With the summer nearing its end and autumn beginning to take shape, this is a stunning new double album that suits the season perfectly.
Over the Rhine are the singer-songwriting husband and wife duo of Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler. I first them on Noisetrade in December 2012 with their Christmas album, Snow Angel; and from the very first notes I was hooked (Snow Angel isn’t you average Christmas album either)! I then got their previous album ‘The Long Surrender’ and they rapidly have become one of my favorite groups.
Meet Me at the Edge of the World
Whereas The Long Surrender has a more melancholy feeling, Meet Me at the Edge of the World is full of beautiful and poetic themes of coming home and feeling comfortable there. A lyrical motif that runs through both albums is to ‘leave the edges wild’.
The couple live in rural Ohio in a 19th century farm house called Nowhere Farm (or Now Here Farm) and listening to the record you can almost hear the wind rustling through the trees and wildflowers and birds singing in the trees.
It’s a mixture of blues folk and americana. The albums ebb and flow with superb tunes and lyrics that are instant and welcome ear worms!
The album was crowd funded on their website with all contributors getting a credit in the CD notes.
All though the record the lyrics are so good, you could use the CD booklet as a small poetry book! And it’s a very pretty CD – beautifully designed. It’s the first ‘real’ CD I bought in several years and it’s well worth it for the overall package.
Most of the vocals are by Karin Bergquist who has one of the best voices in music at the moment; but the 2nd album opens with All Over Ohio where Linford Detweiler’s wonderfully growly style shines (and always put a huge smile on my face when I hear that song!).
My favorite tracks (at the moment, they change as I listen and re-listen!) are ‘Called Home’, where there there’s this fantastic line,
With clouds adrift across the sky
Like heaven’s laundry hung to dry
‘Wildflower Bouquet’, a song about moving on from this world that’s achingly beautiful and the closing track ‘Favorite Time of Light’. There are many songs which have been written about sunsets, but Favorite Time of Light is one of the very best with it’s refrain:
It’s our favorite time of light
Just before the day kisses the night
You see the redwing blackbirds fly
The sun’s a big ol’ lazy eyeAnd when the day is bending low
And rolling fields begin to glow
Feels like we traveled all this way
Just so I could hear you say
It’s our favorite
Our favorite time of light
So do yourself a favor and go and get Meet Me at the Edge of the World now! And then listen to it outside, on an autumn evening just before sunset, preferably with something cold to drink.
To find out more about Over the Rhine, and the album, read this great interview on the Huffington Post.
You can get the album on iTunes, Amazon (with CD Match) or on the Over the Rhine website.
For a taster, the first five tracks are over on Noisetrade with Five Good Reasons to Meet Me.
[Image via Jacob Whittaker via Compfight cc]
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