West Coast Tour Diary

Well I must say, we’ve been having a beautiful trip down the West Coast. Holy – we sure picked a great time to take a little break from winter in Ohio. Thanks to all of you who have been finding us along the way. You all know how to make a couple of Ohio songwriters feel really good.

We started our trip in Portland, Oregon. Don’t hate us, but it was about 60 degrees when we arrived – chilly at night. It’s been sunny and warm as we worked our way south – in the 70s, bright, airy, green hillsides, trees in blossom. Karin, who was born in San Jose, has moments of, How did I end up living back in Ohio again???

Chk out the mountain valley photo taken by our multi-talented multi-instrumentalist, Bradley Meinerding, on our drive to Santa Cruz yesterday…

(And hats off to our heroic house sitter(s) who are looking after the dogs back on the farm in Ohio, where it was five below zero this morning, with more snow on the way this evening. So grateful for you Misty, and all who have helped… Go Team Minnie. Pictured, photo by Misty.)

Really lovely crowds in Portland and Eugene, thanks again to all of you. And we had a chance to connect with a few friends – old and new – as well:

Phillip Graham of Ear Trumpet Labs in Portland, has been making some of the world’s most beautiful microphones. We use his mics on the piano and Bradley uses one for his vocals, mandolin, harmonica etc. Great to finally meet Phillip after the show… (We plan on featuring his microphones prominently in our future barn venue.)

Karin and I have been reflecting on the last 25 years as this is officially the 25th anniversary of Over the Rhine. So it was really great to reconnect with a long lost brother, Tim McAllister, (pictured) who lived in Cincinnati 25 years ago, and helped us record our first two records, Till We Have Faces and Patience.

Sometimes you meet people at just the right time. (Hearing Ric Hordinski playing electric guitar in a dorm room in 1982 comes to mind. And hearing Brian Kelley play the drums at his parents’ Pentecostal Church too… Nothing was ever quite the same after.)

Well anyway, when Karin and I and Ric and Brian got serious about starting a band in the neighborhood of Over-the-Rhine, we decided to begin by writing and recording so that we could hear what we sounded like – before involving an audience.

We met Tim McAllister through our friends Owen and Sandie. He had a Tascam reel-to-reel 8-track recorder and a Roland SRV-2000 reverb, and a few compressors. Well of course, we could make music history!

When I told Tim backstage after the show in Portland that looking back now, he was above all else, fearless, he responded, Yeah, I got over that eventually. We had a good laugh.

But somehow those first two records we made with Tim, however flawed and frayed at the edges, seemed to have a spark, the makings of something. They certainly found their way into the hands of some interesting folks. They landed us an invitation to open some shows for Bob Dylan. And invitations to play festivals in Europe and the UK... our first trip abroad. And our first publishing deal with MCA Music. (Thank you Gerd Muller and Dona Spangler). Not to mention our first record deal. (Thank you Jay Boberg, Stevo Glendinning, Miles Copeland and the old IRS gang…)

Lots and lots of firsts…

So yes. It was good to pause and reminisce with Tim a bit and thank him again for helping us capture those very early songs.

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It was good to see old friends in Eugene – abstract painter and Kierkegaard uber-fan Wesley Hurd, and his wife Carol, as well as Nancy Scott, border collie wrangler and much more. These folks were partly responsible for my only invitation to offer a commencement address at an institution of higher learning. Karin and I traveled to Eugene in 2010 to deliver said address, and I even donned the requisite cap and gown. If you’d like a transcript of the speech, email us at otrhine@aol.com. I’ll see if I can dig it up.

Yes, surprisingly, 25 years after recording those first songs, there are still plenty of firsts to be found.

Both our shows in the Bay Area sold out in advance – something that’s impossible to take for granted at this point: the gorgeous Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, and the hidden away Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, neither of which we had played before.

It’s nice to be surprised. Grateful.

Made a stop in Santa Cruz at the Rio Theater – lovely audience on a Sunday night. Nice to trade a few war stories after the show and see some of Karin’s extended Swedish family, many of whom settled in San Francisco.

Tonight (Tuesday, 2/17) we’re playing in Solana Beach at the famous Belly Up.

Tomorrow night (Wednesday, 2/18) in LA at The Troubadour, where Jackson Browne and Tom Waits and Louden Wainwright III and Van Morrison and so many great songwriters graced the stage years ago to air out works-in-progress, we have a special treat for you. We’ll be joined by the Band of Sweethearts, the amazing players that Joe Henry introduced us to who have played so beautifully on our last few records:

Jay Bellerose, drums and percussion
Jen Condos, hollow body bass
Eric Heywood, pedal steel, guitars

Along with Karin and I and Bradley Meinerding, they’ll make a holy ruckus to be sure. (And look for a special guest appearance or two…)

We bring this run to a close (Friday, 2/20) in Phoenix. We’re told that show has been sold out for some time. Lookin’ forward to our long overdue return!

We’ll be writing more about the progress in coming days, but thanks to all of you who have already pitched in so generously to help us build a barn on Nowhere Farm/Nowhere Else. Transforming a 140-year-old barn into a performing arts center on a beautiful rural setting in Ohio will be the biggest undertaking of our career, something we could never get off the ground without the help of our extended musical family. We hope you’ll join us on this unfolding adventure.

You can read about the barn raising here: http://overtherhine.com/barnraising/

Okay, it’s almost time for soundcheck.

Rave on,

Linford and Karin (and our traveling companions: Bradley, Katie & Justin)