2024 Christmas Tour Thoughts
One December, not long after Over the Rhine began recording and touring, we were invited to perform some seasonal songs on a public radio station in Cincinnati. It was Christmastime and apparently they thought we were up to the task. We worked up a few carols and traditional tunes and Karin even read a poem by Thomas Hardy called, The Oxen.
It actually felt really good and conjured up an unusual mix of feelings from childhood: innocence, loss, wonder, joy, sadness. I think we were surprised.
People must have tuned into the radio broadcast, because we began receiving inquiries as to whether we had recorded any of our Christmas songs. I don’t think we had considered it at the time, but any young, struggling songwriter is open to the suggestions of the marketplace, and people were persistent.
In December of 1996 – can it really be 25+ years ago? – we recorded and released our first song cycle of some of the Christmas carols that still haunted us. We included a few original tunes and called our wintry mix, The Darkest Night Of The Year. We played a special “darkest night” release concert on winter solstice in an old 1300-seat theater in Cincinnati. Every last seat was full. Folks began snatching up copies and seemed to agree that they hadn’t heard anything quite like it.
We began playing concerts around the Midwest every December and found that the rooms were usually packed full of people who had bundled in out of the cold with prized compatriots. Hats and scarves abounded. If you stepped outside during intermission, you could make ghosts with your breath in the crisp night air. And it was dark – oh so dark: a time of year with its own music.
A decade later, in 2006, we released our first full collection of original Christmas/holiday songs called Snow Angels. What is it about Christmas music and the undeniable gravitational pull it exerts on some songwriters? So many Christmas songs have already been written. I think we are genuinely curious about the ones that haven't yet been written.
We continued to tour every December and these special year-winding-down concerts began to feel like an annual tradition – gatherings of extended musical family, without whom, we’d be homeless.
By the time we released our third holiday album of original songs, Blood Oranges In The Snow, in December of 2014, Karin suggested we had discovered a new genre of music: Reality Christmas.
It’s true: if you’ve buried a loved one, or lost a job, or battled a chronic illness, that stuff doesn’t go away during the holidays. It can be a complicated season for many of us.
And then there’s family.
When Karin and I make the annual holiday pilgrimage home to visit family and pull into the driveway and turn off the car, one of us inevitably looks over at the other and says, “Tie a rope around my waist, I’m goin’ in.”
In 2024, many years after releasing our first holiday CD, we are still at it. This year, we will be leaning into some harmonies and making an intimate but hopefully holy ruckus. It won’t be all Christmas music: we’ll certainly mix in tunes from many of our records along the way. But hopefully it’s still true: hopefully you haven’t heard anything quite like it.
Maybe a midnight snow will fall and turn each streetlight into its own private snow globe. Maybe, regardless of whatever reality Christmas brings, we’ll hear a faint echo of a song once rumored to have been sung by angels, a song of peace on earth, goodwill toward all…
We’ve never heard anything quite like it.
We hope you’ll join us,
Linford Detweiler
With Karin close by
Nowhere Else
Clinton County, Ohio
Two new albums! All orders receive instant download access.
Hymn Time In The Land Of Abandon
After three-plus decades of recording as Over the Rhine, Linford and Karin revisit and reimagine a collection of old hymns and gospel songs: “Music that we grew up singing, music as present in our formative years as the air we breathed.”
An early review of an advance copy of Hymn Time, the very first Over the Rhine record made in the barn loft at Nowhere Else, offered this succinct summary:
“Truly lovely—spare, sweet and subtle renderings that transform the familiar into something fresh and new.”
May it be so.
Ten Songs Without Words
Linford Detweiler
Solo Piano
Also among the very first recordings from the barn loft: Linford, alone at a piano, playing Ten Songs Without Words.
“From the very first time I sat down at a piano, I discovered that melodies were available. A river of music was already flowing up above me. When I closed my eyes and pressed a few black and white keys, something beyond words would begin to make itself known. It made it difficult not to believe that music was a miracle of some kind or other.”
“Karin Bergquist may be the finest singer on the alt-country / Americana scene right now, striking the perfect balance between earthy sensuality and ethereal grace.”
– THE NEW YORK TIMES
Nowhere Else Songwriting Workshops
These gatherings are always surprising and nourishing and seem to attract a wealth of memorable and creative folks from near and far. Rarely have we seen friendships and community form so quickly as we all gather to take a deep dive into the mystery called songwriting. Very limited availability; email overtherhineofficial@gmail.com for more info.
Songwriting Workshop — March 14-17, 2025
Anyone is welcome at this workshop. We’ll share some of the most important and useful things we’ve learned in the last 30+ years. You’ll be invited (but not obligated) to offer your songs, and we’ll do some collaborating as well. Please help us spread the word to those you know who may be interested. The workshop experience is all about taking a few steps forward in your songwriting life, regardless of whether you are just starting out, or have been writing and recording for years. We’ve been told the workshop is helpful to writers of any persuasion, not just songwriters. (If you don’t consider yourself a songwriter but love music and records, hopefully this workshop will deepen your ability to listen. We need good listeners too. And you will still have the opportunity to collaborate. You might be surprised.)
Songwriting Workshop, Part 2 — Feb. 21-24, 2025
Open to anyone who has previously attended a songwriting workshop with Karin and Linford, either here on the farm or in Santa Fe. For the last decade (and more) we have been working on what the next steps forward might be for all of us who have already spent time together in a workshop setting. We are ready and excited to convene our third group of workshop alumni to compare notes, dig into lots of writing exercises together and lean into some fresh musical terrain.
Collectibles
We're opening up the archives and offering up vintage posters, out-of-print CDs, vinyl test pressings, and rare apparel pieces.
Ireland Retreat
We're thrilled to announce that we'll be traveling to Ireland in June to participate in our third storytelling and peace building retreat with our friends, Gareth Higgins & Brian Ammons. Getting to spend this time in Ireland with Gareth and Brian will be a gift to all of us who are able to be present. The retreat will offer ample beauty, laughter, music, a few healing tears and warm hospitality. But perhaps most importantly, we will all receive the gift of new stories to tell, new stories that can change the narrative of a heart. We would love to share with you what we can only describe as the trip of a lifetime.
Places are limited and likely to fill up fast — details here.
“Take a trip through this Ohio duo’s music,
and you’ll want to follow them anywhere…”
– USA TODAY