[OTR Announce] Over the Rhine Update Letter
Announcement list for the band Over The Rhine
otrannounce at overtherhine.com
Fri Nov 16 12:52:09 EST 2007
Hello all,
We returned home to the farm to chilly fall weather. The old maples had
waited for us: they still had their leaves and have slowly blushed crimson and
rusty yellow in the last week or so as if on cue. The first mildly shocking thing
upon arriving home was the absence of birds and butterflies. The hummingbirds
were gone, the songbirds had all but vanished. The silence is stunning -
mostly just the sound now of the restless wind through the trees and pines.
The bluejays assert themselves in this new silence - their monosyllabic
diatribes reverberate through the woods. The bluejays seemed to be everywhere when
we got back, and it wasn't long before the hawks noticed. We have twice found
circles of neatly plucked bluejay feathers in the field, like the dying embers
of a blue fire.
Of course, the cardinals are still here leaving the occasional smear of red
in the air - the tip of God's paintbrush. The blackbirds and grackles do their
dizzy maneuvers, little black undulating clouds morphing just above the
harvested fields. And occasionally, cozy little birds of a dusty blue grey make
themselves known in the bushes, stealthy and bright-eyed - birds that I can't
name, which I assume must be Canadian, just passing through.
The second mildly shocking thing was Elroy got skunked on our very first
after dark walk - the first night we were home. He trotted over to the weeds to
fish lip a dark moving animal and took a direct blast to the head. Wow. I
carried the 20 guage around for a few days, but haven't seen hide nor hair of the
offender. Fortunately, Karin has a special potion that a local farmer gave her
(involving peroxide, baking soda and dish soap). She got the Great Dane
smelling pretty good all things considered. But it was pretty ripe around here for a
few days. Oh well, that's the price you pay as a dog for waking up every
morning surrounded by 1500 acres of not too much.
This is the time of year when we can begin to see the end of a long road. I
wouldn't want to count the number of miles we've traveled since late July, and
we have more miles to go, but we can now begin to see the finish line. Now we
feel always that sweet tiredness that comes from having given the best that we
could muster, the hard-won exhaustion of seeing a long road through to the
end. As the darkness arrives earlier each evening, we hunker down as much as
possible at home in the old farm house in the warm lamp light. But I do love
sneaking out later and walking alone after dark through the blustery fields,
seeing the mist rolling in around the house. I'm an incurable night walker.
The finish line. In our case, it's our annual hometown Christmas concert at a
beautiful, historic, 2600 seat theater, followed by a little party that we
throw in a ragged old cathedral the following afternoon. We invite anyone to
attend and to our surprise, people from all around the world accept the
invitation.
We hope you can make it this year on Saturday, December 15, for the concert,
and Sunday afternoon, December 16, at 3pm for what we're calling our Snow
Angels Soiree: Chuck will be serving his impeccable lattes, we'll have some drink
and assorted refreshment, some acoustic music, some spoken word, some
conversation, dozens and dozens of slightly used roses.
We continue to marvel at the unique symbiotic relationship we have with our
extended musical family. We look back on all the miles and ask ourselves, How
did we just do all that? Often it simply comes down to the energy and
enthusiasm of an audience propping us up. On a good night, something takes over that's
bigger than all of us. Bigger than the caffeine, the drugs, the sleeping
pills, the women of the night that constantly surround us…
(Just wanted to make sure you were still with me…)
We'll try to bottle hints of the elusive magic again on the limited edition
series we began a few years ago called, Live From Nowhere. Hard to believe
we'll be up to Live From Nowhere Volume Three already, after this year. You can
pre-order your limited edition copy now. We'll include as many musical
highlights as we can from The Trumpet Child and Snow Angels tours, including reworked
versions of some older Over the Rhine songs, and maybe a surprise or two.
Should be fun.
So check out OvertheRhine.com for details and much more.
And I shouldn't get too far ahead of myself: we've got miles to go before we
sleep.
Once again, we're looking for a few good volunteers to sell our wares in each
city at our concerts. Who better for the job than folks who have actually
listened to the music. If you'd be willing to help us out pls send an e-mail to
merch at overtherhine.com. Pls put MERCH VOLUNTEER/CITY/DATE in the subject
heading. Include your contact info in the body of the e-mail. If you don't hear
back, now worries, it just means we're covered. Thanks again.
