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The Blade, Toledo OH
November 17, 1994

by David Yonke

DIVERSITY IS THE KEY TO CINCY BAND'S SOUND

Linford Detweiler, bass and keyboard player for Over the Rhine, said an invitation to perform on a late-night talk show prompted him to look for a song that sums up his band's sound.

"It's next to impossible," Detweiler said in a phone interview from his Cincinnati home. "We really try to approach each song as an individual entity and try to do whatever's right for that song."

The Cincinnati alternative-rock quartet, which performs tomorrow at the Asylum, was signed by IRS records and entered the major-label league with Eve, a diverse set of intelligent, folk-oriented rock.

The songs focus on people, relationships, and the complexities of modern life. "Sleep Baby Jane," for example, deals with issues of suicide and things coming apart at the seams. On "Happy With Myself," singer Karin Bergquist embraces the idea that she can enjoy life without feeling the need to please someone else - or then again, does she?

"I probably would have become bored with pop music if I didn't have the opportunity to play with words," Detweiler said. "I really love the sound of words themselves."

Sometimes he feels he is using music as a way of escaping "what I sort of think I really should be doing, which is writing."

Over the Rhine's album cover and booklet feature photos by noted photographer Michael Wilson, a close friend of Detweiler.

"It's funny, but our careers sort of grew together," Detweiler said. "Wilson's photo's were featured in a 20-page booklet accompanying Over the Rhine's first release, and demand for both the band and the photographer has grown since then.

"Michael works very intuitively," Detweiler said. "In my songwriting, I virtually never set out with an agenda, just an intuitive expression of something. Maybe that's why the photos tend to work well with our music."