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Letter from Linford
Hello everyone,
The late November sky in Ohio is a gray goosedown comforter flung gently over
our town, held aloft by leafless trees. It rained before the sun came up. The
branches are dark and slick and feminine. An American flag ripples gently on
a front porch down the street. A housewife backs her car out of the driveway:
the children are at school. Telephone wires out the attic window cut the
world into slung crescents, as if this life was painted a slice at a time.
Someone said that J.R.R. Tolkien expressed disappointment that we would use
the word "tree" to describe towering sources of shade. Maybe that's partly
why he felt compelled to invent his own language.
Good heavens, we apologize for the technical glitches with the digest version
of the discussion list yesterday. The boys in Boston said that a loop was
unwittingly created that spewed out messages by the dozens. Good thing God
created the delete button. Sorry about the mess in your e-mailboxes.
Well, this is really just a short note to say we made it back safely from
touring 13 countries in Europe and the UK. It was the trip of a lifetime in
many ways. So many beautiful cities: Dublin, Copenhagen, Olso, Berlin,
Stockholm, Lisbon, Madrid, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, small tucked-away
towns in Italy etc. Words seemed to want to fall out of my mouth as I looked
around.
Italy is a leatherbound book.
We walk on marbled endpapers
Beneath the glass blown sky.
There is something about a
mountain vineyard that seems
to suggest, Hope is not
lost. All may be well with the world
after all.
It was surreal to have the opportunity to perform our bag full of songs in
such faraway places. We found the audiences to be warm and curious about a
band called Over the Rhine. The Germans were especially protective,
explaining that the Rhine has long been considered a source of inspiration
for writers and musicians. If we could only name the band after a river in
every European country...
Thanks to all who made us feel so welcome.
The beds in Scandanavia seemed to want to wrap us up and comfort us. The
Norwegians and Swedes in particular have put alot of thought into their
duvets and goosedown pillows. Unbelievable. I know understand why some thick
blankets are referred to as "comforters."
Quickly, if we had to appoint an apartment, start a new life abroad with
European goods, and were only allowed to take a few things from each country,
this is how we might go about fluffing the nest:
From France: Wine and Food
From Italy: Clothing, Shoes, Leatherbound Notebooks
(Or Vice Versa)
From Scandanavia (sorry to lump it all together): Beds and Furniture
From Germany: Cars, Interior Design
From England: Literature, Rock and Roll, Newspapers
From Ireland: Guinness, Music, Literature
From Scotland: Single Malt Scotch (Lagavulin, Laphroaig, Balvenie etc.)
From Holland: Fresh cut flowers, Bulbs, The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh
From Belgium: Beer and Chocolate
You get the idea.
We definitely need to spend more time in Spain and sunny Portugal. Those
countries seemed to slip through our fingers too quickly. We're planning on a
follow-up European, Over the Rhine tour in the Spring--we'll keep you posted.
I suppose I was surprised at how good it was to get back home to Ohio. If
Europe is a lovely, infinite maze, America is a funky, scrap heap of
possibility. We run our errands or heat up leftovers and it all feels as if
we've won a prize. We're home!
Well, hope you all are well back here on this side of the ocean and thay you
had opportunity to feast with family and friends this past week--lift a glass
to the good things.
We wanted to make sure you knew you were invited to join us for our December
tour, and especially our homecoming show here in Cincinnati on December 7th
where we'll be joined by Buddy and Julie Miller and Erin McKeown. It's been a
hard year in many ways, but a good one. Music feels especially good to me
right now for some reason. Hope to see you. Check out the website for the
particulars, and we're going to do something we've never done: e-mail you a
tiny poster that you can print out and give to friends and family if you
wish. Or you can discreetly post a copy in a cafe 2000 miles away. In case
you were wondering, here is the line-up for the December tour:
Dale Baker: Drums
Wade Jaynes: Bass
Jack Henderson: Electric Guitar
Linford Detweiler: Keyboards
Karin Bergquist: Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
We're hoping to have Kim Taylor sit in on a few things over the course of the
tour, and at the Taft show in Cincinnati, we'll try to get everyone up on
stage for a few rousing numbers.
We were encouraged by many of the thought-provoking responses we received
directly or via the e-mail discussion list regarding the history and future
of the list. More on that later. In the meanwhile we encourage you to
participate, and we're going to try to make appearances on the list when we
can.
I believe that's about it for now. Hope to see you down the road somewhere
before year's end.
Peace on earth, goodwill to you and yours,
Linford Detweiler for Over the Rhine
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