Metro Times, Detroit MI
September 15, 1993

by Thom Jurek

GHOSTS AND GRINNING SHADOWS

Many rock and rollers have written about the Midwest as a place that is heavy with industry, full of working-class realists who face the day with determination and dreams of a better life. But few have written of the region as a mysterious place full of hidden paths, whispered truths and hallucinatory images--until now. Over the Rhine, a quartet from Cincinnati, lives on the banks of the Ohio River, a small distance from Kentucky. The area is full of contradiction; it is a place where harsh urban life meets the rural mystery of the South. These elements infiltrate the band's music, evinced in their debut LP for IRS Records, Patience. Their beautifully subtle, entrancing melodies are executed with grace and aplomb. In vocalist Karin Bergquist's voice, one can hear the sound of a stream in summer and the shuffling of spirits moving through the trees. To hear this band is to take a journey across the land; down the path, across the fields, and through the valleys of a place largely undiscovered. Indeed, Over the Rhine's brand of Midwestern Gothic would not be out of place in a Wim Wenders film. Over the Rhine hosts an ethereal evening at the Blind Pig with special guests Red C.