
2023 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 over 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 2023, more than 25 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
Upcoming Shows
Over the Rhine
Date | City | Venue |
---|---|---|
Sep 22 - Sep 25 | Martinsville, OH | The Barn at Nowhere Else |
Time: 5:00pm. Songwriting Workshop Sold Out More information | ||
Oct 07 | Belfast | The Black Box |
Time: 8:00pm. Buy Tickets | ||
Oct 11 | Utrecht, Netherlands | TivoliVredenburg |
Time: 8:15pm. Buy Tickets | ||
Oct 12 | Wageningen | Junushoff |
Time: 8:30pm. Buy Tickets | ||
Oct 13 | Rotterdam, Netherlands | LantarenVester |
Time: 8:30pm. Buy Tickets | ||
Oct 14 | Groningen | Spot Groningen |
Time: 8:30pm. Buy Tickets | ||
Nov 09 | Seattle, WA | The Triple Door |
Time: 7:30pm. Buy Tickets | ||
Nov 10 | Seattle, WA | The Triple Door |
Time: 7:30pm. Buy Tickets | ||
Nov 11 | Portland, OR | The Old Church Concert Hall |
Time: 7:30pm. Buy Tickets | ||
Dec 01 | Kent, OH | Kent Stage |
Time: 7:30pm. Buy Tickets | ||
Dec 02 | Grand Rapids, MI | Calvin College |
Time: 8:00pm. Buy Tickets | ||
Dec 03 | Chicago, IL | Old Town School of Folk Music |
Time: 7:30pm. Buy Tickets | ||
Dec 05 | Ann Arbor, MI | The Ark |
Time: 8:00pm. Buy Tickets | ||
Dec 06 | Pittsburgh | City Winery Pittsburgh |
Time: 8:00pm. Buy Tickets | ||
Dec 07 | Alexandria, VA | The Birchmere |
Time: 7:30pm. Buy Tickets | ||
Dec 08 | Philadelphia | City Winery |
Time: 7:30pm. Buy Tickets | ||
Dec 10 | Boston, MA | City Winery |
Time: 7:30pm. Buy Tickets | ||
Dec 15 | Cincinnati, OH | Memorial Hall |
Time: 8:00pm. Buy Tickets | ||
Dec 16 | Cincinnati, OH | Memorial Hall |
Time: 8:00pm. Buy Tickets | ||
Dec 17 | Cincinnati, OH | Memorial Hall |
Time: 4:00pm. Buy Tickets |
Nowhere Else Songwriting Workshops!
Come join us on the farm for a deep dive into this beautiful mystery called songwriting. Very limited availability. Email overtherhineofficial@gmail.com for tickets.
July 14-17, 2023: Songwriting Workshop, Part 2
Open to those who have previously attended a songwriting workshop with Karin and Linford.
September 22-25, 2023: Songwriting Workshop
Anyone is welcome at this workshop during one of the most beautiful times of the year in Ohio.

“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
Over the Rhine’s latest
studio album Love & Revelation
available now!
“An album of loping ballads and probing lyricism that addresses grief, loss and what it means to be an American in a conflicted country. But Love & Revelation, like Over the Rhine itself, is ultimately about restoration and perseverance.”
- Rolling Stone
“Take a trip through this Ohio duo’s music,
and you’ll want to follow them anywhere…”
– USA TODAY
