GNP is proud to present Over the Rhine with very special guest The Milk Carton Kids for one show only on Friday, Decemeber 2nd at 8:00PM at the Berklee Performance Center. For more information or questions call the Berklee Box Office at 617-747-2261.
Over the Rhine, the southern Ohio-based husband-and-wife team of multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Linford Detweiler and vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Karin Bergquist, is something rare and wondrous. OtR made its first handful of recordings in the Spring of 1989. Originally a quartet, the band has toured and recorded in one form or another ever since. The band draws its name from a downtown neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the band got its start. “The phrase evoked images of going Over the Rainbow, being drunk with joy, getting high on leaving home or whatever was keeping us up at night. We were young. We were free to do anything or be anybody. We needed to pick a new favorite dilemma. We needed a name. We were 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.”
The fan-funded record, The Long Surrender, released on OtR’s own Great Speckled Dog label (named after the couple’s Great Dane, Elroy), saw the light of day 20 years after their 1991 debut. Even more than their earlier records, The Long Surrender seamlessly interweaves the disparate idiosyncratic strains that form the many-colored crazy quilt of American music. “We’re really only reflecting what we’ve already heard,” Linford explains, “a mix of all the music we grew up with and were drawn to: old gospel hymns, the country and western music on WWVA, the rock ’n’ roll records the kids at school passed around, the symphonic music that my father brought home, the jazz musicians we discovered in college, the Great American Songbook performers that Karin’s mother loved, and of course the various singer-songwriters that eventually knocked the roof off our world. But when this music is reflected back to the listener through the filter of our own particular lives, hopefully it becomes a much different experience (maybe even somewhat unique) for those with ears to hear.”
This special December 2nd, Berklee Performance Center concert, kicks off Over the Rhine’s annual holiday tour and will include selections from the band’s critically-acclaimed, quirky and lovely holiday releases, “The Darkest Night of the Year” and “Snow Angels” in addition to fan favorites from their entire catalog.
The young, wise and sincere Los Angeles, CA duo The Milk Carton Kids will kick off the night with their Appalachian folk-tinged Americana.
Links: OvertheRhine.com – Themilkcartonkids.com – Tickets – BPC Box Office – Venue Area Map – Directions to BPC