If you go
› Where: Songbirds Guitar Museum, 35 Station St. (South), 41 Station St. (North)› For more information: 423-531-2473THE AFTERNOONERS WITH VEAUX, PLANET & BETTER THIEVES› When: 8 p.m. Thursday, March 7 (S)› Admission: $10AN EVENING WITH DOUG STONE› When: 7 p.m. Friday, March 8 (N)› Admission: $30WRONG WAY: A TRIBUTE TO SUBLIME WITH STONED COLD FOX› When: 9 p.m. Friday, March 8 (S)› Admission: $12 in advance, $15 day of showOVER THE RHINE› When: 7 p.m. Saturday March 9 (N)› Admission: $30ROAD TO NIGHTFALL FINALS› When: 9 p.m. Saturday, March 9 (S)› Admission: $10THE HIP ABDUCTION FEATURING OF GOOD NATURE› When: 9 p.m. Sunday, March 10 (S)› Admission: $12 in advance, $15 day of showSPRING BREAK KIDS TALENT CONTEST QUALIFYING ROUND› When: 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 12 (N)› Admission: $5
Husband and wife Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist recorded their first demo as Over the Rhine in March 1989.
"That means two things," says Detweiler in a telephone interview. "First, for a brief moment, we were an '80s band. And second, this is our 30th anniversary as a band. We are feeling grateful we are still making music 30 years into our careers and still have new songs."
The couple's first new music in four years, "Love & Revelation," will be out March 15. But local fans can hear the music first on Saturday night, March 9, when Over the Rhine plays at Songbirds North. Detweiler says for the Songbirds show the duo will be joined by Bradley Meinerding, who plays mandolin, electric guitar, harmonica and acoustic guitar.
Detweiler and Bergquist first played together at her junior recital in college. He later moved to Cincinnati and lived in a German neighborhood called Over the Rhine, from which they drew their name. The couple has been married 22 years.
Over the Rhine's music has become known for reflecting where they are in their personal lives, and "Love & Revelation" is no exception. It's an emotionally charged album that looks at personal loss and their hopes for the future.
"We realize we are in a stage of life that we are experiencing for the first time," Detweiler says. "We are in our 50s, we're not kids anymore. We've laid loved ones to rest and seen friends and colleagues struggling with loss of a child, chronic illness, difficult things.
"Also, I think our country feels like things are shifting and we're not quite sure who we are as Americans, or we are re-evaluating that right now."
That's not to say that the new music is all somber.
"'Love & Revelation' is a very upbeat song - it's sort of thinking out loud about what it is we still believe in. There's a song called 'Rocking Chair' on the record that is a whimsical tune about the fact that we've become homebodies when we are not on the road," he describes.
Looking back over their career, Detweiler says what has sustained them is gratitude.
"It feels like a gift that people care so much about our music 30 years into our career. Making a record 20 years ago that people still listen to and talk about - that's hard to put on a to-do list. We try not to make the same record over and over again, and hope that each record is authentic to a particular chapter in our lives. I hope we are not the same writers we were 30 years ago. I hope we are growing and taking people on the journey with us."
Contact Susan Pierce at spierce@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6284.