The band — led by Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler — has had a busy 2019. In their 30th year as a musical entity, OTR released the acclaimed Love & Revelation album, hosted its Memorial Day weekend arts and music festival Nowhere Else on its Martinsville, Ohio farmland and toured coast to coast.
They were also honored at the 2019 Cincinnati Entertainment Awards with the first-ever Bootsy Collins Music Ambassador Award.
Over the Rhine has plenty of original “Reality Christmas” material (and a handful of fantastic covers) from which to choose for their holiday-time shows, having released three Xmas albums in the past 20-plus years, including the 2014 full-length Blood Oranges In The Snow.
Here are five of OTR’s best Christmas tunes to get you in the holiday mood ahead of this weekend's concerts.
• “Darlin’ (Christmas is Coming)” from Snow Angels (performed with the Cincinnati Pops in 2016)
• “Blood Oranges in the Snow” from Blood Oranges in the Snow (recorded for Audiotree in 2014)
• “All I Ever Get For Christmas is Blue” from Snow Angels
• “Silent Night” from The Darkest Night of the Year
• “If We Make It Through December” (a Merle Haggard cover) from Blood Oranges in the Snow (recorded for Audiotree in 2014)
This year, fans can catch OTR on Dec. 20-22 at Memorial Hall (1225 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, memorialhallotr.com). Tickets are $40-$65. The Dec. 20 and 21 shows start at 8 p.m.; the Dec. 22 concert begins at 2 p.m.
Get the latest on Over the Rhine at overtherhine.com.
