Ah, you found the light! Excellent. Well, at the moment, we have five old newsletters for you to browse through. Just click below to go to the one you'd like. Watch your head, though; the ceiling's a little low.
  1. February, 1994
  2. August, 1994
  3. Spring, 1995
  4. July, 1995
  5. November, 1995
  6. May, 1997
Thanks for dropping by.

February 1994 Newsletter - Written by Linford Detweiler

I heard of a man
who says words so beautifully
that if he only speaks their name
women give themselves to him.

If I am dumb beside your body
while silence blossoms like tumours on our lips
it is because I hear a man climb the stairs
and clear his throat outside our door.

-Leonard Cohen

Hej,

As most of you may know, 1993 was the busiest year of our lives as members of the fledgling musical convergence known as Over the Rhine. The ever elusive major label recording contract was obtained, we played over 125 concerts in five different countries and yet somehow managed to reap a reasonable harvest in The Imaginary Apple Orchard. (We were away from home over 180 days(!).) Most of the trees stand naked still (hence the blushing of the leaves last Autumn) and February has Ohio all dressed in quiet shades of grey. It is possible to go for a Sunday afternoon drive East along the Ohio River and feel as if one is playing some role in a black and white film...

The four of us in Over the Rhine piled out of our large white rabbit of a van last December after seven weeks and 37 concerts opening for English pop band Squeeze. We literally ran in four different directions, suitcases and blankets dragging along behind. We were home!

It was Christmas and New Year. It was tired smiles and "watch me disappear." The spinning in my head began to slow and I began the process of adapting to a less frantic pace. I would try on solitude like an old favorite shirt which had hung for too long in a quiet closet, and feel once again the comfortable cloth against my tired skin...the lighting of the gas heater in the bedroom to scare away the permanent chill which finds unused winter rooms...opening a pantry door gently so as not to disturb a family of rabbits which may have found shelter there...The water has evaporated out of the porcelain toilet bowl and the spickets hiccough a few times when I turn the handles as if being startled awake from a long nap or daydream.

When we drove out of New York City after that last show it was like going out of a crowded noisy room into the night, the activity and clamour growing more and more faint. I personally countered the former frenzy with self-imposed tangible quiet. I spent the New Year in solitude beneath some friendly elms near my parent's home. My father has an old camper from the fifties (affectionately referred to as The Beehive) which he fixed all up and I saw the year die quietly with a few simple books, a good fountain pen, walks through quiet snowy moonlit woods and my gentle mother's Amish cooking. I began to lose the numbness and feel joy. It was good to walk back through a year so brim full and remember...sounds, faces, days, dreams, fear, silliness, perhaps you.

At the moment I'm remembering well how Ric and Brian took a liking to the saunas and hot springs of Finland and raced naked with new acquaintances through the predawn forests into the ocean to cool off. I had been corresponding with a bright boy in England who whisked Karin and I off to Laugharne, Wales for a day and a half of rebirth that felt like a magical week. We finally got to see the writing shack where Dylan Thomas wrote and we swam in the cold Wales ocean and became children.

But I shouldn't make it sound too glamorous. Travelling can be lovely but the life of a touring musician involves much tedium. I didn't realize how depressing hotel rooms can be. But there's much to be thankful for...

We played the music industry game and I guess we won because we get to record a new record. It has been too long (almost three years since we commenced Patience.)(!) We are thinking of renting an old house here in Cincinnati (ahem, make that an older house in Franklin, Tennessee.) and using the month of April to bring additional songs into the fold. In the meantime we will be playing 8-10 concerts, mostly close to home, and you can expect more on that later.

Thank you for the hundreds of letters and tiny gifts and many wonderful words. It's going to take a while to catch up on the mail. Patience...

Your eyes are lovely dark and deep But we have promises to keep And miles to go before we sleep... Bon Courage!

Return to the beginning

August 1994 Newsletter - Written by Linford Detweiler

Dear friends and strangers mostly friends,

I'm sitting on the Serpentine Wall looking like a fool at the dark waters of the Ohio River as if they might hold some secret I've been trying not to tell. I've grown fond of this river. She never has much to say but when she speaks...

eve, we've made a record. (This is supposed to be some sort of Over the Rhine newsletter. Sometimes I forget and just start rambling like a St. Clairsville coal miner on Sunday.) When we performed last Spring at the Emery Theatre on Walnut Street we promised we were going to spend some time in Franklin, Tennessee and return with an armload of new songs.

We lied.

By a bizarre twist of fate, that scenario proved to be doomed and like whirl-winded Dorothy, we ended up underneath blankets of stars on a 175 acre farm in rural Massachusetts. We recorded eve in a barn with weather beaten farm cats and blinking horses that nipped.

As if that wasn't dreamy enough, we mixed eve down in the French Quarter of New Orleans in a delightfully dark, ghost-hosting mansion on the corner of Esplanade and Chartres.

