they’re not shy about converting the curious. Why? For starters, there’s Bergquist’s torchy, devil-may-care voice, brimming with Midwestern soul, unafraid to lay bare every emotional resonance. And again, there’s the life-and-death commitment dripping from her every word. “I’m either into it or I’m not, because there’s no faking it with me,” Bergquist notes. “Life’s way too short for that.”

Detweiler and Bergquist’s evocative, earthy songwriting and impassioned delivery is at its finest in The Trumpet Child. The new record is a collaboration with ultra-talented Nashville producer/arranger Brad Jones (Matthew Sweet, Josh Rouse, Ron Sexsmith, Richard Julian, et. al) and celebrates American music in the most richly imaginative ways.

And . . .

What are the aspirations of Over the Rhine?

“The way we see it, there’s a continuum. On the one side, we can say, Aww, shucks, we’re just a band from Ohio. On the other side, we can swing for the fences and try to make great records, write the music that we need, write songs that deserve to have a good life, write music that is undeniably connected to the story we’re writing with our lives. We can show up and wait for God to walk through the room and settle for nothing less.

And we’re sort of over the Aww, shucks approach. If we don’t believe the music is great and can take its place right alongside the more interesting American music being made by our songwriting peers and heroes, then why should anyone else care? So, crazy as it may sound, we still believe we have something potentially significant to contribute to the American music scene. The songs we write will eventually be what we refer to as our life’s work. And we’re going to work really hard to make sure the songs keep getting better.”

They’re well worth a listen, and you’ll have to search their website to find out how they got their name: Over the Rhine

Blessings
3 John 8
Bill H.