Over The Rhine - again!

Over at Americana UK, I've made my case for Over The Rhine being the best band in the world. This is not open to negotiation.

Over The Rhine - Streaming Christmas concert December 2020

Over the Rhine have made a tradition of a Christmas tour and particularly hometown concerts at various venues in Ohio, often the Taft Theatre in Cincinnati. Due to the usual reason in 2020, this isn't happening so they have recorded a show that is available to buy and stream. The good news is that those of us in the wider world get invited this time. The link is below and you really should take it up if you can. Being of a cash strapped nature I ended up watching the free stream last Sunday. 

Filmed at their home the set, caught light on the third song, 'Born', a highlight of any show they play it at. The best songs as ever were the ones with the most space, Linford at the piano and Karin just singing. 'All I Ever Get for Christmas is Blue' was a highlight of this first part of the set. 'Latter Days' is just one of the best songs of the last 25 years. but this time out there was a difference, the words to 'Silent Night' fitted perfectly into the end of 'Latter Days'. Just great. They finished this segment of the show with 'Bothered', the ideal words for the end of 2020.

They moved to the barn that they have been converting into an arts and performance space for the last few years for the second half of the show. Opening with 'If We Make It Through December' which featured on the 'Blood Oranges In the Snow' album, one of three that I prefer to see as Winter rather than Christmas albums. There was far more between song talk from Linford that is one of the features of an Over The Rhine concert in this section of the show, which was nice as early on they had gone straight from one song to the next. 

Back to the house for the last two Christmas songs. One of the aspects of the band's work that doesn't get enough praise is Linford's piano playing. It really is a highlight for me, and the three solo piano albums he has already out there should be on the shopping list for anyone who likes modern piano (although there is some guitar as well) music, or indeed Chopin. Good to hear on their Facebook recently that his solo album that formed part of a crowd funder a few years ago was likely to appear in February.

Mixing the Christmas songs with some old favourites, at least some of mine, made for a show that covered a lot of ground, and should hopefully attract the casual listener into the fan community. Over the Rhine are a band who inspire devotion from those who find them. If you haven't yet then you should and this concert could be the way. And it was good to see this picture. Nothing wrong with roping in the pets to promote your work...

The show is available for multiple streams at $50.00 at the link here. I supported them through the Paypal link given on the stream, and bought a couple of downloads in their store. If only postage was not so pricey from the US. Still a reason (if one was needed) to go to the next British shows, to buy the CDs I didn't get last time. 

Over The Rhine store

Set List

Broken Angels

Let It Fall

Born

All I Ever Get For Christmas Is Blue

Anything At All

Latter Days/Silent Night

It Came Upon A Midnight Clear

Amelia’s Last

Bothered

If We Make It Through December

We’re Gonna Pull Through Sacred Ground

First Snowfall

All I Need Is Everything

The Christmas Song

May God Love You

Songs for troubling times.

I can be a bit of a miserable git at times, and this is definitely one of those times. Music has always been my main go to for overcoming the melancholy. So what am I listening to as the world goes down the tubes?

Elbow/Sarah Brightman  - One Day Like This

I am a fan of Elbow, but this song always seemed tailor made for Sarah. A bit of a shame it appeared on the album where she ditched her regular producer making Dreamchaser her weakest album for a long time. Far better live, although too short. Elbow still do it best. Sarah tackles Barclay James Harvest's Hymn on her most recent album, and while I'm not the least bit religious that has all the uplifting qualities this could have done. 

Samantha James - Send It Out To The Universe

I have finally tracked down the 2CD editions of both of her albums and this still stands out as one of my favourite songs by one of my favourite singers. My friend Angela describes this as woo, woo stuff. Guilty as charged.

Over The Rhine  - Latter Days

This may sound like me wallowing in the gloom, and who's to say I'm not good at that. The words have always spoken to me, listen to them it is in fact one of the most uplifting songs I know. There are some great live versions on Archive.org with extended piano intros by Linford. It ends up sounding like a Chopin piano étude.