I still remember writing our first newsletter four years ago after finishing a handful of songs in a borrowed Sunday School room. Granted, we may have a long way to go, but come to think of it we've covered a lot of miles between then and now.

But back to eve. I.R.S. Records sends eve forth into the world like a young school girl on August 23, 1994. She has to get on the bus with all the other children: the mean sixth graders, the Gloria twins who are always dressed perfectly... Believe me, it can be awfully hard to find a seat on that bus. But eve is a good child. Oh she throws a tantrum occasionally, or gets a little bored or sentimental even. But someday she's going to be someone's full-grown woman with her own private fires and ideas. She's part angel part demon right out of your past.

(Why does he write all this stuff?)

RHINELANDER TANGIBLES (or stuff made in The Imaginary Apple Orchard) 'some call it obsession, I call it commitment' J.G.

  • Attention collectors: The Over The Rhine motion diary (Serpents and Gloves.) Over the Rhine is working on a moving picture with writer and film maker Jeffrey Bell (Radio Inside, Hymntime In The Land of Abandon...) Tentatively (as of 14 seconds ago) entitled 'Shall We Gather At The River'. This piece includes interviews with usually reticent band members, a secret 'Jacksie' video, a video of 'Happy With Myself?' (eve's first single), 'live' 'If I'm Drowning' footage, European trippings, some acoustic renderings, and songs not available on any album. There will be a limited number of these row boat films made. They will be sold only through the mail and at O.T.Rhine concerts. Each copy will be signed by Karin, Ric, Brian and Linford and numbered 1-2200. When they're sold, that's it. 'Shall We Gather At The River' can be ordered for $15 (U.S. dollars.) Please allow 6 weeks for delivery of this item.
  • eve - She's somewhat more tempestuous than our first two. The new album on I.R.S. Records (29332). (Available in U.S. stores August 23, 1994.) She's dancing naked now, across the maple floor above the lion's roar...Help protect her. (*You have to find eve in a record store. She can't be sent thru the mail unless you're writing from a foreign country, in which case we'll help deliver her to you. Please write for info.*) Includes Happy With Myself?, Within Without, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, Daddy Untwisted, My Love is a Fever and additional Top 40 hits. (Laugh here.) Warning Label: Keep eve out of the imaginary apple orchard or at least away from that one tree. Or: If you can only afford one woman this Fall..........
  • eve T-Shirts $15 (XL and L Hanes 100% cotton Beefy T's. Lovely against bare limbs.) We currently have two: the first is a band photo which features Karin's boots. On the back is a fleeting tale of one cryptic Ohio Midnite, written by Linford. The second T-Shirt is a collage of Mike Wilson Photographs: band members and what not. On the back is something about some sequence of songs.
  • Oh fun here. Get the story of eve as it's captured in a playful boxed set of 21 Over The Rhine 'Trading Cards'. "I'll take that picture of Brian sitting with the tobacco leaf in exchange for the lap steel..." Y'know, that sort of thing... A must have for anyone remotely interested in Over The Rhine $2.

Please note: stay tuned for eve baseball caps, bumper stickers, bikinis and firecrackers. Also eve fuzzy slippers.

  • Patience - (you mean there are people in the world who don't have this record?!?!) Patience was our second collection of songs which we wrapped all up and which I.R.S. Records released suddenly last summer. Things got crazy here in The Imaginary Apple Orchard and we ended up dusting away from home for six secular months. We tripped and sang our way from San Francisco to Amsterdam and Finland where the people are quiet in their public baths. We flagged our way home like birds in a contest and joined English popsters Squeeze for seven weeks of on the road. I digress. Patience includes Over The Rhine standards Jacksie, How Does It Feel (To Be On My Mind), Grey Monologue and more. Patience can be obtained or ordered at any quality record store. (I.R.S. 13233.) It's not available through the mail except foreign orders: write for info.
  • Patience T-Shirts (XL and L Hanes Beefy T's) $15
    1. The Large Clock 9:30 p.m.
    2. Charlie Wolf, bearded hermit
    3. Grinning boy street urchin
    4. Jay Bolotin Woodcut of empty mail box (my favorite)
    5. Our only black T: Rockwell Kent woodcut of bird being released to heaven.
    6. Patience posters, Charlie Wolf, while supplies last $2
    7. Patience Baseball Caps (Black or White) $15 features small clock (still 9:30) and our scampering friend
    8. Extra lyric booklets $2
  • 'Til We Have Faces - The fourteen songs which launched this tottering apple cart. Includes Like A Radio, If I'm Drowning, Sea & Sky, Paul & Virginia, et cetera. Compact Disc $13 Cassette $8 extra lyric booklets $2
  • Michael Wilson's book "I See That Hand" $10 Highly recommended.

