Discography
Ohio (2003)
The Cutting Room Floor (2002)
Films for Radio (2001)
Amateur Shortwave Radio (2000)
Besides (1997)
The Darkest Night of the Year (1996)
Good Dog, Bad Dog (1996/2000)
Eve (1994)
Patience (1992)
'Til We Have Faces (1991)

Linford Detweiler (piano, guitars, keyboards)
Karin Bergquist (vocals, guitars, keyboards)

For fans of: Innocence Mission, Sixpence None the Richer, Sarah McLachlan, Rosie Thomas, 16 Horsepower, Sara Groves, Caedmon's Call

Over the Rhine have been baptizing their followers in the Ohio River for over a decade, and the band returns with Ohio, a special two-disc set that unfolds like the ultimate Midwestern road trip.

"It was an accident," says Karin Bergquist. "We didn't set out to make a double album. If that had been the plan, it would have been a disaster."

Over the Rhine returned to the studio in 2003 with few pre-conceived notions about the project that would reveal itself along the way. The band could never have predicted the creative catharsis that followed and brought 21 new songs into being.

"Something happened," continues Linford Detweiler. "We were a little lost at the outset of recording. It was our tenth project overall. We were looking at each other sort of wondering if we were still game. But as soon as we started getting into the new songs, we had the overwhelming sensation that we were coming home."

There was talk of separating the material into two projects— one being more bare-boned and acoustic, one being more full-bodied—but the band was having a difficult time pulling the new group of songs apart.

There was a turning point. "For better or worse, the songs just seemed to belong together," says Detweiler. "I was sitting on the couch in the studio late one night, a few days before we were scheduled to start final mixing. And I turned to Karin and Paul Mahern, our producer, and said, 'double album.' After the initial shock wore off, it was obvious to all of us: We had accidentally made a double album."

Bergquist adds, "The process of recording the songs on OHIO seemed to set us free somehow, and once we realized that we wouldn't have to break the songs apart into two different records, it was a huge relief. And it immediately raised a lot of interesting questions: Where have all the double albums gone? Are there very many good ones? Are we actually crazy enough to be this self-indulgent?"

"Then we decided we wanted to do a special edition on vinyl, in a gate-fold jacket, and there was no turning back. A double album on vinyl: that's about as decadent as it gets these days in an industry obsessed with singles."

There was only one remaining potential problem. Over the Rhine had to convince their record label and publisher. "Back Porch Records had not heard one demo, one rough mix, one note of any song from Ohio in advance," explains Detweiler, "And it's a pretty rare privilege for a band to have such complete creative freedom. But now we had this new project ready to deliver, and we definitely had some explaining to do: 'Oh, by the way, there are 21 songs and over 90 minutes of music.'"

Hearing the music made all the difference. OHIO, the new double album from Over the Rhine, became a reality.

• Ohio is Over the Rhine's tenth recording project overall. There will be a special edition of Ohio available on vinyl.
• Over the Rhine is a band blessed with a devoted and growing audience just crazy enough to actually listen again and again to every note of a double album. "It seems like most people who discover the band," says Bergquist, "wear out every record we've ever released."

• The songs on Ohio were recorded on an old 16-track analog 2" tape machine with no loops, samples or sequencing.
• Over the Rhine worked with producer/engineer Paul Mahern on Ohio, someone they knew very little about going into the project. Later on, the band discovered Paul had done some mixing for Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Iggy Pop and John Mellencamp, an

• Karin Bergquist grew up in the small Ohio Valley town of Barnesville.
• Linford Detweiler was born in Hartville, Ohio, the son of a Protestant minister, but the family soon moved to Fairpoint, a small coal-mining town 20 miles from Barnesville.
• Both Karin and Linford grew up listening to gospel, country & western, rock & roll. As a teenager, Karin Bergquist cruised the backroads of Ohio with friends, listening to Neil Young, John Lennon, Janis Joplin, The Pretenders, Joni Mitchell, Elton John and early R.E.M.
• As children, both Karin and Linford could see Big Muskie, the world's largest earthmover, working at night, pulling the hills of Ohio apart for coal. Big Muskie was over six-stories tall and a single bite of its bucket could move 325 tons of earth.

• Over the Rhine will be touring extensively in the U.S. with the five-piece band, September-December 2003, with plans to return to Europe and the U.K. in 2004.
• Over the Rhine's music has been increasingly embraced in Europe, and the band toured in 15 different countries in support of their last release, Films For Radio.
• Over the Rhine's dreamy, organic songs have shown up on compilations with the likes of Radiohead, Coldplay, David Gray and Turin Brakes.
• Over the Rhine has been referenced in episodes of both the X-Files and Angel. Their music has been featured in such prime time television shows as Third Watch and Felicity.