. . .

Cincinnati Post
December 18, 1997

by Rick Bird

OVER THE RHINE BACK IN OVER-THE-RHINE

A year ago the band had essentially broken up. Now it's looking at a new year that could bring it a national record deal.

For Cincinnati-based Over the Rhine, there seems to have been a dramatic change in fortune. Last year at this time the folk-rock group played its last show with its original lineup and faced an uncertain future.

Earlier in 1996, the band saw a promising recording career with IRS Records dissolve in corporate machinations as the label went out of business.

As the band gets ready to perform its annual Christmas concerts Friday and Saturday at the Emery Theater, members announced they have signed a new publishing contract with a noted rock manager and are getting nibbles from major record labels.

The publishing deal is with Los Angeles-based band manager Peter Leak, who also has the authority to shop the band to major labels. Leak is noted for discovering and managing such bands as 10,000 Maniacs, Cowboy Junkies and Grant Lee Buffalo.

"I heard Good Dog Bad Dog and was immediately taken with their music, and I have become taken with them as people," Leak said from his Los Angeles office. "Karin's voice is something special, and their songwriting is special. It's a hard sound to quantify, but it moved me."

Leak said he felt confident the band would land some type of record deal in 1998.

Linford Detweiler, the band's main songwriter and keyboard player, is sounding as upbeat this year about the band as he was sounding gloomy a year ago.

"When it rains it pours, " Detweiler said about the newfound national interest in the group. "When we re-grouped (earlier this year), we kind of went underground and tried to stay busy. Nobody paid the least bit of attention. Then Peter came out of the blue. Rykodisc even called with an offer and suddenly everyone's starting to pay attention again."

After disbanding the original line-up a year ago, when guitarist Ric Hordinski and drummer Brian Kelley left the band, Detweiler and Ms. Bergquist had hoped to carry on in some form. By September, the band was performing an extensive U.S. and European tour as a six-piece. Kelley had rejoined the band, and they added backup singer/violinist Terri Templeton, Scottish guitarist Jack Henderson and bassist Mike Georgin.

"We feel like listeners have embraced an expanded lineup. The shows have been going well. The feedback we are getting is that our sound is fuller, very textural. Terri really rounds out Karin's vocals and adds the occasional violin line. We always felt as a four-piece we had to leave out parts we put on our recordings. Now we can more fully realize the arrangements."