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Spokesman Review, Spokane WA
February 18, 2000

by Heather Lalley

OVER THE RHINE AT WHITWORTH

Over the Rhine's latest album was almost their last.

It was 1996, Karin Bergquist, whose lush, silky voice soars through the group's seven CD's, had just lost her father. And the Cincinnati-based band's record label, IRS Records had just folded.

But Bergquist and Linford Detweiler, the duo's chief writer, decided to muddle through and record and release, Good Dog Bad Dog on their own.

"I was going through a phase where I was seriously considering packing it in as far as writing songs," Detweiler said in a recent telephone interview. "I loved music, but we had worked really hard for four or five years prior to making that record. Even though there were some beautiful splashes of color that had come into the picture, we were pretty exhausted and drained."

The underground recording, distributed mostly at Over the Rhine shows, sold some 25,000 copies.

Fast forward four years to 2000. Bergquist and Detweiler, who married in 1996, have signed with a new label, Virgin/Backporch. They re-released Good Dog Bad Dog last month.

"It just has refused to go away," Detweiler says about the album. "It's got a will to live. That record has really taught us how much we love doing what we do."

It's the kind of CD you want to put on continuous play while you curl up under an afghan and sip tea on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

"There's a recurring theme on the record which speaks to the riches that come when you embrace a low point in your life." Detweiler says. "It's a paradox. Sometimes when you feel the most broken, you're at a point when something new and quite wonderful can begin to happen."

The CD also sparked an alliance with Cowboy Junkies. The groups have been touring together on and off for several years, ever since one of the Junkies heard the album.

Fans of The X-Files sci-fi TV show may feel a sense of déjà vu reading this. An episode last year featured a Dr. Detweiler and a dog-lover named Karin Berquist, working to outsmart a maniacal bad dog. One of the couple's friends is a writer on the show.

"It was quite unnerving," Detweiler says.

Over the Rhine, named after a down-trodden Cincinnati neighborhood, formed 10 years ago. They've toured North America and Europe several times, but are still relatively unknown.

"We may remain primarily an underground phenomenon Bergquist says in the band's bio. "Maybe that's the beauty of Over the Rhine. Maybe we're an independent film, a handwritten diary, a secret love."