Two articles

["Bruce Lachey" <b_lachey@hotmail.com>]

There is a one page article in last month's Cincinnati Magazine about OTR's 
Coney Shows (the "Best Of Cincinnati" issue) that is pretty good, and in 
this week's CIN magazine, here is one about the upcoming Taft show:

http://www.cinweekly.com/content/2003/12/10/1210otr.asp

Coming home
December in Cincinnati is prime time for Over the Rhine
CHRIS VARIAS | CIN WEEKLY CONTRIBUTOR

JUST THE FACTS
WHAT: Over the Rhine with Pedro the Lion and Susan Enan
WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 12
WHERE: Taft Theatre, 317 E. Fifth St., downtown
TICKETS: $17-19

As Linford Detweiler of Over the Rhine recalls, it started with Cincinnati, 
and it kept growing and growing.

Nine years ago, Over the Rhine put on a concert at the Emery Theatre to 
celebrate Christmas.

The Cincinnati alt-rock group soon discovered that its fans loved the idea, 
and in the years that followed, December - a month in which most bands 
hibernate - would become Over the Rhine prime time. OTR would go on to 
release the 1996 Christmas record The Darkest Night of the Year and embark 
on an annual Christmas tour.

Of course, the tour always makes its way back to Cincinnati, and the concert 
has become the city's biggest pop-music show on the Christmas calendar. 
Friday the tradition continues, as OTR, led by the husband-and-wife team of 
Detweiler and Karin Bergquist, returns to the Taft Theatre.

Much of what makes the homecoming event special to Detweiler is the magic of 
the old venues. He has especially fond memories of the Emery. The Christmas 
concert became so popular that the band's run at the Emery finished in 1997 
with a two-night stand. In the years that followed, the show moved downtown 
to the Taft, which has twice the seating of the Emery.

"The Emery is an amazing room with incredible history," Detweiler says. 
"Houdini performed there. I believe the Gershwin brothers performed there."

The only year OTR failed to deliver a holiday show was 1998.

"We were recording at the time. There was some interest from Capitol 
Records. Nothing ever came from it," he remembers with a laugh.

The recollection is funny to him because record-company angst used to be a 
theme of the OTR story. It seemed labels didn't know what to make of OTR and 
its in-between folk-rock sound, taking for granted the band's devoted fan 
base.

Now signed to the Virgin Records boutique label Back Porch, the band 
released the two-disc Ohio earlier this year to enthusiastic reviews.

"There was something on the line," Detweiler says. "People could go two 
ways. They could be dismissive of the whole double-album thing, like it's 
self-indulgent. Or they were going to listen to the music. It was a concern, 
but the fact that people have written lengthy, in-depth pieces on the album 
says a lot."

The momentum of a successful year for the band was interrupted when OTR 
postponed its October-November tour. The news came with a letter from 
Detweiler posted on the band's Web site. Citing "personal and family 
reasons," he went on to write, "There are two trees in our lives: one is our 
music and one is our marriage. Sometimes we water one or the other, 
hopefully both ...."

When asked to further explain, Detweiler responds, "We worked really, really 
hard this year. We overextended ourselves professionally. However 
unfortunate the timing, every once in a while life just has a way of taking 
over when priorities get shifted."

Detweiler assures fans that OTR has no plans to cease. The postponed dates 
will be made up in the spring, he reports, and we can only assume that soon 
after the band will begin thinking about the 2004 Christmas show. After all, 
it wouldn't be Christmas in Cincinnati without it.

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