Over the Rhine explores the darker side of Christmas
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Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler, the couple better known to pop music fans as Over the Rhine, are suckers for Christmas music.
“Growing up in the Midwest, we both have a lot of vivid childhood memories about Christmas,” Detweiler said. “Christmas music evokes a child-like hope and wonder that gets squelched out of us as we grow older.
“Also, my dad was an avid Christmas music fan who liked to find the odd gems in his collection.”
This year sees the release of the second OTR Christmas album, “Snow Angel.” The first, “The Darkest Night of the Year,” was released in 1996 and precipitated what has become a tradition for the duo: An annual Christmas that includes a show at the hometown Taft Theatre.
“We have tried to write one or two Christmas songs a year to try out on our unsuspecting audience,” Detweiler said. “But we also want to apply the same standards to a Christmas record that we do to our other records, so we try to write songs that stand up on their own whether or not they are Christmas songs.”
And if that means delving into the darker side of the holidays, that’s what an Over the Rhine song would do.
“It’s not all jingly and jolly, so we honestly represent the broad spectrum of human experience during the holidays,” Detweiler said. “There are a lot of conflicting feelings, complicated family dynamics and all manner of little challenges that need to be dealt with during the holidays.”
The bluesy, piano-driven “All I Ever Get For Christmas Is Blue” kicks off the album, which closes with “We’re Gonna Pull Through,” a sparse, acoustic song about a struggling couple determined to survive, pausing to lift a glass in a moment of clarity.
“Snow Angels” also inlcudes adaptations of two traditional songs, including “O Little Town of Bethlehem” sung to a new melody and new lyrics, which imagine two lovers walking the prone-to-violence streets of modern-day Bethlehem.
“A fan recently mailed us a photograph of some Over the Rhine lyrics spray-painted on the apartheid wall in Bethlehem,” Bergquist said, “a sort of plea for peace. We were stunned by the photo, and felt it merited a response.”
- WHAT: Over the Rhine with Michelle Shocked
- WHERE: Taft Theatre, 317 E. Fifth St., Cincinnati
- WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday
- COST: $13-$28
- MORE INFO: (513) 562-4949; www.ticketmaster.com
