From otrannounce at overtherhine.com Wed Apr 6 11:21:33 2011 From: otrannounce at overtherhine.com (Announcement list for the band Over The Rhine) Date: Wed, 06 Apr 2011 11:21:33 -0400 Subject: [OTR Announce] Over the Rhine: The Long Surrender Tour & more! Message-ID: Dear extended musical family, Hello from Ann Arbor. It has truly been an amazing tour. We?ve been leaning into The Long Surrender like a favorite dancing partner, taking our time with these new songs, and of course pulling a few older ones out of the hat. Thanks a million to all of you warm, breathing, swaying, lively, lovely people who filled the rooms along the way. We are on our way to Milwaukee today, and we have four concerts remaining on this run. The red ribbon of the finish line is in sight. Please spread the word, conspire with a few prized companions and come find us if you dare. It?s not the same without you. THE LONG SURRENDER TOUR Thursday, April 7, Milwaukee, WI, Turner Hall Friday, April 8, Chicago, IL, Lincoln Hall Saturday, April 9, Madison, WI, Majestic Theater Sunday, April 10, Minneapolis, MN, Cedar Cultural Center Very special guest for all shows: Lucy Wainwright Roche Our thanks to the fine band that we currently have on the road: Nick Radina on cuatro, nylon string, electric guitar and percussion Jason Goforth on lap steel, pedal steel, and harmonica orchestra Tim Luntzel on upright bass (our thanks to Rosanne Cash for loaning him to us) Tommy Perkinson on drum kit And to our fantastic crew: Tour manager and guitar tech: JP Scott Front of house sound engineer: Michael Larcey Merch madness and more: Greer Barton Documentarian, merch, social media: Bill Ivester We are still hopeful that we can travel to Japan later this month. AND we have a very special weekend coming up with The Cincinnati Ballet. Three different choreographers have choreographed Over the Rhine songs from Ohio, Drunkard?s Prayer, The Trumpet Child and The Long Surrender, and we?ll be performing live with the dancers for three performances in the beautiful Aronoff Center in Cincinnati. Folks, this one might be worth a road trip. OVER THE RHINE AND THE CINCINNATI BALLET PRESENT: INFAMOUS LOVE SONGS Friday, April 29, Cincinnati, OH, Aronoff Center Saturday, April 30, Cincinnati, OH, Aronoff Center (Matinee and evening performance) We have more dates coming up in May, and don?t forget about our train trip that we have planned for September with Mary Gauthier and Richard Shindell. More details on all at overtherhine.com? Finally, as part of our fundraising campaign last summer, we played Good Dog Bad Dog from tip to toe in front of a small, generous audience at Ric Hordinski?s beautiful Monastery Studio. That concert has been mixed and mastered by the always amazing Paul Mahern and is now available for download: http://overtherhine.portmerch.com/stores/home.php?cat=325 Drop us a note at otrhine at aol.com if you wish. We love hearing from you even if we aren?t always able to respond. Follow the tour in real time on facebook... Well, time to roll. Peace like a river, love like an ocean, Linford and Karin From otrannounce at overtherhine.com Wed Apr 20 14:16:10 2011 From: otrannounce at overtherhine.com (Announcement list for the band Over The Rhine) Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2011 14:16:10 -0400 Subject: [OTR Announce] Over the Rhine: Japan, Cinci Ballet Concerts, Much more In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Greetings friends, Hello from Ohio. We returned home from tour, loaded in the suitcases and guitars and I immediately took an after dark walk around the farm. I had forgotten the physical sensation of feeling bright moonlight on my face with eyes closed. The robins build their nests, but put no eggs in them for awhile. They stand off at a distance for a few days and wait to see what happens. If nothing extraordinary occurs, then they go ahead and put the beautiful blue eggs in the nest. Again, it?s a wonder the mourning doves have any offspring at all. They pick the most inane places for their flimsy nests, which often blow away before they?re completed. Our neighbor said they saw a full-grown male ring-necked pheasant in our front yard, but we haven?t seen him. We have begun to hear the bobwhite though, and the elegant barn swallows are back. Their flight always sends a shiver down the spine. It?s been cool, wet, a little stormy in Ohio. Was good to be home for a spell. Thank you to all of you who joined us on our Long Surrender Tour from Boston to Minneapolis. Truly, an amazing run? Here