Write: Over The Rhine, Post Office Box 2572, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45201

Money Order's/Checks payable to Over The Rhine. Do not send live animals or Jello casseroles. The Jello tends to melt. *Please include $2 to help defray 1st Class Postage, $3 Foreign.

A few teasers. Please join us on the eve of eve's release (Monday, August 22) at 8pm here in Cincinnati at the Seasongood Pavilion in Eden Park. Under tall trees we'll careen through some familiar songs and help the sun go down. It's free. All ages are welcome.

8pm Saturday, August 27, Fox Theatre in Boulder, CO. w/Seal at the Gavin Convention. Tuesday, August 30, Luna Park, Los Angeles, CA (call club for details) Sunday, September 4, Louisville, KY, sponsored by WQNF (call station for details)

You know Donna, that nice lady that sells our T-shirts? Give her a call if you have a question about an Over The Rhine concert. She'll try to help. 513 868 3050. You can also e-mail Shelly Ross: OTRhine@AOL.COM. She'll chat w/you and send riff raff...

Post Script: So many of you have written to us or sent prizes. Thank you. We are so behind on the mail it's laughable but we've kept every last letter. Someday. Many of you ask how you can help Over The Rhine. I'll be brutally frank. No I won't. Yes I will. No, well, OK. Here are a coupla things. Pretty obvious really. If you're definitely going to pick eve up, go ahead and get her the first week she's available. This helps people notice that she's around and besides she'd rather be home with you than on some shelf somewhere. If she's not in a record store where you normally like to buy records, take a minute to let someone know you were hoping to find her. And of course if there is a radio station that you like, let them know you'd like to hear eve and pat them on the back when she comes over the waves. Thanks to Kyle for 28 reams of recycled paper. Thanks to Todd for rescuing our office. Shelly, have a great trip to the Reading Festival. Peace to all of you.

Return to the beginning

Spring, 1995

My dear E-Mail people,

Just a few words to you via a bunch of wires and a video monitor. Call me archaic but I like the heft of a good fountain pen in my hand and the only keyboards in my house belong to my upright piano (which I've been playing more) and to my 1957 Smith Corona typewriter (a gift from my father.) Some nights you can find me like a man possessed, smoking like a dimestore detective, punching out noisy poetry on this machine, waiting for the bell to ring at the end of a line. We've lost a lot of tactile interaction with our world since we've gone electronic. So the next time you drop a quarter into a parking meter, take time to enjoy the twist of the knob which causes the coin to plunge forever out of reach. (Remember the old pop machines where you got to actually pull the bottle from a mechanical womb of sorts? The clatter and release of a cold Coca-Cola?)

Shelly prints out your notes for us every so often and you all sure say a lot of kind things and ask all kinds of questions. Maybe you could send your most nagging question to Shelly and I could gather about 25 of them and be uncharacteristically candid all of a sudden and send you all the answers.

Is this like a secret club?

I thought I would divulge my reading list of 1995 in case any of you are interested. The books that have been notated with exclamation points, I've completed. Those with asterisks, I'm currently reading. Wendell Berry has been the find of the year thus far, and has fueled my dream of purchasing a small farm some day soon. The Carson McCullers book is one of the most haunting, beautiful pieces of heartache and hopefulness I've read in a long, long time. Anyway, here goes.

Linford's 1995 Reading List

  • ! Wendell Berry, THE WILD BIRDS
  • ! Wendell Berry, FIDELITY
  • ! Wendell Berry, WATCH WITH ME (And Six Other Stories of the Yet-Remembered Ptolemy Proudfoot and His Wife, Miss Minnie, Nee Quinch)
  • * Carson McCullers, THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER
  • C. S. Lewis, THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA
  • C. S. Lewis, Space Trilogy: OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET, PERELANDRA, THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH
  • * C. S. Lewis, MERE CHRISTIANITY
  • * Louisa May Alcott, LITTLE WOMEN
  • Madeleine L'Engle, WALKING ON WATER
  • Flannery O'Connor, A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND
  • Flannery O'Connor, WISE BLOOD
  • Flannery O'Connor, THE VIOLENT BEAR IT AWAY
  • Flannery O'Connor, THE HABIT OF BEING (Collected Letters)
  • Flannery O'Connor, THE COMPLETE STORIES
  • Jack Kerouac, ON THE ROAD
  • T. S. Eliot, FOUR QUARTETS
  • ! Walker Percy, THE MOVIEGOER
  • Walker Percy, THE LAST GENTLEMAN
  • J. R. R. Tolkien, THE HOBBIT
  • J. R. R. Tolkien, THE RING TRILOGY
  • * Evelyn Waugh, BRIDESHEAD REVISITED
  • Laura Ingalls Wilder, FARMER BOY
  • ! Phillip Yancey, DISAPPOINTMENT WITH GOD
  • Charles Dickens, GREAT EXPECTATIONS
  • * THE KING JAMES BIBLE
  • Dylan Thomas, PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG DOG
  • * Ravi Zecharias, CAN MAN LIVE WITHOUT GOD
  • Henry D. Thoreau, WALDEN, LIFE IN THE WOODS

It is a little unusual for me to have such a complete list at the beginning of a year, but I'm trying to learn to begin with the end in mind. And I'm always free to add to the list, but at least I know the ground I would like to cover, i.e. discover. Or rediscover.

