Over the Rhine, The Long Surrender

By Magda Underdown-DuBois

I was introduced to Over the Rhine when they opened for Ani DiFranco a few years ago. The girlfriend who bought us the tickets explained to me that the married duo of Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler had begun making music in the arena of Contemporary Christian, but had then broadened their reach to incorporate the deeply personal mundane that dominates the singer-songwriter genre these days. When I picked up The Long Surrender, I expected something similar to what I heard onstage so long ago. Their press release and the Notes within (a preface to the duo’s musical story written by their producer Joe Henry) argued against these preconceptions.

Over the Rhine professes to make “alternative/Americana/Folk” music according to their MySpace page. Yet, this album incorporates blues, gospel, and just a touch of country in addition to all of that. While Detweiler holds down the solid melody in his piano accompaniment and occasional harmonies, it is Bergquist’s breathy voice that makes these pieces unique. Like her predecessors Dolly Parton and Billie Holiday, she has a full-of-teeth kind of approach, which makes one visualize her in a long black dress flirting with a 1940s bandstand.

Suffice to say, this album, “designed to played at magnificent volumes . . . and in full sequence/real time” (according the liner notes), is nothing like you have heard and will grow on you like the kudzu featured in one of the sepia photographs highlighting the music inside the CD. Accompanying the pictures are two booklets. One, reading like a 12-page invitation list to a local non-profit’s donor ball, is strictly dedicated to thanking those executive producers and “additional co-conspirators, allies, guardian angels” who contributed to their self-publishing company Great Speckled Dog. The other includes the previously mentioned Notes, lyrics to all of the songs and traditional credits.

There is no obvious evidence on Over the Rhine’s website nor in their present musical project of any rumored relationship with Contemporary Christian, but their connection with the Divine still slides through in subtle and artful ways, avoiding any blatant and possibly painful contacts with a swinging Bible Belt buckle. Layering on top of the obviously well-read smattering of language [even referencing poets Charles Bukowski (in “There’s a Bluebird In My Heart” and B. H. Fairchild (in “Rave On”)] are soothing tunes such as “Undamned, which indicates that salvation is more about everyday miracles, like being ” . . . not too far gone /to fall/Headlong/Into the arms that love me.” Of course, the Spirit was lifted even higher when Lucinda Williams, a well-known honoree of Americana, contributed her harmonies to the same song.

Other lyrics, like “The gift of your heart frees me from mine” (from “Soon”) and the following passage from “Oh yeah by the way” are the true joys to this album, which can cut straight to heart and makes one feel physically, not just emotionally, the intention behind the words:

What a waste that I still love you
But I can’t erase one scar
All your self-inflicted wounds
Have made you what you are

The duo’s varied yet down-to-earth work talks about ordinary topics from romance (“Sharpest Blade”), to Elvis (“The King Knows How”), to aging (“Only God Can Save Us Now”), to small jabs at Wall Street (“Infamous Love Song”).

The jewel of the whole album is “All My Favorite People.” To some, it may have a New Orleans sound, but to me it is a gospel anthem for my community of friends. My Chosen family is definitely a group of “orphaned believers, skeptical dreamers”, as well as broken saint-sinners recovering from all that life have thrown at them with beautiful scars and interesting stories. Obviously it touched a nerve with their producer Joe Henry as well, who names only this one song in his Notes and followed it with a lovely instrumental, “Unspoken,” ending the album with a soft Amen and Hallelujah.

The Long Surrender was released February 8 via the band’s own imprint, Great Speckled Dog. To listen to selections and to purchase a download or physical CD, please visit the band’s website.