Van Morrison - Bright Side Of The Road

I bought Into The Music when it came out and this song can still raise mood and start a smile whenever I hear it. If it doesn't do the same for you perhaps check your pulse. The version of Philosophers Stone is also worth hearing but not a patch on this.

The other thing that I listen to a lot is the radio, but frankly I can't do too much news at the moment so podcasts and old comedy are what I'm listening to currently. Recommendations to follow.

Over The Rhine - Love and Revelation, album review

Over the Rhine are one of the people who have made a success out of crowd funding. Using their own web portal and a fiercely loyal fanbase they have used it to make independent musical choices that have resulted in some of the best music of their career.

Their last two albums were produced by Joe Henry, but this time they have kept it to themselves, and produced an album that reflects on their 30 years as a band. Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler have been a couple for most of that time and songs like "Betting On The Muse", inspired by Charles Bukowski which examines the search for life's second act are also meditations on where they find themselves at this time. The first song, “Los Lunas” sets the tone of the album. “The very first words you hear on the project are ‘I cried,'” said Detweiler to Rolling Stone, citing the opening lyric. “When I told my 87-year-old mother about it, she said that sounds like the Psalms.” Seemingly surprised to find themselves still in business after 30 years he also said “We wanted to keep growing as writers and, at the end of the day, that’s the most important business plan for any artist: keep going.”

The highlight of any Over The Rhine album is Karin's singing, there are fewer duets than on the last album "Meet Me At The Edge Of The World" but she sounds better than ever. Linford's presence is felt more in the songwriting this time. It seems that the more personal the lyric the more intense the mood of songs that can feel at first listen sombre but reveal themselves as celebrations of life, longevity and a musical bond that they reinforce with each release. My favourites, "An American in Belfast",ironically wordless, "Let You Down", and "Given Road", but ask me again tomorrow...

Working with a small band on the road in the US, they usually tour as a duo, and have visited the UK twice in the last 18 months. Hopefully the reception for this album in Europe might prompt a wider U.K. tour to match the 7 or 8 dates they generally do in Holland and Germany. As the crowdfunder also included a Linford solo piano album and a set of devotional songs there will be plenty new to hear. A new live album would be good as well.

Available to buy HERE

In a holding pattern

Once again life has taken over and time to write here is at a premium. (Ab)normal service will resume in April, if the world keeps gets any madder I may have nothing else left to do by then. In the meantime here is the news.

Blog favourite Bill Nelson has been interviewed to destruction in the wake of Be-Bop Deluxe reissues. Vintage Rock.com talked to him HERE and Record Collector HERE. You can safely ignore Classic Rock, Prog etc as they think he stopped recording in 1977.


Another favourite Over The Rhine have issued a new album Love And Revelation , and it's their best since Ohio. I'll be back with a review of this soon. In the meantime buy it HERE.


A gig I went to in February was reviewed at Americana UK. Laura Gibson has been bubbling around on my radar for a while without ever getting the attention she deserved. I was initially drawn by the Jolie Holland comparison that comes up regularly. However there are elements of Mazzy Star and similar that are closer reference points. Her album "Goners" is fighting with the OTR disc for space on the iPod at the moment.

The failure and resurrection of HMV, closure of more independent shops and the general expectation that the vinyl revival will save the world were news for a moment recently. Vinyl won't save the world, CD still outsells it. What will save the world is a well run large chain pushing music in all formats that gives the record companies confidence to produce music in all genres, because there is someone who will take in enough stock to let them make money. The closure of Fopp in Bristol is a loss to me, but if it wasn't making money then it had to go.

And finally

I went back for some more of the lucky dips at Missing Records I talked about previously. My daughter was delighted with her Abba & Taylor Swift discs, and I got Dylan at Budokan and Sylvian/Fripp's "The First Day" along with a pile of stuff I have yet to listen to. Why am I telling you about this you will only go and buy discs I could have had...

Excuses, Excuses

  A long gap between posts I'm afraid. Brought on by the busyness of business, but there have been some goings on in music recently that I felt compelled to comment on so...