I've been delighted and horrified by the Old Testament thus far: it's all raping and madness and the blinding light of hope. Good heavens, what tales.

Karin and I have rooted around in our attics and closets and since we have a weekend off, we are going to gather up our quivers and arrows and what not, and actually go be gypsies and sell a bunch of stuff (hopefully) at a flea market this Saturday. If I could only shop for groceries and at one other place, I would choose the Hartville Fleamarket in Hartville, Ohio, and I could find everything I need and infinitely more there. And the people are magnificent in their diversity.

Brian and Ric seem to be happy. I really don't see them all that much but that will soon change I think.

You may have heard that I.R.S. intends to release 'TIL WE HAVE FACES this year. So the independent Scampering Songs edition that we've sold so long out of our suitcases will soon be retired. And there is already talk of our next record.

It's been good to take time to reflect on the past five years this Spring. I actually disappeared for the better part of a week to a Monastery in Kentucky and when I wasn't roaming the Abbey's woodlands or fields, I was alone in a 'monk's cell'. I found the silence to be very healing, although of course I was exceedingly restless that first day. I made a note to myself:

Be careful of the din of the world. The clamor is so constant that we learn to live comfortably with the ensuing deafness.

That the four of us in Over the Rhine can weave together a few pop songs and thereby be invited into many homes and bedrooms and car stereos and dormitory rooms and via the music become a small part of the days and nights of people like you is a tremendous gift. It's all a bit mind-boggling, really. Smacks of the miraculous.

But before I wax obnoxiously philosophical let me just say that I'm glad we've discovered each other. I know life is a little better for me because of you, and I hope the same is true for you.

Later this April I'll be flying to France and England for a coupla weeks. In France I'll be attending something called PRINTEMPS DES TROUBADOURS. Imagine my surprise when I was invited to attend this affair which takes place at a castle in Southern France on an unspoiled 270 acre estate. Basically a handful of songwriters from around the world gather to collaborate by day and at night partake of grand torchlit wine-glittering dinners. I'm not sure who all is attending but past participants have included Cher and other walking institutions. Gee, think I'll fit in?

But of course, I'm looking forward to another week in England and am planning to see some good Anglo-friends and do a little book shopping and maybe disappear to Wales on an overnite trip.

All that to say I'll have to tell you all about it when I get back.

In the meantime, we'll probably play a few spontaneous shows this Spring, and hopefully we'll see you there.

Well, I need to go do laundry.

Surprise yourselves. Do something out of character occasionally. Pay your taxes. And don't forget to pray.

Sincerely yours,

Linford Detweiler
for
Over the Rhine

Return to the beginning

July 1995

Hello,

It's been a while. This is s'posed to be a newsletter. I'm better at just writing letters...

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: THE BEATLES

I just came back from seeing The Chieftans perform down by the river. I don't get to be part of an audience as much anymore - to just sit back and listen... It was heaven.

I remember fantasizing about performing. One of the few preschool memories that even now lingers is me standing on my Mom & Dad's bed on summer afternoons singing to countless invisible listeners. Of course I imagined I was in church because that's the first place I saw music performed. Church was always a great opportunity to check out the piano player. Of course I didn't realize at the time that I was also soaking up some strange and wonderful literature, thanks to the King James Version of the you-know-what. Of course.

It never ceases to amaze me how many performers in indie bands or alternative music - pop music in general - were preacher's kids or had pretty intense childhood church backgrounds. People don't talk about it all that much, but they're (we're) everywhere. There are two PK's in our band for starters.

I mean it makes sense. There's always music of some kind, plenty of talk about love, plenty of deep dark secrets, an all-important emphasis on words (The Word) and a consuming quest for truth. Sound familiar?

It's a shame that so much of what passes for church these days is so irrelevant to so many. Children should not be deprived of mystery...

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE

My dad had an ancient, portable reel-to-reel tape recorder and an assortment of small microphones. After dark he would walk the ten minutes down through a wooded area to a large swamp and record the sounds that he grew to love...frogs, insects, waterfowl, the sound of the creek, the occasional owl. All those sounds in the background as we ate breakfast.

I grew up foolin' around on the piano. For some reason, I could always write and improvise stories as well. I sort of got unofficially elected into the precarious position where I was responsible for telling my little brother and sister (Myron and Frances) bedtime stories.

So I came up with these two characters named simply, Bill and Joe.

