Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Review - Over the Rhine "The Long Surrender"

This CD has been out a few months but cannot be overlooked. Over the Rhine are Linford Detweiller and Karin Bergquist, a husband-wife duo who took their band name from their downtown Cincinnati Ohio neighborhood. They've been making music for 20+ years and this is their 11th studio record.

The Long Surrender is yet another fine production effort from the great Joe Henry (yes, occasionally I do plug CDs not produced by Joe Henry, but not today) and featuring Joe's A-team of LA sessions players - Jay Bellerose, Dave Piltch, Patrick Warren etc., plus a guest vocal by Lucinda Williams. They are all perfectly sympatico with Over the Rhine's gorgeous piano-based Americana and the exquisite singing of Ms. Bergquist. This will appeal to fans of Joe's work with Mary Gauthier and Lisa Hannigan. It's beautiful, mournful, searching, and it digs very deep emotionally.

Here's one from the record, "All My Favorite People" (with its great line "All my favorite people are broken"):


Here's a live version of the lead track "The Laugh of Recognition":

Story behind the record, far better written than anything I could do: http://www.overtherhine.com/otrstory.php

Did I mention that Karin Bergquist is an amazingly talented singer? Very highly recommended.

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