Bill Nelson

No secret that Bill is a huge favourite of mine. He is also someone who seems to reflect the ever increasing trend to stumble into the future focussed relentlessly on the past. He writes a regular journal on his website. the latest (as I write) is here. Bill is producing more and better work than he has ever done but is again being forced to revisit work that he regards as juvenalia - Be Bop Deluxe were a good band but a recent article in Shindig and doubtless the upcoming one he refers to in Classic Rock will pick over their bones and pass over the subsequent 40 years and hundreds of recordings with barely a nod. I sympathise with Bill and wish that he and other artists could be allowed the spotlight for their current work that it deserves.

I suspect (as from his comments I think Bill does as well) that the power of Facebook may have helped sell this event out in record time, and given that the Facebook groups that helped the sell out seem to have the same myopia about anything other than Be Bop Deluxe, then he may be right that there will be some disappointed fans clutching armfuls of 70s LPs to be signed. This means that many of his very loyal current following go without, me included. While I think some of the comments being expressed on the website message board are a little OTT, it would be nice for Bill to have a supportive crowd, especially if there is a question mark over him playing live again.

Over The Rhine

Another favourite. Sometime ago they did a a crowd funder covering three new albums. While I'm of the persuasion that would listen to Karin Bergquist sing a shopping list, I was pleased to see that there will be a new piano album from Linford included. I recently bought the only one of his earlier ones that I didn't have, "Unspoken Requests" and it's now a fixture on the iPod. If you don't know about Over The Rhine, catch up here. Hopefully more shows in the UK at some point. St Georges Hall in Bristol would be a great venue for them. HINT!

Steely Dan

Or the Donald Fagen band as it should really be now. While I could care less about current goings on, the hope that DF's chase for dollars will also include some expanded reissues and some more proper live albums, rather than bootleg radio shows, is on. As a side note Jazz Journal, which I read occasionally, but is very much stuck in 1966 made a comment in it's blurb for last months issue that Steely Dan had no place in a Jazz magazine. Oh come on! Surely we are past that! The irony that this comment was supporting an interview with guitarist Steve Khan (Aja, Gaucho) and that elsewhere in the magazine was a report on new interpretations of some of Donald's songs and a feature on Chris Potter, stalwart of the 90s band is clearly lost on whoever wrote that.

EMusic

I have winged about the demise of this once great service before, but have finally paused my membership to give it three months to get it's act together. Not going to happen I'm afraid but as most of my saved for later list disappeared months ago, and Frontiers Records vanished in September I struggled to use up my allocation last quarter. So bye bye EMusic, fun while it lasted.

There got that off my chest, back to work.

Paying The Cost...

It's Record Store Day and amid the celebrations of all things vinyl & CD, there is the ever present dischord of the difficulty of making a living from music in 2017.
  
I wrote about Over The Rhine recently, and how difficult it is for people like them to make a living from their music.The financial risk in running a tour in Europe is huge for an independent artist. The costs of travel, and the fact that ticket sales can be a lottery at best mean budgeting a 3 week plus stay is next to impossible.

Allan Holdsworth passed away recently. A guitarist of prodigious talent feted by his peers who copied his style, admired by fans of Jazz & Rock, and who died in a financial position that left his family needing a Go Fund Me campaign to pay for his funeral. The question for me is where were all the fans who have mostly donated about $20, the price of a cd, when he was alive? His recently released compilation is £17 on Amazon. The carelessness of the online stores in pricing is highlighted by the fact that one had his career box set as a download for £6 for a while rather than £60.00. Who suffers? The artist.


I was lucky enough to meet Kim Edgar last year. A Scottish singer with 3 great albums, she was doing a short tour of the Highlands and came to Crianlarich. Her audience? Two. The Reasoning were a highly regarded Progressive Rock band from Wales. One of the factors causing their demise was the imposition of VAT on downloads in the U.K. The accounting costs moved their Bandcamp sales from acceptable to untenable.

