Eve turns up the volume on the blind. My word she's a trip. Eve is Karin Bergquist in a lime-green evening gown and combat boots. Now she's got the whole world in her hands and she takes a bite and spits out the seeds, and grins. Eve is Over the Rhine putting their soul up for sale and the whole world asking, "Could you take any less."

Eve is Ric announcing that he will be playing all the guitars on the record and Karin saying, "Oh no you're not." Eve is coming apart at the seams. She's been hanging out in too many dives and has had one too many beer-breathed men stumble toward her saying, "You guys ROCK," as if that's supposed to be some kind of compliment. Eve is a microcosm of the fall of man, a captain's journal of unmoored spiritual bearings, a woman lost at sea who sort of knows where she's going but hasn't yet been able to put it into words. Eve is more than the loss of innocence, it's not being able to remember for the time being what innocence feels like. Eve suggests that sometimes the only way to touch hope is to step into a ring and lace up the gloves and put on a blindfold.

Karin, during an interview in Los Angeles, once described Ric's solo at the end of Daddy Untwisted as follows: "You can be sitting with your hair up and your blouse all buttoned, but when that Les Paul comes in, your hair comes down and everything flies off."

Eve is a record by a band determined to play above the noise of the crowd in a sweaty, smoky room. Eve is a record by a band in the slow process of learning that a young girl leaning forward and confiding something she's thought about is infinitely more alluring than a shiny stripper in New Jersey trying to get a bunch of people to yell.

Eve was the record Over the Rhine had to make in order to know what they were never going to be, and ultimately didn't want anyway. And what a record she is. Eve alienated dozens of critics who had hailed Patience as one of the previous year's best, but she won the band new and different supporters in the press who were drawn to the album's diversity and attitude. Hundreds in the industry thought Over the Rhine had a hit on their hands. Happy With Myself? did receive considerable modern rock airplay, but IRS Records was disintegrating all around the band, a fitting metaphor for the themes of decline and fall that pervade the recording.

Trina Shoemaker recorded much of the project, one of her first, and later went on to win Grammy Awards for her work with Sheryl Crow.

Take Eve out to the car, fasten your seatbelt, start the engine, point the car at some corner of the world a long way from home, turn the volume knob clockwise and don't look back.

KARIN BERGQUIST, vocals
RIC HORDINSKI, acoustic and electric guitars, lap steel
BRIAN KELLEY, drums and percussion
LINFORD DETWEILER, bass and keyboard instruments
Eve is dedicated to the memory of Rainer (Mr. Spoons) Bergquist, 1926 - 1994.

Happy With Myself? (3:43)
words: Bergquist and Detweiler
music: Bergquist

Within Without (4:26)
words: Detweiler
music: Detweiler, Hordinski and Bergquist

Should (4:36)
words: Detweiler and Bergquist
music: Bergquist

Conjectures Of A Guilty Bystander (5:13)
words: Detweiler
music: Detweiler and Hordinski

Melancholy Room (3:59)
words: Detweiler, Hordinski and Bergquist
music: Hordinski, Bergquist and Detweiler

Sleep Baby Jane (4:59)
words: Detweiler and Bergquist
music: Detweiler, Bergquist and Hordinski

Daddy Untwisted (5:08)
words: Detweiler and Bergquist
music: Hordinski and Bergquist

Birds (3:38)
words and music: Bergquist and Detweiler

June (5:26)
words: Detweiler
music: Detweiler and Bergquist

My Love Is A Fever (4:11)
words: Detweiler
music: Detweiler and Hordinski

Falling (Death Of A Tree) (6:04)
words and music: Detweiler

All songs Sony Tunes Inc./GMMI Inc./ Scampering Songs Publishing. ASCAP.

All songs produced and arranged by Over the Rhine.

Eve was recorded and mixed by Trina Shoemaker. Should, Birds, June and Bothered were recorded and mixed by Gene Andrusco. Sleep Baby Jane was recorded by Trina, mixed by Gene.

Eve was recorded in a barn at Longview Farm, North Brookfield, MA. Fran Flannery assisted. Eve was mixed at Kingsway Studio in New Orleans, LA., and mastered by Greg Calbi at Masterdisk in New York, NY. Additional guitar parts for Within Without, Guilty and Sleep Baby Jane were recorded by Ric in his basement. Karin played acoustic guitar on Happy With Myself? Brian sang some syllables on Should. Chris Dahlgren played upright bass on Bothered. Bill Dillon played additional sustained guitars on Falling.

The photographs are by Michael Wilson.
Design by Owen Brock at Zender + Associates, Inc., and by Linford.

Thank you Donna Howell, Shelly Ross, Jimmy D., Todd Kearby, the Wilsons, the Brocks, the Zenders, Kyle Taylor, Gerd Muller, Ken Fullam, Jay Bolotin, Jeff Bell, Matthew and Lucy, Robin Joyce, Dick and Jill, Thomas Allen, Stefan Grey, Barbara Bergquist, Stella Chesser, the Bergquist and Thollander families, Lisa Butler, Carol-Margaret, Nick and Molly, Chris Glenn, Dan Donovan, Leslie Waddell, Misty Hughes, Riki Michele, the Mallonee family, Dave B., P.O. Boy, Blue Lou, Chris Carero, Cross Eyed Cat, Dan Dawson, P. Dots, Steve D., Stanfield G., R. Head, John J., Jarrod, Kaldi's, The Art Monke Trio, Tyler Phelps, T.J., various Whigs, C. Wire, Vigilantes of Love, Doc Phillips, Allie and the Hoppers, the Nagels, Daniel Straub, Twin Imports, Mark Strine, Tim McAllister, Dave H., Chris Hart, Jeff C., and Meyer·Vogelpohl.