is some of the latest Over the Rhine news: JAPAN. Karin and I are hopping on a jet tomorrow and flying to Japan. We are going to offer our songs in a spirit of healing and support at Watching The Sky Festival, April 24, and at AOYAMA CAY in Tokyo, April 25. We know we will receive far more than we could ever give. ABC?s BROTHERS AND SISTERS: Fans of Kim Taylor and Over the Rhine may want to tune in this coming Sunday evening, April 24. :0) INFAMOUS LOVE SONGS: Over the Rhine performs LIVE with the Cincinnati Ballet on April 29 and 30. Three Performances! Three nationally-known choreographers have choreographed 19 of our songs in three acts. We perform live with the dancers at the beautiful Aronoff Center. Join us! MAY CONCERTS: OtR ON TOUR: Upcoming dates in Ohio, Virginia, Delaware, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee! Check out overtherhine.com Over the Rhine: Conversations on a Musical Train: September 23-29, 2011, with amazing guests Mary Gauthier, Richard Shindell, Michael Wilson and more. Join us for a musical train ride, mountains, hot springs, outdoor fires and lots of music. Yes, overtherhine.com for more on all the above. Peace like a river, Love like an ocean, Linford and Karin From otrannounce at overtherhine.com Mon May 16 23:25:39 2011 From: otrannounce at overtherhine.com (Announcement list for the band Over The Rhine) Date: Mon, 16 May 2011 23:25:39 -0400 Subject: [OTR Announce] Lift a glass of something good Message-ID: Dear friends, compatriots, co-conspirators, fellow travelers, A late night dispatch from the farm? One year ago today, Karin and I walked into The Garfield House in South Pasadena, California, for the first time. Many of you who had found Over the Rhine?s music and given it a good life had stepped forward in advance of our trip and pitched hard-earned money into an imaginary hat that we passed all over the world to make this particular adventure possible. Our producer, Joe Henry (also a songwriter, performer, recording artist, writer, husband and father) had assembled a band of musicians that would soon help The Garfield House lift off the ground, drift out over the Pacific Ocean, and blow apart. I?m happy to remember that even though we got the songs out over the deep sea and had to hit the life boats, Joe Henry got us all safely back to shore. Without being too metaphorical, musically speaking, it was truly the week of a lifetime for us. We started on a Monday afternoon, May 17. The first two songs we recorded that first afternoon were Sharpest Blade (co-written with Joe, and The Laugh of Recognition, written by Karin.) We wrapped the following Friday afternoon, May 21. The record is full of a number of ?first takes?. The band felt like a beautiful dancing partner. We just wanted to lean in, close our eyes and take the ride. We called it The Long Surrender. One year later, even now we find ourselves needing to thank not only our captain, Joe Henry, but Ryan Freeland, the engineer who recorded and mixed the following cast of conjurers so beautifully: Jay Bellerose (all manner of drums, weather, a one man marching band) David Piltch (upright bass, electric bass, masonry, scaffolding) Greg Leisz (pedal steel, lap steel, mando cello, tenor guitar and things I don?t know what to call) Keefus Ciancia (outdated keyboards, moonlit orchestra in a box) Patrick Warren (Chamberlin, reed organ, expansion coordinator) Levon Henry (tenor saxophone, guardian angel appearing in the 3rd act) And our soul singers: Niki Haris Jean McClain James Gilstrap And finally, Lucinda Williams, who leaned into the song Undamned in front of our eyes, trading lines with Karin, reminding us all that tears of joy and sadness do indeed well from the same place. And if you have invited these songs to be a part of your life, you too have our gratitude. Thank God for music. If you haven?t yet heard The Long Surrender, please visit overtherhine.com or any fine upstanding record store and jump off the high dive into the deep end. Don?t be shy now. It?s not the same without you. Karin and I can?t remember a time we have been called upon to work harder than we?ve worked in the last few months since the release of The Long Surrender. We were privileged to take our first trip to Japan recently and offer songs at an outdoor festival, as well as on a few radio stations and in a music venue in Tokyo. Songs like Latter Days, Days Like This and All My Favorite People feel different in a country still grieving 27,000 dead or missing. We arrived as students and listeners and