i live on the floor of a 2-flat and last night, i heard the sweet sounds of drunkard's prayer wafting down from my landlord's upstairs. when i emailed her to ask about it this morning - she said she had seen the otr poster hanging in my place when she had been down fixing something and had been curious about over the rhine, so she looked them up on amazon, bought the cd, and loves it!

does anyone else have unusual stories of turning others on to otr?

A good friend of mine moved from NY to Cincinnati a few years back. I told him "There's this great band there called Over the Rhine! You should come with me to see them at Moonlite Gardens when I come out there in August. Oh, and I have this crazy friend Anna, you'll really like her too!"

And the rest is history...

I tend to hit people over the head with OTR until they finally give in and become fans. It works pretty well, though sometimes I'm not very popular at parties.

Same here! Exept I'm getting tired of people asking me "isn't that a really rough part of town???"
Jeez...I'm talking about the BAND not the PLACE. I said have you ever heard, not have you been to.

I finally crossed my sister over when I forced her to come to Cincinnati with me to see them....

Me? I was sitting in the Brady, as usual...

The last one I hooked was the cute lesbian who comes in every morning at 5 (my favorite regular).

I'm using the slow and subtle method with my girlfriend. Playing a song every once in a while at home and in the car. Playing the occasional album all the way through. Then I went in for the kill, and asked her if she wanted to go with me (tag along-like) to see them in concert at the Knitting Factory. When she said, "yeah, I'll go with you, I like some of their songs." I knew they were breaking in. I couldn't hide my own enthusiasm for them all this time of course, but there is a difference between just expressing your own enthusiasm and trying to get someone else to share it with you. So then I made her some mix tapes to keep in her car for when I drive it. She came over one day and said "I was listening to that Over The Rhine tape. You're indoctrinating me." That was fun.

Anytime I'm at like a big bank of urinals, like at the Reds or Bengals stadium, I always belt out B.P.D. or something and then plug OTR.

...

That's gross, Bruce.

I just tell all the guys I go out on dates with about them...

Ba dum chh.

i just loan a copy of my CDs to whoever is willing to try something (for them) new and (in my opinion) amazing.

works almost every time.

Um, I actually have tested OTR on my dates (or tested my dates on OTR) Hey, musical taste can be critical, and it's always interesting to see their reaction . . .

I have a dear friend in the Air Force overseas with whom I chat often. Many times we get into these deep discussions and many times I think of a song that fits very well into the conversation. Usually an OTR song. Needless to say, he is quickly becoming a huge fan. (I consider this my little contribution to the troops . . .)

"You're makin' a mess,
Something I can't fix.
This time you're on your own. Yeah!"

Yeah, I imagine that's REAL popular.

I have a pair of jeans that I painted with the lyrics to "Firefly" snaking around the legs, and of course everytime I wore them I explained what the words were from and plugged OTR.

Better than "Go Down Easy", methinks.

Better than "Go Down Easy", methinks.

Continuing with a theme... you should tell them about "Go Down Easy."

~fff - np: verve - remixed²

I usually just burn their CDs and sell them to people at a discounted price.

I'm a hairstylist and I play them in the salon on a regular basis. Everyone in the salon knows the CDs are mine. They come up to me all the time asking me where the CDs can be found because their clients are asking about them. I can not count how many times this has happened. I have never been stopped and asked who I am listening to more than I have been with OTR.
One more story, this one is kinda sad. I had a friend of several years who was notorious for having a sharp tone and in your face judgemental attitude. I liked her very much in spite of this trait and had spent several years refraining from really telling her what I thought of her attitude. I loaned her Ohio to listen to one day knowing she would appreciate the music and Karin's voice. Once she started attacking them for their screwed up veiw of God, I could refrain myself no longer. I have not spoken to her since then. This was much bigger than the insult to OTR, it was just the thing that pushed me to say what needed to said many years sooner.

Maybe you should try poking people in the ribs with OTR and giggling incessantly. You'll be a lot more popular at parties.

Rick.C

My intro to Over the Rhine is kind of strange:
about ten years ago, a friend of mine and I were in a CD store, and he picked up "Eve." He mistakenly thought it was this band that someone we knew used to be in, so he bought it just for the heck of it. We get back to his place, play it, I really liked it, he thought it was ok, I ended up borrowing it, and playing it over and over and over again.
I finally get it back to him, he disappears, I forget about the album. A few years pass, and I hear the song "goodbye" on the Roaring Lambs compilation, and am reminded of OTR. I go to a CD store, and buy Good dog, Bad dog. A few months later, K and L swing through Portland, and I'm pretty much hooked for life after that.

I was newly singled and decided to do something fun, so I started internet dating. Most of my dates didn't turn out too well, but the few ppl who *shockingly* enjoy OtR from the very first time on, stay on as my friends.

I suppose rock climbing and OtR are my ways of scanning for potential boyfriend....

I work in Cincinnati, right next to the Fountain Square renovation project and the sound of the jack-hammers all day long is .. I don't know ... unnerving? All day long, every day, ratta-tat-tat, ratta-tat-tat. So in a effort to drown out the noise I plug my computer speakers into my MP3 player and listen to music.

I discovered OTR only a couple months ago at a Cincinnati Art Museum exhibit on photographs as album art. Drunkard's Prayer was one of the albums. They had some IPODs set up so visitors could hear the albums, too. One listen to the first track and I was hooked. After listening to DP and GDBD for a few days, I ordered the rest of the OTR catalog from Paste Music.

So now I've got a big playlist of OTR on my MP3 player, but OTR at moderate volume doesn't really drown out jack-hammers all that well. I really have to turn up the volume, which means I have to close the door so as not to disturb everyone else. When someone walks in I always hit pause - unless - I think that the person might be a potential OTR fan.

My most recent attempt (I think "Suitcase" was playing) resulted in the person saying, "Hey! That's Over The Rhine! They're awsome."

I guess I'm always the last to find out about stuff.

Rick.C

I was a senior at Kent State in the fall of 1991 when a new friend convinced a few of us to go see Over the Rhine at the Daily Double in Akron. I'd never heard them before, and naturally I was pretty much hooked right away. He's still one of my best friends, and we still introduce each other to new & challenging music pretty regularly. He's stayed in contact with Linford on & off and even got to sit in with them once at Brady's.

I remember rabidly anticipating the release of "Eve," partly because it was released along with Rusted Root's big-label debut on my 24th birthday. I bought my own birthday presents that year.

My sister sent me a copy of Patience long, long ago for my birthday. She hit me with Eve a few years after that. After I moved to Salt Lake City I took her to an OTR concert in support of Films for Radio for her 30th birthday. She countered by giving me a copy of Good Dog, Bad Dog. For Christmas not long ago I upped the ante with a promo copy of Ohio and followed it up with Drunkard's Prayer. We seem to be playing OTR tag with each other, but I'm currently winning due to my more internet savvy ways. :-D

The really weird thing is.....the band Richmond Fontaine, whose lead singer is featured as a performer at OTR's Bellingham WA performance are good friends with a co-worker of mine and sis and I have seen them perform here in SLC and hung out with them after the show...such a SMALL world this is!!!! LOL! Richmond Fontaine are like OTR....outside the box! But intriguing to listen to!

I indoctrinate everyone I think worthy with OTR. And now I must remember to share this tid bit with my co-worker.....if her singer friend hasn't hooked her on OTR yet......I WILL!!!! LOL!


~Bullet