Bill and Joe were pretty average guys who ended up in countless shocking situations at home and abroad. There were plenty of lovely, imperiled, willowy maidens. Wild animals which had developed a fondness for human flesh figured prominently. I also had a fixation with cannibals, probably because of a book in the church library that I would look at after most services. The book contained not only plenty of tribal nudity, but some incredible skirmishes - natives armed to the teeth - and positively spooky rituals full of low-hanging clouds, body-piercing and shrunken heads. Some missionaries had photographed all this stuff.

Night after night: Bill and Joe stories. I remember one young unsuspecting neighbor boy who came to spend the night named Little Jimmy Wilson wetting his pants (pajamas) during a particularly tense situation where Bill and Joe hovered near certain brutal extinction. But there were plenty of redemptive moments too.

The Heat - oops - THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER

My friend Jeff tells me that story-telling is a noble profession. But as I grew older (you know, adolescence, FINALLY) I began to run from music and stories. It began to get harder and harder to access the inside room where all this stuff lived. Part of the detour for me was the awakening dilemma, the allurement of all things female, or put simply, girls. Not that I had lots of girlfriends. There seemed to be a chasm between me and them. I would release a white dove and it would bring me back a fig leaf or some nebulous, remote token of sure-footing. But that's as close as I could get to them for years. Little did I know that a desire for female companionship is basically a desire to share deep music and good stories. And now occasionally when I feel like I should DROP ALL THIS and go search for God, I begin to remember that a desire for God is probably a desire to be made into someone who can hear an even deeper music and even more mysterious stories. Ever wonder why the world is so noisy?

But back to the inside room. I s'pose one of the reasons I studied piano in college was so I could focus on THE GREAT COMPOSERS and not have to worry about my own stuff. But then I met a young Theology student named Ric who defected to the Music Wing and began to cause trouble with his Les Paul and then I met Brian and then when Karin sang at her Junior Recital I saw people crying after she sang an aria from 'Samson and Delilah' - 'Samson. Samson. Je t'aime!' with all kinda descending chromatic motifs.

Uh, oh. I just realized that this is gonna take a whole lot more than one more page. And everything I just said was probably pretty far off the subject. I'm going to have to write real small. That isn't going to solve the problem. Oh well, OCKHAM'S RAZOR, big time...

MY HOW THE NEIGHBORHOOD HAS CHANGED

To make the story shorter, I'll just say that I was 23 years old and it was becoming clear that the door to the inside room was either going to close for good (double-bolted) or I was going to have to find people and something to do which would force it open.

The following Spring, something came together like a little puzzle. Karin and Ric and Brian and I, along with a friend named Tim McAllister made a little batch of songs that became a sort of something tangible which could be used as a doorstop. A lot has happened since then, which if you've read this far, obviously involves you. * * *

We've actually sort of come full-circle. Something that makes us very happy is the fact that this first little doorstop-project, that we've ended up calling TILL WE HAVE FACES and which we've peddled door-to-door out of our suitcases for so long, flaws and all, is actually going to have a chance to go out into the world on its own and fall into the hands of strangers and friends alike. I.R.S. Records is re-releasing it Tuesday, August 15. It's basically the same record, but there are enough changes that I daresay the plot thickens somewhat: a haunting and oddly sensual guitar solo that Ric recorded on Orchard Street shortly after we moved into the neighborhood, a closing trifle for piano and voices, some 'live' things, additional notes. The Scampering Songs edition is definitely different, definitely extinct, and people seem to think it fits the definition of a collector's item. Farewell. I will say without hesitation that if you've been meaning to introduce Over the Rhine to a friend, the I.R.S. version of TILL WE HAVE FACES is an obvious choice. They get to start at the very beginning, (a very special time in our history), and they get a pretty good peek at what a concert might feel like.

OH BY THE WAY

We're playing at The Cincinnati Zoo Pavilion, Wednesday, August 16, the day after the re-release. Your ticket is good for admission to the Zoo as well. Showtime: 7:30. Come see us. Bring some children. Plenty of wild animals...

We're leaving the following day for Holland and England for a few weeks to play some festivals and to celebrate in our own weird way.

I'm happy to report that the door to the inside room is presently open. We plan to make our fourth record this October and November. I wish I could foreshadow...

We still have plenty of stuff available in The Imaginary Apple Orchard Gift Shoppe. We hope to put together a mini-catalogue soon. Feel free to write us at the P.O. box or email us: OTRhine@AOL.COM.
Web Page: http://www.mit.edu/people/dasmith/otr/

I trust this rambling affair is somehow relevant. Let us know what you think.

Peace,

Linford for all of us...

whew!

I.R.S. ADVERTISEMENT:
I.R.S. Records proudly announces the re-release of Over The Rhine's first recording, TILL WE HAVE FACES, this Tuesday, August 15, 1995.