found so much to absorb. There had been four small earthquakes (by their standards) the day before we arrived. Our host, Hajime, explained to us that there was nothing we could do by worrying to change this reality they lived with. In fact, if we experienced an earthquake, he explained there was really no way to control what was happening ? it?s impossible to predict whether it?s safer to stay inside or run outside. The important thing regardless of events beyond our control was to embrace the moment in front of us gracefully and surrender the rest. The food, the kindness we experienced, and a pristine, sunny, embryonic Easter Sunday Morning in Japan were unforgettable. Thanks to all who found us on this trip and made us feel so welcome ? we hope to see you again soon. The day after we got back from Japan, we rehearsed with the band for 8 hours to prepare for two dress rehearsals and three performances with the Cincinnati Ballet, a company of 33 dancers from around the world. Three choreographers had worked up a program in three acts set to 20 of our songs, which we performed live as a collaboration with the dancers. There certainly aren?t enough pages available in this letter to describe what happened, but it was another highlight of our 20 years of making music together. And so moving: Karin had to close her eyes during the songs Only God Can Save Us Now, and Who Will Guard The Door (the first written about her mother, the second about her father shortly after his death) in order to be able to sing them while they bloomed in front of us on stage. The good news is there is already talk of trying this again, or taking it to another city, or, or, or??? (C?mon P&G or GE or Great American Insurance Company: we need a sponsor.) Last week we made a quick visit to Calgary and Winnipeg and offered some music as part of an evening?s conversation with our good friend, editor of Image journal, Greg Wolfe. We were reminded of the years I spent as a young teen on the prairies of Alberta. Perhaps I haven?t fully acknowledged the influence those wide open spaces must have had on my songwriting. But we do hope we can visit more often. So, on the ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of the recording of The Long Surrender, lift a glass of something good with us and mark your calendars: Tuesday, May 17th: NPR?s WORLD CAF? airs our interview with David Dye, and our performance of several songs from The Long Surrender. Listen in on your local NPR station, or stream online. OVER THE RHINE IN CONCERT: (more info at overtherhine.com) Wednesday, May 18th: CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA: Jefferson Theater, with very special guest, Kim Taylor (writer of the song, Days Like This, recently featured on ABC?s Brothers and Sisters?) Thursday, May 19th, WILMINGTON, DE: 11th Annual Non-Comm(vention) with The Civil Wars, Bright Eyes, Justin Townes Earle, The Jayhawks and many more. SOLD OUT. (Our set Thursday evening will be broadcast on WXPN out of Philadelphia. Stream online.) Tuesday, May 24th, ST. LOUIS, MO: Old Rock House, with very special guest, Sarah Siskind Wednesday, May 25th, LOUISVILLE, KY: WATERFRONT WEDNESDAYS. With Harper Blynn and Cabin: an evening of music in the open air to calm the Ohio River, and help spring arrive. ***FREE SHOW.*** THANK YOU WFPK! Friday and Saturday, May 27 and 28: DAYTON, OH: Canal Street Tavern, our living room away from home, with very special guest, Sarah Siskind Sunday, May 29, NASHVILLE, TN: Third and Lindsley: with very special guest, Sarah Siskind. LIVE BROADCAST ON WRLT. Tune in, or stream online. Recently announced! Our beautiful wknd in the South: Thursday, June 16: CHARLOTTE, NC: The Visulite Theatre, with very special guest, Lucy Wainwright Roche Friday, June 17: ATLANTA, GA: Variety Playhouse, with very special guest, Lucy Wainwright Roche Saturday, June 18: ASHEVILLE, NC: The Orange Peel, with very special guest, Lucy Wainwright Roche Check out overtherhine.com for more, including info on our appearance at Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle, and a weeklong, musical train trip we have planned for September with Mary Gauthier, Richard Shindell and Michael Wilson. A week of mountains, open fires, evenings of music, hot springs, new friendships formed. (We wouldn?t encourage you to jump in on something like this if we lived more than once.) Hope we can be together soon one way or t?other. Peace like a river, love like an ocean, Linford and Karin of Over the Rhine PS Please circulate this information