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The Repository, Canton OH
September 9, 1994

by Dan Kane

OVER THE RHINE HAS ROOTS AT MALONE - Band finally plays northeast Ohio tonight

Linford Detweiler, a Canton native who spent part of his childhood in Hartville, is a poet whose words engage the imagination. As he readily admits, "I'm a real word freak. I love the shape and terrain of words."

The lyrics Detweiler writes for his hard-to-categorize band, Over the Rhine, brim with evocative and unexpected imagery. "My love is a fever, my love is a fable, my love is jazz licks improvised by toddlers," from the song "My Love Is A Fever," is an example of his offbeat wordplay.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm writing songs for an unknown movie soundtrack," Detweiler says. "A lot of times, a song will start with one image and then just grow into something. If I wasn't in music, I would be a writer on some level."

You've possibly never heard of Over the Rhine, a Cincinnati-based band whose album "Eve" has just been released by the national label IRS. The album is filled with intelligent, textured music that loosely could be characterized as alternative pop-rock. "Eve" is the band's second IRS release, following last year's "Patience."

Over the Rhine spent seven weeks last fall touring America as the opening act for Squeeze. "Unfortunately, the tour skipped Cleveland," Detweiler says.

While the band has yet to make a big splash in northeast Ohio, it is a popular attraction in Cincinnati, where its last show drew 5,000 people. "We also do well in Chicago and Boulder, Colorado," Detweiler says.

Over the Rhine takes its name from the funky old German neighborhood in Cincinnati that the band's members call home. All have roots in northeast Ohio, or as Detweiler puts it, "We're all tiny-town children of Ohio."

Detweiler, who plays bass and keyboards, met vocalist Karin Bergquist and guitarist Ric Hordinski while all three were students at Malone College. He and Hordinski had a band called the Introduction; "We were trying to play clubs and open for Fayreweather," he recalls. Bergquist, who sings in a dusky alto, was a voice major.

An English professor at Malone named Dale King had "a profound impact" on Detweiler's future. "He introduced me to Dylan Thomas," Detweiler says. "After my first (classroom) lecture from Dale, I felt like spontaneously applauding. All it takes is one person like that to open up a whole world."

Over the Rhine came together through its members' shared focus. "We've all had a love of music since childhood, and at some point in our late teens and early 20s, we started getting serious about the possibility of recording and performing our own songs," Detweiler says. "We figured we'd need to move to a big city and make a fresh start for ourselves."

Formed five years ago in Cincinnati, Over the Rhine has kept on a steady course. "We started as a band by writing and recording songs right off the bat. We didn't perform much in our first year." Detweiler says.

"We basically made a record on our own in a friend's basement prior to ever performing live. All along, we've tried to keep everything really song-oriented as opposed to showcasing flashy musicianship."

Over the Rhine released its first two albums, "Till We Have Faces" and "Patience" independently. IRS Records then signed the band and re-released "Patience" nationally. IRS has given the band considerable freedom in terms of its music and elaborate album packaging.

IRS President Jay Boberg has said of the band, "Why mess with it? You only change a group if it needs direction. Over the Rhine doesn't need direction. They know where they're going."

With a strong new album and a national tour under way, Over the Rhine certainly appears ready for wider, larger recognition. Detweiler will take things as they come.

"Being a small-town kind of guy from Ohio and having the chance to do this at all is pretty exciting," he says.