TILL WE HAVE FACES

We originally released this collection in July of 1991 on our own Scampering Songs Label. The official re-release version contains previously unavailable "live" material and more, plus all those familiar OTR standards...Like A Radio, If I'm Drowning, Sea and Sky, Paul and Virginia etc.

PATIENCE

We released the Scampering Songs edition in July of 1992. I.R.S. discovered it and re-released it a year later as our major label debut. Contains Jacksie, How Does It Feel, Circle of Quiet, Rhapsodie etc.

EVE

Last year's adventure... She's still kicking. Contains Sleep Baby Jane, Daddy Untwisted, Melancholy Room, My Love is a Fever, Happy With Myself etc.

Look for a new record from Over the Rhine sometime in the Spring of 1996.

Return to the beginning

November 1995

Dear Mr. & Mrs. Kaleidoscope,

It's me Oh Lord, writing tonight on behalf of Over the Rhine, at home on a Sunday, low light now. (I keep an ancient strand of dim Christmas bulbs strung up year 'round in the bedroom. The paint chips on each with time leaving tiny constellations, pin pricks of white light in the universe of a single room.)

We're supposed to get our first real snow tonight. I'm going to slip out to a basement coffee house soon and drink cider and play chess. Bloodlust I guess. Perhaps afterward when I step outside the town will be bandaged with new-fallen snow. Cold and white and almost pure, but underneath there really is no cure...

The year is burning down fast now. (If we're lucky we'll smell like woodsmoke.) I find myself glancing over my shoulder. My back is toward the stories now. I look back and it is mostly good. That's what we all dream of, right? Just to be able to say, "And it was good."

I felt the sharp edge of fear earlier this year and wondered if I might take up a new permanent residence:

L. J. Detweiler
c/o Dodging the Draft
1 Aimless Circle
Writer's Block

It was time to write the songs for the new record. The paper looked up with its blank stare and I could put nothing on it. Nothing. One has no choice at times like these but to walk away and do something else. You live as best you can and keep your ears open. Try not to panic. (Even astronauts have down days.)

Then finally after weeks, maybe months, a solitary voice... "Write me. You have to pick up the pen and move it," she whispered. "You have to leave a crumbtrail of words or you'll never find your way back. You have to step out into the words a hungry orphan and hold hands with someone along the way. You have to be as good to words as you can and some night when you least expect it you'll find them being good to you. Even later, you'll learn to trick yourself into believing someone cares." She looks away. "Oh yeah, one more thing. Inspiration comes afterward, not before."

Then the songs start to step out of shadowy places slowly, dim and unfamiliar. They introduce themselves and speak mostly in riddles. Some decide not to stay long. It's as if they showed up at the wrong address or dialed the wrong number. Once in a great while there is the sensation of a song dying to make itself known and then the rest of the world and the people in it all but disappear in the squinting light. These are moments drenched in rhythm and sadness. They leave you wrung out, broken and so alive.

It's been a luxury to spend real time with this emerging record. To really listen. Soon we'll begin trying the songs on as a band and gathering up the microphones. We're looking forward to using an experienced producer on this record, something we've never done. Keep your fingers crossed. All is most definitely not lost... Baileys and coffee now to finish this.

Our friend and long-time supporter Jimmy D. used to try and teach us how to be a real rock-n-roll band. This was helpful and informative until I realized I was never meant to be in a real rock-n-roll band. But some of his hard-won wisdom has remained invaluable. For instance, Jimmy used to say in regard to touring, "It's simple. When it gets cold, go South." Well by gum, here we go.

This upcoming tour for the most part will be a somewhat quieter, more relaxed, even conversational trip through our past three records. On a good night there will be something pulling between us known as intimacy. As December increases we'll mix in some songs which feel like December. And without giving up too much of the game, we'll slip in a few new songs.

Don't lose heart. Don't let them numb you. It's early still, but I hope as the year draws to a close, you glimpse from time to time what really matters.

Peace be with you,
Linford for Over the Rhine

P.S. Misty, thanks again for that bushel of Northern Spies you little angel.

The Small Print or I ran out of room again.

DATE BOOK. Where's your calendar?

