Over the Rhine to perform at the BCT

Midwestern musical duo Over the Rhine will perform with opening act Lily & Madeline 8 p.m. Friday at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.

Over the Rhine is comprised of married couple Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist. The pair is originally from Cincinnati, but has performed and worked on several albums in Bloomington.

“It holds a special place in our musical hearts,” Detweiler said. “It’s kind of a homecoming.”

He said Over the Rhine will perform songs from its new album, “Meet Me at the Edge of the World.”

It took more than two years for Over the Rhine to write the songs for the album, but only six days to record it, Detweiler said.

“Writing is slow, recording is fast,” he said.

Rebecca Stanze, associate director of the Buskirk-Chumley, said she is excited to have Over the Rhine perform in Bloomington again.

“Over the Rhine do very lovely acoustical work — a charming duo,” Stanze said. “Both have unique sounds, but fit into the soothing music genre.”

Detweiler and Bergquist are both very interested in harmony vocals, Detweiler said.
Harmony vocals are two people singing together, but with two slightly different melodies. He believes this makes a song more surprising and interesting.

This is why Over the Rhine picked Lily & Madeline as its opener. Detweiler and Bergquist had heard some of the girls’ songs, saw they had harmony vocals and thought they would fit well with their audience, Detweiler said.

Over the Rhine originally came up with its name from a neighborhood in Cincinnati.

“Over-the-Rhine was considered the bad part of town,” Detweiler said. “It was very colorful and magnetic to Karin and I as young writers. We would romanticize about the place.”

Now, Detweiler and Bergquist are about to celebrate Over the Rhine’s 25th anniversary, since they started the band in 1989.

They each write about one-third of the songs and then collaborate on the remaining third, Detweiler said.

“We are a true partnership and each other’s editors,” Detweiler said.

In the future, Detweiler hopes to have his own venue on his farm with Bergquist and continue making music.

“Music teaches me a lot about what I care about,” he said. “Music is about learning to pay attention.”