My god...

Just when I think the country can't get any more uptight.... 

Yeah, it's called sensibility.  Get to know it.

do L&K like The Willard Grant Conspiracy?
they have a song by the same title as the new album.

PASTE HAS FREE MP3S HERE!

*dies*

I can't imagine being alive and unaware of this band.

yes.

I don't know what else I can add to the comments already made by others about the mp3's.  I will, however, verify now, this early, that I am indeed screwed when this CD comes out.  I'm going to be a weeping, questioning, feeling, lost mess.

And I still say, bring it on.

sometimes i'll be listening to OTR in my car and look at people in their cars  around me and actually get all sad for them that they don't know about OTR.  their lives can't be complete.

This isn't just music, and it's not just music & poetry. It's emotions, somehow captured & set loose to influence my ears... and it makes me happy when it makes me sad.

I don't mean to be crass, but to the atheists in the house, how can you hear Karin's voice andnot know there's a God?

I've just come off twice-spinning the pre-release of this album.

LUCKYYYYYYY!

Mark, I know you posted this out of your enthusiasm and inspiration, and I almost let this go, figuring it was petty in the midst of the wonder that is the new music. However, an idea struck me as I moved about my morning, and I thought I'd share it in the spirit of learning from each other and the exchange that is communication. My thought was thus: How can you hear Karin's voice (or Linford's music--which doesn't get as much attention but is every bit as important) and not be struck by the mystery and humility? To me, that's what this band is about as much as anything, this modeling that they do as they give us their art. I like that much better than, "Hey stupid, do ya get it now?"

After the heavily produced Films for Radio and the sprawling double CD Ohio, Over the Rhine retrenches for this stunning follow-up. Recorded in the living room of the duo's home, the low-key glow that results brings the music even closer to its source. Bits of folk, jazz, pop, and country intermingle as the singing and songwriting husband-and-wife partnership of Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler let the sparkling, yet subtle melodies of these ten originals--plus a lovely cover of "My Funny Valentine"--dictate the sparse instrumentation and languid but never haphazard tempos.

This is music of delicate beauty, tinged with regret, sadness, and hope, yet devoid of pretense. It sounds like these songs fell out of the sky, drifting through the clouds and arriving with help from Bergquist's exquisite voice. Her double-tracked vocals dart through tinkling piano lines on "Born," making the already exquisite song shimmer. Stand-up bass and occasional cello and sax along with a dash of percussion bolster these chamber-styled ballads that float like lilies on a pond. But there's a flickering intensity to like "Firefly," in which Bergquist repeats "My memory will not fail me now," that adds an edgy tautness to this emotionally stirring album. --Hal Horowitz

Duo's stage chemistry is long-term love affair

By BREANNE L. HELDMAN
DAILY NEWS FEATURE WRITER

A love story takes the stage at Mercury Lounge Sunday.
Over the Rhine - the name is a nod to the artsy neighborhood where they met in their hometown of Cincinnati - played their first show in 1990.

Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler were married six years later.

At the end of the month, the jazzy pop/rock duo (backed by an assortment of musicians live and on record) releases "Drunkard's Prayer," an intensely personal offering and their 11th CD.Eleven of the tracks were cut in the comfort of their living room.

The CD is about surviving a near-split.

"Like any sort of long-term commitment, there's a learning curve," Detweiler says. "We recorded this double album ['Ohio'], and were really excited about it. We were sort of caught up in the music, traveling together and working hard together, but there just wasn't a lot left over for just us.

"We realized that we were running out of gas in terms of our relationship."

So, toward the end of 2003, rather than allowing their marriage - and possibly their careers - to fizzle, they called off the rest of a tour and returned home. They spent time with therapists, individually and together, and read helpful books. The song "Born" on "Drunkard's Prayer" details one of the devices they used to reconnect - simply talking face-to-face through a bottle of wine almost nightly.

"A long-term commitment is coin-operated, it's lots of little connections on an ongoing basis," says Detweiler. "We had to relearn that working together is not the same as nurturing a relationship.

"We had to learn to stay connected every day and find ways to do that while on tour. Fortunately for us, we were able to make a fresh start and reprioritize things. Our relationship has never been stronger. This record is a celebration of that."

The opening track, "I Want You to Be My Love," is a soft and simple statement of the conscious choice the couple made to continue their marriage and their partnership.

After touring to promote "Drunkard's Prayer," they'll return to a new home outside of Cincinnati with plans to start a family.

"I think we're gonna really get serious about that, probably later this year," Detweiler says. "We're ready to continue to see our life at home evolve in good ways."



Originally published on March 4, 2005