Over the Rhine (band)

Over the Rhine
Over the Rhine playing in Charlotte, NC in October 2007
Background information
Origin	Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
Genres	Folk, Americana
Years active	1989 (1989)–present
Labels	Back Porch, Great Speckled Dog
Associated acts	Kim Taylor, Servant
Website	overtherhine.com
Members	Linford Detweiler Karin Bergquist Brad Meinerding
Past members	Ric Hordinski Brian Kelley Kim Taylor

Over the Rhine is an American, Ohio-based folk music band, the core of which is the husband-and-wife team of pianist/guitarist/bassist Linford Detweiler and vocalist/guitarist Karin Bergquist. The band began as a quartet with guitarist Ric Hordinski and drummer Brian Kelley. Hordinski left the band in December 1996, and Kelley continued to play into 1997 before departing. The original foursome reunited in December 2008 at The Taft Theatre (in Cincinnati) to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the formation of the band, and again in the summer of 2010 at Ric's studio, "the Monastery", to play the album "Good Dog Bad Dog" live, in its entirety.

The band's namesake and place of origin is the Cincinnati, Ohio neighborhood Over-the-Rhine. The neighborhood has changed immensely in the last decade, and some credit the band for taking away the negative connotations of the place and opening peoples’ eyes to the ragged beauty of those streets. Karin attended school in Barnesville, Ohio and graduated from Barnesville High School in 1984. She then went to Malone College, located in Canton, Ohio, where she met Linford. Karin and Linford were married in the fall of 1996 in Cincinnati and several years ago relocated to a pre-Civil War farm outside of town.

Over the Rhine is now primarily Bergquist (vocals, acoustic guitar, piano) and Detweiler (keyboards, electric bass, vocals) accompanied by complementary musicians on albums and tours. Over the years, they have toured and recorded in many variations. They have shared the stage with Bob Dylan, John Prine, Adrian Belew, Squeeze, Ani DiFranco, My Morning Jacket, Hem, and toured as "adjunct" members of Cowboy Junkies.

Formed in the spring of 1989, at a time when Detweiler, Hordinski, and Kelley were also touring as part of the final incarnation of Servant, Over the Rhine released independently their first two albums, Till We Have Faces, in 1991 (named for the C. S. Lewis book of the same title) and Patience in 1992, before eventually signing with label giant I.R.S. Records later in 1992. IRS acquired both "Till We Have Faces" and "Patience," issuing them as the first two releases from the band, and later in 1994 would fully fund the band's third LP release Eve to rave reviews. When I.R.S. records was bought out in 1996, Over the Rhine was released from their five-album contract and went on to independently release Good Dog, Bad Dog and The Darkest Night of the Year, both of which outsold the three previous IRS releases combined. In 2001, Over the Rhine signed with Virgin Records/Back Porch and released Films for Radio to near universal acclaim before releasing double album Ohio in 2003.Paste Magazine granted one of its first five-star reviews to "Ohio", released on Virgin Records' Back Porch Records label. Over the Rhine's next album, Drunkard's Prayer, was released on March 29, 2005.