LOCATION: The Aronoff Center, Cincinnati, OH
LINEUP: Karin, Linford, Nick Radina, Andy Boerger, David Piltch, Levon Henry, Joe Henry
REVIEW BY:
Bill Ivester:
The Taft Extravaganza: Night One
12 years ago on December 9th, 1999, Over the Rhine moved their annual Christmas “Homecoming” show from the Emery Theatre to the Taft Theatre, I was there that night, and have been at every one since. And in all honesty, I can not imagine missing one of these shows. Ever.
With this years recording of “The Long Surrender,” Karin & Linford took the opportunity to expand the usual two day weekend of shows into three with a live debut of the record for those contributors that helped fund the project.
Tonight’s show was @ the beautiful and intimate “Jarson-Kaplan Theatre” in the Aronoff Center for the Arts in downtown Cincinnati, it was a perfect venue for the band and the music. The band consisted of Karin, Linford, Nick Radina (cuatro, percussion, guitar), Andy Borger (drum kit, percussion), and they were joined by David Piltch on upright bass, Levon Henry on tenor sax and Joe Henry on vocals and guitar.
I was in for soundcheck and could tell a nice groove and vibe had formed among them and they were definitely ready “rock on, rave on.”
They hit the ground running with a nice little comment from Linford when he hit the stage “We made a record…” and never looked back the rest of the show.
Karin was dead on vocally and the band was in such a tight, yet improvisational groove, that it was incredible.
Night one set the bar high for the weekend, writing this after the fact, I’ll clue you in…they kept it high, with nary a let down.
The setlist kind of goes without saying, it was “the Long Surrender”
with “Drunkard’s Prayer and Joe’s “The Man i Kept Hid” as encores.
http://cincinnati.metromix.com/music/article/over-the-rhine-fashions/2360399/content
Over the Rhine has always been known as a fan-friendly band, boasting a special bond with its audience. So, it comes as no surprise that the husband/wife team of Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist turned to fan funding when it set out to record a new album.
"The Long Surrender," the new CD from OTR, is significantly funded by fan contributions, solicited through the band's website for the last year.
"We appealed directly to the people who cared about the music over the years and told them about this opportunity," says Detweiler. "It's not cheap to make records on the West Coast and hire the musicians that we hired. Our fans quickly made it happen."
OTR will debut the new album, performing it in its entirety with many of the L.A. session players who worked on it, Friday at Jarson-Kaplan Theater in the Aronoff Center.
The couple will then play the next night at the Taft Theatre at their annual holiday concert, a 15-year tradition.
Friday's "world premiere" is also part of the fundraising effort with proceeds going to the group's Great Speckled Dog Record label. A $200 ticket is part of a special weekend package that includes admission to the Aronoff show, VIP seats at the Taft concert and a spot assured at the couple's annual informal acoustic performance Sunday at St. Elizabeth in Norwood.
"One thing we got right from the beginning was nurturing an extended musical family," Detweiler says. "Whether or not we were on a label, we always communicated directly with the people that were interested in the music.
"I remember stapling together handwritten newsletters and licking the stamps. We always tried to find ways to connect directly. I think that's a model a lot of people are going to now."
The new album is produced by singer-songwriter Joe Henry, who has built an acclaimed track record as a producer, outside his own solo career, working with the likes of Rambling Jack Elliott, Elvis Costello, Ani Difranco, Aimee Mann, Solomon Burke and Bettye LaVette. (Lucinda Williams also sings on a track with Bergquist.)
Detweiler says fans were asked to contribute between $15 and $10,000 to cover the recording costs. Hundreds chipped in. And, yes, there was one couple, in Austin, Texas, who contributed $10,000.
At the $15 level, contributors get an advance download of the new album (due for wide release Feb. 8), plus four bonus tracks not on the official release.
"In 2010, there is no middleman between whoever's making the music and those who have found it," says Detweiler. "Fifteen years ago, our conversation was still very much about winning the approval of a record label and getting in the stores. There were so many gatekeepers. All of that has disappeared."
In coming months the couple will be doing the grunt work bands have always done to promote a new project - touring and interviews. Detweiler calls "The Long Surrender" "a record we couldn't imagine in advance," noting it is the first time the band has turned its sound - anchored by Bergquist's angelic vocals - over to a producer that they had not worked with before.
"I loved that feeling of not knowing what we were getting into," Detweiler says. "Joe's approach feels more like something you enter with your whole body. It's very three-dimensional.
"I was thrilled when I put on the headphones. I felt like I was in the
music. I think that's hard to do in 2010 with digital technology. Sometimes
records just feel very two-dimensional."