Over the Rhine — the Cincinnati musical duo of husband-and-wife Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist — has a lot for which to thank the Cowboy Junkies. Hopefully they’ll get a chance to thank the Junkies when the latter is in town for a Tuesday night gig at 20th Century Theatre. The Junkies are here to celebrate the completion of an unusual project, The Nomad Series, four albums in 18 months. The final one, Wilderness — a sensitive look at the needs and impulses that drive a person’s life — came out last month.
Without the support of the Junkies, a longtime Canadian Folk Rock/AltCountry band who have had a devoted following ever since 1988’s classic The Trinity Session, OTR wouldn’t have had one of the coolest music gigs imaginable. The Junkies introduced OTR to “Roots on the Rails,” and the latter has been the headliner on two passenger-train excursions through the Western/Southwestern landscape.
“We met OTR in the late ’90s when someone gave us their Good Dog Bad Dog album — we really loved what we heard,” said Michael Timmons, the Junkies’ songwriter-guitarist, via e-mail. (His sister, Margo, is the vocalist and brother Peter the drummer. Alan Anton plays bass.)
“We continued to work with Karin and Linford for a few years after that,” he continued. “They toured a lot with us and were a big part of recording our album Open. A couple of years later we were approached by Charlie Hunter to do a cross-Canada Roots on the Rails trip and we were asked to pick some musicians to join us on the trip, so we asked Karin and Linford to come along.” Visit www.rootsontherails.com for more on the tours.
THE COWBOY JUNKIES perform Tuesday, April 23 at 20th Century Theatre. Buy tickets, check out performance times and get venue details here.