freely. Orphaned believers, skeptical dreamers, you?re welcome. You can stay right here. You don?t have to go. From otrannounce at overtherhine.com Fri Jun 10 15:05:21 2011 From: otrannounce at overtherhine.com (Announcement list for the band Over The Rhine) Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:05:21 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [OTR Announce] A letter from Over the Rhine Message-ID: Dear extended musical family, Well, after 20-some-odd years in the music business, songwriting, recording, releasing projects, touring in the USA and abroad, performing on radio stations, the occasional tv show, on moving trains, on a ship at sea, outdoor festivals, headlining our own Over the Rhine shows, supporting more well-known artists on the road, being on and off record labels, running our own label along the way at various points, working with publishers and distributors large or small while all the while remaining fiercely independent of spirit? One begins to feel as if one has seen it all. But if I know only one thing for sure this morning here on Nowhere Farm: We have not seen it all. Take our Friday evening show at Canal Street Tavern a few weeks ago. Into this storied listening room in Dayton (if you had a good arm you could throw a baseball into the nearby minor league ball park) we have brought our suitcases full of songs old and new over the course of much of our career, to offer them in a space that feels like our living room away from home. It?s not a big place, so people arrive early before doors open and take their place on the sidewalk with their books to read, or a box of chocolate chip cookies from a favorite recipe to share, and the line grows down the block, and it feels a bit like vanishing America, people standing around on a sidewalk trading war stories, laughing, cells vibrating a bit in the context of a group of human beings leaning together in the same direction, flesh and blood. But then shortly after the doors opened two ducks arrived and got in line. A male and a female mallard? Allow me to repeat that: TWO DUCKS. I didn?t see any of this and I didn?t dream any of it ? it was reported to me by multiple witnesses. The female duck seemed to be in charge (?!) and when doors opened she walked up the steps to enter the venue beckoning to the somewhat skeptical male to follow. It was as if she wanted to buy a ticket. She may as well have been smoking a cigarette. A duck walks into a bar? Apparently, several concerned concert-goers ran to their cars to retrieve food for the temporarily earthbound water fowl in case they were hungry. They were ambivalent, but seemed intent on seeing the show. When no one provided them with paper tickets, they milled around for awhile, and eventually left. I heard multiple accounts of this story because much earlier that day in the state of New York, our friend Keith had purchased us a celebratory bottle of wine in anticipation of the unfolding evening. He had asked the wine shop owner to recommend something good and he had. The wine, a big California blend, 2007 vintage, of 72% Zinfandel, 18% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot and 1% Cabernet Franc is called Paraduxx. The label looks like a beautiful old postage stamp. It?s printed on uncoated paper and has a painting of two ducks on it: hooded mergansers to be exact. When Keith handed us the bottle after the show, the previous story came out (as if being uncorked) from several bystanders, and was confirmed by the ticket takers and merch sales people in the entrance of the venue. Apparently everyone knew about it except me. If you can help us with any of the symbolism here, please write to us at: OTRhine at aol.com (Karin requests photographs, as well, please.) As a writer, I know there?s something here. But I do not know what. I would have to write to find out. No. We have not seen everything. I?ve realized often that when it comes to wine, or coffee, or the occasional enjoyment of a fine cigar (the tobacco thereof grown in the light of some island sun) I?m drawn to blends. I?d like to think that the music of Over the Rhine is a blend, different strains of American music (gospel, country & western, rock & roll, old hymns, scratchy jazz 78?s) being poured together like wine through the ache of a heart to bleed something beautiful into the veins of the world. I won?t lie to you. There are certainly moments on the road when exhaustion sets in. (We?ve noticed that hotel rooms are increasingly becoming toxic environments ? it seems to be