  • 20 November, Monday, THE BLUEBIRD, Bloomington, Indiana
    Doors open 9 pm. Showtime 10:30 pm. 812 336 3984
  • 22 November, Wednesday, BACKSTAGE CAFE, Louisville, Kentucky.
    Doors 7 pm. OTR on stage at 11:30 pm. 502 589 3866
  • 28 November, Tuesday, COVENANT COLLEGE, Carter Hall.
    Chattanooga, Tennessee. Doors open at 8 pm. All ages welcome
  • 29 November, Wednesday, SMITH'S OLDE BAR, Atlanta, Georgia.
    Doors 9 pm. Showtime 10 pm. 404 875 1522
  • 1 December, Friday, 40 WATT CLUB, Athens, Georgia.
    We're the first of four bands; we'll be playing a 35 minute set at 8:30 pm. This is basically an excuse to chum around with our dear friends Bill and Brenda Mallonee. Vigilantes of Love headline. VOL+U+ME!=Volume
  • 2 and 3 December, Saturday and Sunday. OUR FLORIDA DEBUT. CROSSOVER CENTER, Tampa. Florida. All ages. 813 930 0777 for complete info. Oh my. Florida.
  • 8 December, Friday, THE ODEON, Cleveland. Ohio.
    Belkin Productions brings us back to our roots. Doors 8 pm. Showtime 9 pm. 216 574 2525
  • 9 December, Saturday, SCHUBA'S, Chicago, Illinois.
    Doors 10 pm. Showtime 10:30 pm. 312 535 2508
  • 16 December, Saturday, THE EMERY THEATRE, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Our final concert of the year and seemingly on its way to becoming a Cincinnati holiday tradition. We've sold out this lovely if tattered historic theatre twice. Join us for a special evening of song and eye contact. Bring a non-perishable food item in exchange for a small gift at the door. All food will be donated to the Over-the-Rhine Freestore/Foodbank. Also featured will be Gordon Henderson of Scotland and of course the Mighty Wurlitzer. Emery: Doors 7 pm. All ages...Tickets @ Ticketmaster We like to extend an invitation to our out of town fans for this one. Road trip anyone? We usually end up hanging out at Kaldi's on Main Street after the show. It won't be the same without you. (Special thanks to WNKU.)

Of special note, we met and spent time this Spring and Fall with a young man from Scotland who lives with his wife Hazel on a small house boat on the Thames in London. Among other things Gordon taught us the difference between Lagavulin and Laphroaig. Gordon picked up a guitar in a small cottage in the middle of some nowhere night in rural England and sang a song. If you're at all like me, you'll have the sensation that when Gordon sings, the invisible beings who live just beyond the rim of the sky put down whatever they're doing immediately, walk to their open windows and listen. Gordon will be joining us for his first performances ever in America, from Chattanooga to Cincinnati. I sincerely hope you can join us.

Some of you with your fingers on the pulse of things known that IRS Records, our record label, has gone through a lot of changes since we signed with them. During this time of reorganization, there is not alot of activity taking place which introduces our music to those who have not heard of us. In fact, we're always relied heavily on word-of-mouth to help us grow. Many of you have shared us with a lot of other people. Thank you. If you've been meaning to introduce us to a few friends or family members, we invite you to take a browse through The Imaginary Apple Orchard Gift Shop.

Everything ordered between now and January 1 will be shipped gift wrapped, in Over the Rhine wrapping paper. We will be on the road some, but we'll make a point of shipping items very promptly.

  1. Till We Have Faces CD $13
  2. Till We Have Faces Cassette $8
  3. Patience CD $13
  4. Eve CD $13
  5. Serpents and Gloves Video 40+ minutes. $15 signed
  6. Eve Trading Cards $3
  7. Compass stickers 2/$1
  8. Clock T-Shirt $14
  9. Charlie Wolf T-Shirt $15
  10. Little Boy Smiling with Anticipation T-Shirt $15
  11. Jay Bolotin Woodcut T-Shirt $15 (Empty mailbox.)
  12. Rockwell Kent Woodcut T-Shirt $15 (Liberated Bird.)
  13. Karin's Boots and cryptic Ohio story by Linford T-Shirt $15
  14. Collage T-Shirt w/band members, etc. $15

    All T's available in XL and L. except #12 available in XL, L and Child's size large. #12 is our only black T.

    Now to see if you're still paying attention:

  15. Patience Cassette $8
  16. Over the Rhine box set: hand wrapped cigar box with all three CD's, trading cards, stickers, postcards and ? It'll take their breath away. $40
  17. Patience posters, sold in pairs, shipped in mailing tube. 2/$5

Send payments in a responsible manner to our P.O. Box. Please add $3 for orders less than $20, add $4 for orders greater than $20, less than $40, and $5 for orders greater than $40. Merci!

Many thanks to all who have written so many beautiful letters. Thanks for the E-Mail. OTRHINE@AOL.COM

Thanks Shelly for fielding all the E-mail.

Thanks Todd for keeping the office open after midnight.

Thanks Donna for prayer support and cat-sitting.

Todd, stamp our address here->


OVER THE RHINE
P.O. BOX 2572
CINCINNATI, OH 45201

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May 1997

Dear Near Misses Mine,

"We could you know. We can live any way we want. People take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience - even of silence - by choice. The thing is to stalk your calling in a certain skilled and supple way, to locate the most tender and live spot and plug into that pulse. This is yielding, not fighting.

I think it would be well, and proper, and obedient, and pure, to grasp your one necessity and not let it go, to dangle from it limp wherever it takes you. Seize it and let it seize you up aloft even, till your eyes burn out and drop; let your musky flesh fall off in shreds, and let your very bones unhinge and scatter..."