Thanks to Bonnie, Peaches and the good folks and creatures at Longview.

Thanks to Trina Shoemaker. You rule. Thanks to Karen Brady and Bill and Barb Dillon. Thanks to Gene. The camera pans back...

Very special thanks from Brian to Mallory for endless support.
Ric thanks Karen Jean: "I were but little happy, if I could say how much."

Equipment thanks: Bodine Guitars, D'Addario Strings, Jimmy D's Music, Fender Electric Instruments, Schmidlin's Superior Service, Washburn Acoustic Guitars.

Our sincere gratitude to the many at I.R.S. Records who have become our friends. Thanks to The Imaginary Apple Orchard for apples.

"If music is, as the late composer Morton Feldman suggested, a system by which silences are arranged, which breaks up the eternal before it flows back to itself, then Cincinnati's Over the Rhine is one of the finest practitioners of that system. With a sound that is equal parts silence, open ambiguous space, rock and roll, and something indefinable, Over the Rhine is not just mysterious, it is mystery itself. Mature, visionary song writing... This is music that, at its heart, contains life's paradoxical elements-conflict, resolution, aesthetic beauty and ugliness, indecision, eros and pain, to name a few."
- Thom Jurek,
Detroit Metro Times

"Over the Rhine is impossible to categorize; their music contains elements of jazz, rock and blues, but they create a sound unmistakably their own. They play music so rich with surprises and imagery that it's a mystery why they aren't more popular. "Eve" opens with "Happy With Myself?," a rollicking song of self-affirmation and ends with "Falling (Death of a Tree)," a lyrical love song. Lead singer Karin Bergquist's compelling voice is a perfect match for the mystical songs she and bassist Linford Detweiler write."
- Nancy Stetson,
The Chicago Tribune

"L.A. Confidential, Places to Be: Over the Rhine's release party for Eve at Luna Park..."
- Rolling Stone

"Over the Rhine smartly builds its music around the beautiful voice of Karin Bergquist. If you can get through this disc without falling in love with her--this goes for men and women alike--it may be time for the 3000-mile tuneup."
- Phil Sheridan, Magnet, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

"An absolute masterpiece and without question one of the finest releases of the year. We here at the office have become hopelessly addicted to it, which is apparently what happens to people who are exposed to Over the Rhine's intoxicating sound. I want to tell everyone about them."
- Tracy Hammond, Vermont Collegian, Burlington, Vermont

"Brilliant and empowering, an aural and intellectual stimulant."
- Kris Gamache, Texas Triangle, Austin, Texas

"Best Local Musician to Fantasize About: Karin Bergquist of Over the Rhine. Best Local Band to Travel to Another City to See: IRS signed them, they sell out every time they play Cincinnati. Their "eve of Eve" concert is still being talked about and their show at the Emery Theatre has been likened to a religious experience. Congrats to Over the Rhine for being voted best band..."
- Everybody's News, Critics and Readers

"Carefully straddling the lines between surreal dreaminess, folksy charm and earthy pop, OTR's music is textured and fully detailed, yet easily accessible with a simple, sweet appeal."
- B-Side Magazine

"The third time is the charm in the case of this Ohio quartet. A free-flowing exercise, Eve gets off right with the loose pop sounds of "Happy With Myself?" then continues to groove hypnotically..."
- Cashbox

"Over the Rhine delivers the startling new album "Eve," a pop masterpiece which is stunning in its range. Behind the enchanting and versatile voice of Karin Bergquist, this absorbing band creates a hypnotic blend of diverse songs which carry listeners to new heights. Take the rushing folk-rock energy of opener "Happy With Myself," the liquid blues of the sultry "Within Without," and the acoustic splendor of "Should," and it's astounding to think of OtR as a young, up-and-coming band. A magnificent set by very talented artists, "Eve" is a riveting album by a promising band who delivers."
- The Morning News, Friday, September 9, 1994 Los Angeles, California

"Over the Rhine is the best thing to come out of Cincinnati since... Come to think of it, Over the Rhine is the best thing to EVER come out of Cincinnati. Period. Eve, with its tales of feverish love, suicide, guilt and yearnings for self worth, is the most real thing to come down the pike in a long time. Do yourself a favor, check it out."
- Beth D'Addono, Times Music Columnist, Rock Music Menu

"Ohio's unheralded treasure, vocalist Karin Bergquist, has a voice reminiscent of Natalie Merchant, but Karin's unexpected swoops and stops create an eroticism that Merchant only hints at. She's backed by an equally tasteful band that puts a twist of Velvet Underground and Big Star into its psychedelic, odd meter pop. When Bergquist sings nonsense syllables during the alluring, twangy chorus of "Should" from the band's recent album, Eve (IRS), it's clear Over the Rhine could sound sultry reciting the phone book."
- Philadelphia Inquirer