Music
Under the rain
by Nick Bollinger
The New Zealand origins and Christian concerns of Over the Rhine.
When Linford Detweiler and Karin Berquist play arts festivals in Kerikeri and Wellington this month, it will be their first New Zealand appearance as Over the Rhine, but not the first time the Cincinatti, Ohio couple has performed to a Kiwi audience.
The last was at the ill-fated Sweet-waters festival in 1999, as part of Canadian group Cowboy Junkies, with whom they toured for a couple of years. They don’t remember if they got paid or not, but they vividly recall the thrill of seeing Neil Finn perform on his home turf.
But it was an earlier visit to New Zealand, as stand-in bass player for a Christian rock group, which had convinced Detweiler to form Over the Rhine. “I was just getting out of college and some friends of mine called me and said, ‘We’ve got this tour that we’re doing in Australia and New Zealand, would you fill in?’ So we played this tiny little festival in Wellington, 300 or 400 kids in this mountain valley, and it was pouring rain. I kept waiting for them to run for shelter and yet nobody left. And I never forgot this moment. I just thought, ‘Wow, wouldn’t this be amazing if this was my music and people cared about it this much?’ And it was a few weeks after that that I called Karin and said ‘What would you think about getting together and doing some songwriting?’”
The two had met as teenagers at a Quaker liberal arts college in Ohio, drawn together by their shared love of music, and Detweiler had noted the way Berquist’s voice affected people. “Karen was the only student I met up there who could really get under people’s skin. When she sang, I saw tears welling up in people’s eyes.”
Berquist’s voice remains a powerfully emotive instrument, its confiding tones heightened by the austerity of the instrumental arrangements. For Drunkard’s Prayer, the sixth and most recent Over the Rhine album, she is frequently accompanied by nothing more than a piano and softly strummed guitar. Even when joined by a rhythm section (as the duo will be on their forthcoming visit), the voice sits way out in front.
With its flavours of country, folk and gospel, Over the Rhine has struck a chord with the Americana crowd, as well as those attracted by the soft sincerity of Norah Jones. It may also attract some listeners on account of its subtle yet persistent concern with Christianity. Detweiler, who refers to himself in the liner notes to the earlier Ohio album as “Christ-haunted”, agrees, yet professes to be “way outside the loop” of the Christian music scene. “I like to think I could have a conversation with just about anybody and I have no interest whatsoever in limiting my audience or targeting a specific audience.”
To Detweiler (the son of a Protestant minister), religion is simply one of the inescapable cornerstones of American music. “Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, John Coltrane – if you think of American icons of music, there can be none of this without this strong undercurrent of religion and faith and belief and doubt. That is part of what America is.”
If Detweiler’s icons were rehearsing for heaven, they all did their share of hell-raising during their time on earth. By contrast, Detweiler and Berquist live contentedly, monogamously and – for musicians – quietly. Just under a year ago they moved to a small farm just east of Cincinatti, where they live in a 170-year-old farmhouse. Can one be too comfortable to create?
“People have this model in mind where a genius leaves a trail of personal mayhem and pain, like Picasso or even Dylan. We see it in some of our friends’ lives. And I guess I’m growing sceptical of that.”
He prefers the example of Tom Waits, who has written and produced his work in collaboration with his wife Kathleen Brennan ever since their marriage in the mid-80s. It has undoubtedly been the most creative period of Waits’s career.
“Karin and I have worked hard for the relationship we have, and that’s sort of a foundation that allows us to pursue our interest in songwriting and performing, and for me it all fits together. It sounds exotic for a husband and wife to be part of a creative partnership, but it might not be that strange.”
OVER THE RHINE, Bay of Islands Arts Festival, Kerikeri, March 7; International Arts Festival, Wellington, March 9-12.
