[OTR Announce] Over the Rhine Update: The Trumpet Child is Coming Soon...

[Announcement list for the band Over The Rhine]

July 2, 2007

Hello from Nowhere Farm,

It's a cool, bright summer morning, a delicious breeze is bending the locust 
trees, three hummingbirds are hovering around Karin's feeder here on the back 
porch, Elroy is stretched out at my feet, Shakey, our Weimarnaer, is off 
exploring. The chipping sparrows have another nest with three grouchy baby birds in 
the little potted pine on our porch, just a foot or so to the right of the 
porch swing. My father said that on the Amish farm of his childhood, the 
chipping sparrows would line their perfectly round little nests with horsetail hair. 
We don't have horses (in spite of the fact that various locals have offered to 
give us their gentle old mares, donkeys etc) so when we see the chipping 
sparrows building their nests, I give Elroy a good brushing and leave the fur in 
the yard. Sure enough, their nests are always lined with his black and white 
hair, the baby sparrows nestled in a black and white Great Dane quilt. We save 
the Elroy-lined nests for our Christmas tree.

And we've had goldfinches this summer - sometimes 6 or 8 at a time in flight 
together, extravagant in the sun. And the bobwhite quail always come in close 
to nest in the golden rod and the blackberries. We leave plenty of wild 
patches for them. We hear them calling back and forth much of the time.

Shakey has turned into a world-class frisbee dog. We whip the frisbee as far 
as we can through the maples and Shakey does his Derek Jeter routine and 
somehow always makes us look good, as he rarely fails to make the catch running at 
full Weimaraner tilt. (He usually manages to grab about three feet of air for 
effect.) Then he circles back with doleful eyes, ears flapping with 
satisfaction, drops the frisbee at our feet and sits and points with his front, right, 
bird dog paw up, waiting for the next throw.

The moon has been full, and a few nights ago I took a midnight bike ride 
along the back roads, through the moonlight drenched fields, the moon tagging 
along over my shoulder, my lungs full of night air. That has to be the holiest 
light on earth.

The coyotes have been howling down in the creek the last few nights, restless 
with the sacredness of it all.

Saturday night, we were driving out of Chicago, and that big moon was 
asserting itself over the skyline, ducking behind the John Hancock building, 
following us home, an excessive, glowing, communion wafer. We are so grateful that we 
can work from city to city and then return home to the farm to these expanses 
of quiet, wake up with our coffee and each other, a little breakfast, the 
everywhere bird song, the breeze, the trees, the sky. And very little else…

And at the end of the day, as you may well know, when it comes to Nowhere 
Farm, we grow songs.

The Trumpet Child is Coming Soon.

Driving home recently, we were talking about balance. How we want to 
increasingly live in the moment. No past. No future. Only now. How we want to be 
thankful for all we've been given and nurture a warm intererior Yes. 

We are able to support ourselves with our music, we are able to make the 
records that we choose to make, we are blessed with opportunities to take our 
music around the world and pass it around, we are surrounded by many good, 
supportive people. We never want to take any of it for granted.

And yet on the other hand, we want to remain hungry. We want to be open to 
going deeper. We don't want to settle. We want to do the work that is required 
of us, work that will allow us to step more fully into our shoes as 
songwriters. We want to grow.

I was talking to a friend a few days ago, a music manager who's been around 
the block, who's observed Over the Rhine for many years since the very early 
days of the band. He said, Linford, Nobody gets bigger 18 years into their 
career. This is crazy. Look what's happening with Over the Rhine!

We had a good laugh and traded a few stories.

But the good news is, Karin and I do believe we're still growing as writers. 
We do feel like our story is still unfolding. We do feel like we're caught up 
in something. And if we quit believing that, we'll come back to the farm and 
put the guitars in their cases and get on with the rest of our lives. We don't 
want to waste anybody's time.

In the meanwhile, we're up for what's next. 

It's all happening.

So, we dressed up a new website for this brand new Trumpet Child chapter. 
(Thanks to Rob Seiffert for his help with this.) Check out OvertheRhine.com for 
all the latest. 

We've started a brand new record label, Great Speckled Dog, and lined our 
nest with Elroy's fur. 

We've got a great team together: Thanks to our Chicago-based manager, Glen 
Phillips, for helping us get this record out the door. Thanks to our NYC-based 
publicists, Diana and Abby at Shore Fire. Thanks to Mark and everyone at 
Skyline, who are putting the finishing touches on our tour this Fall. Thanks to 
everyone at Music Allies - they'll be working to get these songs spread around 
here and there, anywhere adventurous American music is still being played. Thanks 
to our Cincinnati-based road crew: Brandon Dawson, our tour manager who's 
also running our Cincinnati offices, and Dave Foreman, our front-of-house 
engineer. Thanks to Eric and Drew and Michael and Owen as well for years of help. 
Thanks to Jake and Mickey for the present day holy ruckus. And thanks to our 
producer, Brad Jones, and all the musicians who helped us deliver The Trumpet 
Child. Life is good.

Join us at OvertheRhine.com this coming Sunday evening. At 8pm Eastern, we're 
going to give The Trumpet Child its first spin from beginning to end, its 
very own LIVE, world premier webcast. Never done this before. It's a listening 
party, and you're invited. Karin and I will slip into The Orchard chatroom 
afterwards and field any questions, tip our hats to all of you, our extended 
musical family.

You can pre-order a copy (on CD and/or Vinyl!) of The Trumpet Child now at 
OvertheRhine.com and receive three free mp3's immediately. A little taste 
without giving away too many surprises… Those that pre-order will also receive a 
special treat when the CD's ship in August. (We think the extra bit will put a 
smile on your face this time around…)

And finally, many of the CD's in our back catalog are currently on sale for 
$9.99 if you want to fill in a gap or two in your collection, or pick up a gift 
for a friend.

Drop us a line and let us know what's new, what's on your mind. Hopefully 
we'll see you later this Summer and Fall. Quite a few of the tour dates have been 
posted on the site, with more coming soon.

It's all happening.

Enjoy,

Linford (and Karin) 
Over the Rhine

OvertheRhine.com




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