The Denver Post
October 4, 1993

by Steven Rosen

ROCK DISC HAS MADRIGAL QUALITY - Over the Rhine takes its name from slum area

One nice thing about old cities is they have neighborhoods with history and character--so much character that a rock group might name itself after one.

Such is the case with Over the Rhine, which opens for Loudon Wainwright III at 7:30pm, Wednesday, at Boulder's Fox Theatre, and again for Squeeze on November 12 at Denver's Ogden Theatre. The band takes its name from one of the nation's largest National Historical Districts, Cincinnati's Over the Rhine neighborhood.

Filled with winding streets, brick tenements and row houses, as well as old breweries and a covered up canal, the 19th century neighborhood exudes urban history. But it also had been an in-decline slum until recently. And while parts of it indeed still are slumlike, one section, Main Street is becoming chic and fashionable.

It started when Hollywood discovered Over-the-Rhine. The movies "A Rage in Harlem," "The Public Eye" and "City of Hope" were filmed there. Soon, blues bars, restaurants and art galleries opened. Much of this happened under Linford Detweiler's eyes; he had taken an apartment on Main Street after moving to Cincinnati from Nashville.

"I'd sometimes walk out of my door and stumble into a movie set," he said.

"They turned Over-the-Rhine into Depression-era Harlem. A lot of movies based in New York were filmed there. It was exciting. People were filming at night and rehabbing abandoned buildings for movies."

Now Detweiler has helped further Over-the-Rhine's reputation, by naming his four-person band after it.

"We were rather taken with the neighborhood because of the name. When I heard it, it seemed so romantic and very European."

That description fits some of the group's musical objectives, too.

On its new IRS Records' disc, "Patience," there is a madrigal-like quality to the songs.

Instrumentation often is very understated and subtle, with Bergquist's icily pure and straightforward voice carrying the melody. The lyrics ache with an introspective romanticism that has literary ambitions.

Ironically, a "Patience" song that doesn't fit that description--the bouncy folk-rocker "Circle of Quiet"--has been getting strong radio response.

"To us, it was one of our more basic songs, a collaboration between three of us," Detweiler said. "Ric did the chorus, I wrote the rest of the words and Karin worked on the melody. It's a simple song about restlessness versus commitment. We even had discussed leaving it off the record, initially."

Over the Rhine developed a reputation in the Midwest by touring and self-releasing discs with arty, booklet-style graphics. IRS found "Patience" good enough to re-release as is.

"We did a couple collections of songs, and the second one came into the hands of the president of IRS (Jay Boberg) at a funeral," Detweiler said. "He had a friend from childhood whose mother passed away. She had seen the band at a show in Chicago and picked up a couple of our independent releases."

At the funeral, she gave him an Over the Rhine recording. "He played it and fell in love with it," Detweiler said. Boberg had an executive fly to Cincinnati to see the band play at a Laundromat/bar called Sudsy Malones. The signing quickly followed.