Hullo all!

FLOW OF WORDS

   If until this moment you've been untouched by this <monthly> newsletter, please consider yourself happily deflowered.  It's been roughly a year since we first announced to a handful of you that we were stepping out of  'our self-imposed musical closet' and now we mail out enough of these circulars to keep roughly everybody within reach busy for a few days.  Incidentally, it's pouring rain outside in an eerie light this later summer afternoon: a gee-whiz gem of a day that will too soon become night.

"But I don't care where the water goes
if it doesn't get into the wine." Chesterton

   Yes, when we witness the miraculous we try to let you know.  When we're mired in the mundane, we look to you for encouragement.  Without you (our growing family of brothers and sisters, curious bystanders, underground music enthusiasts and these scattered few of you in the music industry who have discovered us)  we would exist in a vacuum and therefore wouldn't.  As always, if you have thoughts for us, write them down - we read your letters aloud around imaginary campfires in the West and try to respond before too much time passes with words of our own.  Occasionally after a long week it feels like blood is flowing directly from the O.T.Rhine post office box into our collective veins.  Your words give renewed vision and passion and remind us that it's all about being a part of something bigger than both of us.

HARD FACTS OF LATE

   The July 4 C-Stone Festival and indeed EXTRAVAGANZA was an indescribable wow.  Literally thousands of you stopped by our bohemian booth to talk, and those of you who caught the afternoon concert were very kind.  Next summer drive to Bushnell, ILLINOIS and look for huge tents 'mid the cornfields.  We no sooner returned home when Christopher Hart (a college collaborator and inspiration still) joined us in our sporty rental car for a romp to N.Y.C. for the New Music Seminar.  We had been invited to participate in the A.S.C.A.P. Alternative/Industrial workshop called 'Making a Good Song Great.'  They played cuts from unsigned bands and had a relatively reputable panel discuss their feelings.  'If I'm Drowning' from our 'Til We Have Faces collection received quite a positive review.  Joey Ramone (of all people) said he loved 'the orgasmic quality.'  Ecstasy aside, we had to rush home so Ric & Karin could open for Bob Dylan in Cleveland.  They opened for Bob Dylan and all I got was a phenomenal T-shirt.  Thanks!  Somewhere amid all this we managed to finalize our co-publishing dealt with MCA (it's not a record deal) more or less got out of debt and record and mix the 13 songs we started in Michael Wilson's loft photography studio last spring (Remember?)  Thirteen songs in the bag and our first Nashville recording binge!

   Give us a few weeks to grow accustomed to our new batch of songs and then perhaps we'll share some or all of them with you by piling them into some enticing underground release.  Incidentally, we're also considering taking on a management team of two energetic young men who claim their life calling is to make us bigger than the Cincinnati Reds.  No hard task this year but more on that later.

OUR TOWN
   
    Seems like we're turning into a bunch of homebodies by the look of our concert dates.  Actually we feel like writing, recording and rehearsing the most important activities right now, but who knows:  a month from now we could pile into a van and tour the continent.  Do join us on these occasions if possible.  Let's be together.

- Saturday September 14, RIPLEY'S, Cincinnati, OHIO.  Our first time: bring all your friends and then some, 21 & over
- Saturday September 21, SUDSY MALONE'S, Cincinnati.  You haven't seen us if you haven't seen us at Sudsy's.
- Saturday, September 28, KILGORE'S, Cincinnati, OHIO
- Wednesday, October 2, WXVU 91.7 FM.  This incredibly diverse Public Radio Station is playing cuts from 'Til We Have Faces and interviewing a couple O.T.Rhine members during 'Audiosyncracies' at 3:00pm.  Then at midnight it's O.T.Rhine in a live broadcast concert in front of a studio audience.  Call 241-7311 and we'll put you on the guest list first come, first serve.  Don't miss this wee piece of Music History, and support Public Radio. WXVU, Cincinnati
- Anytime:  Carol's Corner Cafe.  Stop by for some great food and drink on Main Street.  Put a dollar in her great juke box which includes 'Til We Have Faces on compact disc.  This lively woman even sells them Over the Counter and have been bankrolling our whole outfit with the profts, Cincinnati
- Wizard Records.  Corryville.  A store with numerous interesting records.  They have Over the Rhine on compact disc and cassette.

YOUR TOWN
   Do you know of a radio station that would play Over the Rhine?  Do you know of a fanzine or underground rag that would review/interview Over the Rhine?  Is there a club or coffeehouse in which you are convinced we were born to play?  Has your little sister's boyfriend ordered our CD?  It's your town.  Come now, what do you expect us to do?  Come barging in like we own the place?  Why don't you consider writing to us and gently explain everything we need to know about your town(s).  (Oh yeah, friendly record stores are needed as well.)