Annie Dillard
Living Like Weasels

I could very calmly go wild this Spring. How about you? It's embarrassing and beautiful, but an awful lot has happened. Have you heard? Some of you on this list have kept abreast of the shipping hews, and some of you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. I know I don't.

I'll back up and slow down and hold still.
(I keep telling myself.)

Spare Change Anyone?

(Yeah, this is old news in some quarters, but, ready, set, go.)

  1. I.R.S. Records, the record company that released Over the Rhine's first three recordings, went out of business last summer.
  2. Over the Rhine independently released two full-length recordings in the second half of 1996: GOOD DOG BAD DOG The Home Recordings and The Darkest Night of the Year.
  3. Ric subsequently turned in his apple-picking overalls, and left Over the Rhine after seven years as guitar-slinger, to pursue a solo career and to do some producing.
  4. Brian left Over the Rhine for a spell and got engaged to be married, but returned in March to help Linford and Karin write the new swerving chapter of Over the Rhine.
  5. Mike Georgin, formerly of Plow on Boy, is playing fretless bass in the new group.
  6. We'll be adding at least one new member in June.
  7. Over the Rhine has opened up the archives (full of strange and sometimes compelling intimations from the last seven years) and compiled a third independent collection of unreleased songs, out-takes, "live" cuts (including 'My Love is a Fever,' and 'If I'm Drowning,') et cetera. This full length CD called *Besides* is available only to those who join the fan club. We wade into a river, immerse you, and you walk out a Rhinelander, dripping smiles in front of family and friends. Behold all things are become new.
  8. And finally, work-in-progress or not, we've opened our map of the tiny world. We are venturing out again with tweed suitcases full of songs.For I have learned that a good song even partially dressed, can make me shiver and can discover places inside that I didn't know were there... On a good night, a scantily-clad song can be even more alluring than a song fully clothed. Anyway, we'll be looking for you. (The plot thickens.) We'll be looking for your face in Chapter Two.

    Bon Courage,

  9. The Green Rat

Over the Rhine in Concert MAY DATES
(Sur le Rhin)

  • Friday, May 2, Schuba's, Chicago, IL. Two shows: 8 pm, all ages welcome. 10 pm, 21 and over. With Mike Helm.
  • Thursday, May 8, Carnegie Theatre, Covington, KY.
    Emmylou Harris with Over the Rhine.
    Doors open at 7 pm. 8 pm show. (All ages.) Tickets available at Ticketmaster.
  • Friday, May 9, Jammin' on Main, Cincinnati, OH.
    8:05 - 8:50 Cinergy Stage (Between K's Choice and Barenaked Ladies.)
  • Saturday, May 17, Canal Street Tavern, Dayton, OH.
    Doors open at 8 pm. 9:30 show.
  • Sunday, May 18, Staches, Columbus. OH.
    Doors 8 pm. Show 9pm. With Richard Buckner. (The club has a new location.)
  • Thursday, May 22, Cafe Milano, Nashville, TN.
    Live broadcast with WRLT. 9:30 show.
  • Friday, May 23, Downstairs Cafe, Dallas, TX.
    (This is in the basement of Wilshire Baptist Church.) Jump back we're playing a Baptist Church Basement in Texas. Oh my! 7 pm Doors. With Barbara Kessler (7:45 - 8:15) Kirk James (8:30 - 9:15) and Over the Rhine (9:30 - 11:00ish.)
  • Saturday, May 24, Coffee Haus, Dallas, TX.
    (6911 Hillcrest, across from S.M.U. Campus.) 3 pm, all ages welcome. Free acoustic set with Over the Rhine. (We bask in the afterglow, sip mochas, do a few naked tunes, hang out with you in Dallas.)
  • Sunday, May 25, EMO's, Austin, TX.
    Showtime 11:30 pm. This is a late all-ages show. Over the Rhine after midnight! Monday is a holiday.
  • Saturday, May 31, Congratulations Brian and Mallory.

    A few other noteworthy gatherings:

  • On Friday June 20, 1997, Over the Rhine will officially be unveiling the new line-up at Bogarts. It looks like our old buddies from Athens, Georgia will join us.
  • Saturday, June 21, 1997, The Rhinelander Round-up. Stay tuned for details. (For Rhinelanders only.)
    We'll share a meal together, bring out some tall songs, play red rover and dash through some scenes from an Oscar Wilde play if we want.
  • Wednesday, July 2, 1997. C-Stone Fest, Bushnell, IL.
    With The Electrics, Adam Again and The Call. (OTR 8:30-9:45 pm.)
  • Saturday, July 5, 1997, C-Stone Fest, Busnell, IL.
    (OTR 6:30-7:45 pm. with guests.)

We're off to Europe in August. That's all we're saying for now.


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