getting worse ? rooms designed without the possibility of opening a window ? chemical cleaners ? chemicals used to prevent bedbug breakouts ? new carpets off-gassing into a closed system ? central air conditioning units that become moldy ? it all takes a toll on a respiratory system.) (Flying on an airplane has hit an all-time low in the enjoyment and comfort department. It used to be kind of special to get on an airplane. The good news is it has gotten so laughably uncomfortable to travel by air, that it has to begin improving in the very near future. I think we?ve hit bottom.) And there is a lot of uncertainty that goes along with trying to offer the world something beautiful for a living. I cannot imagine what picking up a check every two weeks would feel like. In the last 20 years, it has been all over the map. Truly an adventure, but thank God I married a woman with a high tolerance for risk. We live life without a safety net. We discover we are survivors. But I do have the following spiritual exercise handed to me often. Whenever I begin to feel that my life is particularly difficult, I can open the mail. I can read about the father holding the hand of his son who just passed away from cancer at 3:30am, thanking us for signing that CD that they listened to, for the exchange of a few notes. Miraculously, it meant something, provided some small sacrament of comfort. I can read about the 19-year-old girl that stumbled into a tent on a pig farm with friends to discover us playing on a stage after midnight. How (she continues) she felt something she could not name beckoning her, 19-years-old, pregnant, scared, overwhelmed. How she picked up a CD (Good Dog Bad Dog) and went home and pointed the speakers at her growing stomach, over weeks and months and especially played the song The Seahorse to the unseen baby that she gave up for adoption, and how that song still connects her to that child. Now she?s in her thirties, and after a journey of counseling and healing, she?s married and expecting again, and this time she?s going to keep the baby, and the music is still playing. And I can hear a voice saying: You?ve never lost a child You?ve never been asked to leave loved ones behind and go to Iraq or Afghanistan armed to the teeth You?ve never faced a life-threatening illness You?ve never missed a meal You?ve never slept in the rain Etc. My life is not that hard. (My sister reminded me, laughing, that actually we did miss a few meals as kids and did sleep in the rain, but as far as the rain, I think it was just the one time? I suspect we?ll get into all that someday in our respective memoirs.) I picked up Karin yesterday evening at the airport. She had been doing more recording at The Garfield House in South Pasadena (with friend and brother Joe Henry). We stopped at a favorite caf? on the way to the farm and traded stories and laughed and the wine flowed, and we had so much to talk about (and laugh about) just being apart a few days that I was wondering if people thought that we were caught up in some new romance. I hope we didn?t turn too many heads. Life continues to be a mixture of joy and sorrow and laughter and pain and small victories that offer cause for celebration. Thank God for music. +++ We are taking the six-piece band out on the road for a few potentially unforgettable summer evenings. We are going to swing for the fences. We are going to put the songs right into your wheelhouse. Drink some sweet tea. (Ducks optional.) We are bringing along our friend and compatriot, Lucy Wainwright Roche, a girl with a quiver full of stories and songs of her own that need to be shared. PASTE PRESENTS OVER THE RHINE IN CONCERT, with special guest Lucy Wainwright Roche* (THIS) THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 2011, CHARLOTTE, NC, VISULITE THEATER* FRIDAY, JUNE 17, ATLANTA, GA, VARIETY PLAYHOUSE* SATURDAY, JUNE 18, ASHEVILLE, NC, THE ORANGE PEEL* +++ FRIDAY, JUNE 24, SHAKORI HILLS, NC, WILD GOOSE FESTIVAL (OtR 9pm) +++ THURSDAY, JULY 7, AKRON, OH, STAN HYWET HALL AND GARDENS +++ CONVERSATIONS ON A MUSICAL TRAIN: Don?t forget about our train ride, September 22-29. Join us with special guests Mary Gauthier, Richard Shindell, Michael Wilson and more, for music, hot springs, mountains and trains ? the week of a lifetime. Overtherhine.com for details. More to come. Peace like a river, love like an ocean, Linford and Karin of Over the Rhine ps Please share the above freely. Orphaned believers, skeptical dreamers, you?re welcome. You can stay right here. You don?t have to go.