Over the Rhine - Live From Nowhere (Volume 3)

every year during late november and early december, over the rhine does a series of dates throughout the northeast and midwest that have become known by their fans as the christmas tour. the tour culminates a week or two before christmas at cincinnati's beautiful "taft theatre." for the past couple of years they have followed the taft show (on saturday night) with a sunday late afternoon/early evening informal and intimate gathering of music, friendship, wine and cheese by candlelight at a beautiful yet tired, worn and previously abandoned church in their old neighborhood of norwood. recently the church, st. elizabeth's (aka: st. e's) has been reclaimed, rejuvinated and in is in the process of restoration by many of karin and linford's friends from the neighborhood, it's new life seems to be serving and suiting both it and the community well.

the "taft weekend" has become the big event of the year for OtR and their fans with people travelling in from all over the country and the world (seriously) for these shows. along with the music there are group dinners, late night drinks and early morning breakfasts and coffee. over the years it has become a great gathering of friends and like minded people who really enjoy sharing their time, interests, stories and their lives together. it is really an amazing, inspiring and life affirming couple of days.

three years ago, OtR had the idea of capturing some of the more special moments from these shows, at times mixing in a couple of previously unreleased studio gems and putting out limited edition, "fan" only series titled "live from nowhere" (named after their ohio farm, "nowhere farm"). volume one sold out quickly and has become very rare, with copies on e-bay auctions fetching in the $75-100 range. volume two is getting hard to track down but a limited number are still available... if you look hard enough. and after several unavoidable delays and a setback due to the unexpected passing of linford's father, volume three started hitting mailboxes today.

the players on volume three are the current touring band; karin bergquist (vocals, guitar, piano), linford detweiler (piano, acoustic guitar, electric bass, vocals), jake bradley (upright bass, electric bass, lead guitar), mickey grimm (drumkit)and violinist, paul patterson (from the cincinnati symphony orchestra) guesting on a couple of tracks. the setlist, this time culled exclusively from live shows, was mixed & produced by david "too damn juicy" foreman. dave is a master behind the soundboard and always maxes out OtR's sound, regardless of the venue and these mixes come directly from his 4 track masters and his production on this disc is simply amazing.
track listing
1. Motherless Child
2. Angel Band
3. Hush Now (with Fantasia Cadenza)
4. Trouble
5. Nothing Is Innocent
6. I'm On A Roll
7. Don't Wait For Tom
8. Drunkard's Prayer
9. Who'm I Kiddin' But Me
10. Northpole Man
11. Snow Angel
12. Latter Days

'nuff said.

do yourself a favor...

live from nowhere - volume three can be ordered directly from the band @: overtherhine.com - featured products

and volume one and volume two are also available directly from the band via download @ overtherhine.com - downloads

on a personal note, i am proud to have been fortunate enough to have my photographs featured in each of the live from nowhere releases. it's very rewarding to have your work used by artists that you respect both personally and professionally. here are the pics from this year.

over the rhine - fraze pavilion/dayton, oh (07.23.2008)

beautiful show on a beautiful night night in a beautiful venue full of beautiful people.

last night, once again, OtR delivered bigtime. a killer show at the fraze pavilion in kettering, oh (south of dayton). it was a beautiful night for an outdoor show, not too hot or humid, nice breeze, the only negative was that as the sun set it was very bright and directly in the eyes of the band (but they all looked pretty hip in their shades). this show was a part of a summer series of free wednesday night shows sponsored by the venue, the city and several local businesses. personally, i'm always leary of these types of shows, since they are free the crowd has no "investment" in the show, many times they are filled with people that are not really fans of the artists or of music in general and they tend to be a place to just hang out for the evening. thankfully, that was not the case last night. great crowd.

the venue holds around 4,000 with a variety of seating; comfortable fixed "stadium type" seating up front, a nice casual lawn in the middle and aluminum bleacher seating in the rear. my guess is that there was well north of 3,000+ people there. the audience was great, quiet, attentive, respectful and appreciative. since OtR has played in dayton pretty much since their beginning and had many a sold-out night @ the canal street tavern, there also was a nice awareness of them and the music. the fraze is a nice, small outdoor "shed" or ampihtheatre in the middle of a large park/green space with much better acoustics than most. maybe it's the size and/or it being surrounded by trees rather than a sea of asphalt and parking lots. and as usual "juicy" had it dialed in perfectly.

the band was in great sprits and having a lot of fun playing and enjoying the crowd. while introducing "trouble" and playfully (and "suggestively") dedicating it to those out "on a date," karin spotted a young married arriving a little late, just spreading out their blanket on the lawn and had a little fun with them. soon the whole crowd was turning back and looking at them.

they played two sets, mostly from "ohio" and "the trumpet child" with a couple of covers thrown in;

set one
i don't wanna waste your time
born
trouble
i'm on a roll
miss ohio (gillian welch cover)
cruel & pretty
the trumpet child
who'm i kiddin'
changes come

set two
ohio
professional daydreamer
show me
drunkard's prayer
if a song could be president
don't wait for tom
b.p.d.
my city was gone (pretender's cover)
encore
orphan girl (gillian welch cover)
latter days (K&L Only) *not originally on setlist

everything was great, but they really rocked it on "miss ohio" & "my city was gone" and you could have heard a pin drop during "latter days." kenny is a nice addition to the usual foursome and as i joked with karin after the show, the lynyrd skynyrd dual lead guitar thing works well for them.

apparently everyone liked what they heard too. i jumped in and helped @ the merch table both during the break and after the show and we were slammed, i've never seen it that busy. they sold out of a couple of cd's and tees and still had people buying as security was hustling everyone out of the venue.

as i said; beautiful show on a beautiful night night in a beautiful venue full of beautiful people.


the line-up was:
karin bergquist (vocals. acoustic guitar, piano, cookie sheet) | linford detweiler (piano, acoustic guitar, backing vocals) | jake bradley (upright bass, electric bass, electric guitar) | mickey grimm (drumkits) | kenny hutson (electric guitar, pedal steel guitar, electric mandolin)

kudos to karin for her "this cookie sheet kills fascism" note on the bottom of her cookie sheet. the spirit of woodie guthrie lives on in these trouble times, he would be proud. =)

and congrats to jeanne on #75