Why are we in this position? Is the music not good enough? Hardly. If you don't like any of the above, and please try them, then there are hundreds of other artists who in a better time and place would be selling records by the boatload. Poor promotion? Possibly in some cases, but getting your head above the noise on Twitter is a struggle, the cost of physical product and distribution is a risk too far in many cases. The real answer lies in the culture of the music industry; exploitative for so long and now unwilling, or unable, to make the radical changes needed to move past the short-termism of the X Factor model and nurture artists for rewards in the future. Vinyl won't I'm afraid save the industry, it is a fad, and will fade. CDs still sell to some extent, but digital formats are where the world is going. The major streaming portals need to engage with the industry outside the few remaining major labels to achieve an equitable share out of the revenue. I recognise that they can't deal with every artist one at a time, but working with Bandcamp, CD Baby and their like would bring enough artists into the fold to encourage others to join in. Will it happen? Something has to. Something also has to be done to make music vital to teenagers, as it was in my (long ago) time. How? New music that energises and excites them as happened in the 60's, punk and grunge. We aren't going to find that on reality TV.

Part of my business Selling Service is helping artists find an audience. Talk to me if you want to learn more about getting your message out. tim@selling-service.co.uk

Over The Rhine Live in London

Busy busy at the moment. My review of Over The Rhine was published by Americana UK recently. If you read my piece on them you may find this interesting as well. Click HERE to read the review.

Artist Choice Two: Over The Rhine

I discovered Over The Rhine on holiday in 2004. The CD that came with Paste Magazine contained 'Show Me' which was a good start but the magazine article, which I can't find online, was what hooked me. A description of the recording process and all round hymn of praise to their album Ohio. So my introduction to the band was a double cd lasting ninety minutes which Paste called "a true confessional masterpiece". Thirteen years later it is still towards the top of my most played on the iPod, joined there by albums older and newer, but all of them with the spark of musical greatness. 

Where to start? Over the Rhine have been at least two different bands, an early indie pop four piece featuring guitarist Ric Hordinski, whose album 'When I Consider How My Light is Spent' is also worth your attention. The collection from these years 'Discount Fireworks' is a good entry point, personally I also like the album 'Besides' that started life as a fan club disc, but has some real gems on it. The period from 'Good Dog Bad Dog' saw the band contract to husband and wife team Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist. Unashamed pop record 'Films for Radio' followed and then they found their calling with Ohio. A string of albums have followed in the subsequent years. The best place to learn about them is on the music page of the band site. There is also a good playlist that gives a flavour of what to expect from an Over The Rhine album.

If I have a favourite song (of any artist), then it is probably Latter Days. Reading the lyrics only hints at the epic quality of the song itself. A grandeur that reflects the best church music. "There’s so much more to life than words", not when they are sung by Karin there isn't. Listen to the song here.

Karin & Linford are gearing up for some new records and as with the last few are going down the fan funding route. This time they are offering three records. Read about them here and support the band in their enterprises. I have gone for the Hear It option, partly because of the ruinous cost of postage from the USA, and partly to hold onto money to spend on what I hope will be a well stocked merchandise stall at their show at Cecil Sharp House in London on April 2nd. Why isn't this sold out? How can they mange a whole tour in Holland and only one show in mainland Britain? Buy tickets here.

I would love to see a whole U.K. tour, and can think of many places, like St Georges Bristol, that would be ideal for them to play. But it needs support and a certain level of ticket sales to make it possible which in these days is a struggle for British artists let alone those taking a risk on crossing the Atlantic. I am just happy that after all the years following them I get to a show at last.

 So what do I suggest starting with?

'Good Dog Bad Dog' remains one of my most played albums. the download only live version from 2010 is also worth a listen.
Of 'The Live from Nowhere' sets I would go for Volumes 1 and 4 first, but you will want them all in time.
'Meet Me At The Edge Of The World' is going to take some topping I look forward to hearing them try.
Of the earlier albums I like 'Besides' and 'Eve'
Linford has a series of solo piano instrumental albums. I like 'Grey Ghost Stories' best. The piece  'Someday We'll Move To A Small Farm (And Sit And Watch The Snow Fall)' is typical of the autobiographical quality of the band's lyrics tipping over into his solo music. I'm pleased to say they did move to that farm.

I'm sure you will find your own favourites once the music starts to haunt you. The fact that the world still has a place for artists like Over The Rhine even if it is at or near subsistence level, means that despite the best efforts of our leaders this world is a place worth living in.