Here are the remaining dates this year…
This weekend:
This Friday, November 16, Canton, Ohio, Malone College. SOLD OUT. (Yes, our
alma mater, the liberal arts college where Karin and I first made tentative
music together. No tickets remain, but come sit in the hallway if you're in the
neighborhood...)
Saturday, November 17, Dayton, Ohio, Canal Street Tavern. SOLD OUT. (One of
our favorite listening rooms and the only venue in America where we play two
sets. Tradition. Limited standing room only tickets will be made available the
night of the show.)
Sunday, November 18, Cincinnati, Ohio, The Taft Theater. The Cincinnati
Entertainment Awards. (We'll be playing a short set to kick off the proceedings.
Thanks to CityBeat and to all who nominated us for Album of the Year and Best
Cincinnati Musical Ambassador…)
***
Short break at the farm. You can be sure we'll trim our tree early. Karin
will festoon the old staircase (so it will all be waiting when we arrive home).
Vince Guaraldi will suddenly be in heavy rotation.
***
OVER THE RHINE SNOW ANGELS TOUR 2007
Saturday, November 24, Chicago, Illinois, Old Town School of Folk Music. Two
Shows! Special Guest Griffin House. (Wonderful venue in a fab neighborhood in
one of America's greatest Live Music cities.)
Sunday, November 25, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Cedar Cultural Center. (Finally.
Looking forward to seeing all of you - our first appearance at this venue -
we've heard good things.)
Tuesday, November 27, Madison, Wisconsin, Majestic Theater. (Great city to
visit during the holidays - you'll probably see Karin and I bundled up wandering
around with our hot coffees exploring.)
Wednesday, November 28, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Miramar Theater. (Go Packers.)
Friday, November 30, Kent, Ohio, Kent Stage. (Beautiful old theater, red
velvet seats, piano with a broken heart…)
Saturday, December 1, Columbus, Ohio. Private show.
Sunday, December 2, Ann Arbor, Michigan, The Ark. (Always one of our favorite
stops on the Christmas Tour. Another great town to walk around in during the
holidays.)
Friday, December 7, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Calvin College Fine Arts Center.
(Wonderful venue - we still aspire to be the Calvin College House Band.)
Sunday, December 9, Goshen, Indiana, Goshen Theater. (Karin and I ended up in
this area on our backroads Midwestern honeymoon. We hit the Shipshewana
Antique Auction, and to our knowledge, this is the only place in the world you can
find a hotel room with genuine handmade Amish quilts, oak furnithure and an
ultra-modern hot tub.)
Tuesday, December 11, Nashville, Tennessee, Belcourt Theater. (Our first
headline show at this historic venue. Hope you can join us. Thanks to WRLT for all
their help with this one. Look for some additional musicians to appear.)
Wednesday, December 12, Indianapolis, Indiana, The Music Mill. (Hopefully we
won't have to drive through 10 hours of snow this time.)
Thursday, December 13, Lexington, Kentucky, The Kentucky Theater, with
Michelle Shocked. (Our first headline show at this historic venue. Thanks to all at
Woodsongs for their help.)
Saturday, December 15, Cincinnati, Ohio, The Taft Theater, with Michelle
Shocked. (Join us in our hometown for our final concert of a very big year in this
stunning venue. Always a special evening. Tickets are selling fast. Special
thanks to WNKU for all their support over the years. Note: tickets are
available at OvertheRhine.com w/o expensive service charges.)
Sunday, December 16, Cincinnati, Ohio, (Norwood): The Snow Angels Soiree at
Saint Elizabeths. (3pm. Join us for an afternoon of conversation, drink,
festive food, impeccable lattes, an acoustic performance by Over the Rhine and some
spoken word and Q&A. We'll bask in the afterglow together. See
OvertheRhine.com for ticket info.)
That's the finish line. Then we disappear for 6 weeks. In late January we
head to Florida and Texas (finally) and parts unknown.
Hope to see you soon and thanks again for everything, As my wife likes to
say, without you we'd be homeless.
Lookin' forward,
Linford (and Karin)
Pls feel free to pass this letter around to family and friends. Perhaps parts
of it are fridge-worthy.
**************************************
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