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BCT & Bloomington Roots present a special Valentine concert: Over the Rhine INFAMOUS LOVE SONGS “Some years ago, when Johnny Cash’s career was undergoing a resurgence during his creative collaborations with producer, Rick Rubin, someone made an attempt to organize Johnny’s songs into three categories: God, Love and Death. It occurred to me then that maybe those are the only three subjects available to the writer. I have tried to write about all three. And yet, one night over a late night beverage, by way of confession, I admitted to a colleague (a fellow songwriter) that I was embarrassed by the possibility that every song I had ever written was essentially a love song. Without missing a beat he responded, Well, maybe, but you don’t just write about falling in love: you write about what happens further down the road. I was relieved and grateful to receive that perspective, because ladies and gentlemen, we are indeed further down the road. Karin and I have been writing, and making records together as Over the Rhine for 35 years. We’ve been married for 29 of those. Long live musical couples. Johnny and June might be our patron saints, but they are not the only ones. A significant swath of our favorite music over the years has been made by that rare and endangered breed of exotic zoo animal: the musical couple. (The list includes Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Buddy and Julie Miller, Richard and Linda Thompson, The Innocence Mission and others.) But back to further down the road… Poet Christina Rosetti famously wrote the lines: Does the road wind uphill all the way? Yes, to the very end. Few things in life get easier as the years pass. But from this vantage point, after 35 years of climbing, we can see the broader view. We can see the two songwriters who were stoned on love and words and possibility. We can see the couple who almost called it a day, and yet found their way into — and with — each other. We learned that we tend two separate gardens: the garden of our career in music, and the garden of our life together well apart from the noise of the music industry. We know well the thrill of opening shows for Bob Dylan or Lucinda Williams, getting to play at Newport Folk Festival, or in Japan, or New Zealand. And checking those things off our dream list was indeed a thrill. Seeing the world on the backs of the songs. Watching a community coalesce around our music that crossed borders and boundaries. And now it is also the deeper abiding joy of quietly walking two Irish Wolfhounds in the cool of the evening. At home. Being together. The fact that we can still make each other laugh. Sharing a story that’s still being written. We live together on a small farm, grow songs, host concerts in the restored barn, and curate and host Nowhere Else Festival — our very own music and arts festival, the festival that we were always looking for but never quite found until we built it ourselves. Both/and. We have written a lifetime of love songs in all shapes and sizes. We were curious as to what an evening devoted entirely to the possibilities of love songs might feel like. And so, come Valentine’s Day, we’re going to go find a few favorite stages, and find out. We hope you’ll join us.” Linford Detweiler (w/Karin Bergquist close by) September 2025, Martinsville, Ohio E-tickets and Will-call: All tickets purchased online will be sent as e-tickets to the email address associated with your order. E-tickets will be listed within your confirmation email. If you would like your tickets to be in will-call please call or visit the box office during regular business hours. We can sell you a printed ticket over the phone and in person. You can reach us at (812) 323-3020 ext 1. Infamous Love Song I sing The bebop apocalypse Lean into you God’s hands on my hips Grip the midnight microphone Steel every cell of my flesh and bone I wrestle my angel In smoky stage lights Climb Jacob’s ladder Two thousand more flights Tell St. Valentine, Hey gimme five— Baby our love song must survive We were born in the dirt On our hands and knees But started out climbing Deciduous trees We learned to sway Ridiculously high Hungry to taste Mouthfuls of sky Now I bring all our secrets To show and tell How we dragged each other Through heaven and hell It’s our smoking gun But hey, we’re still alive Baby our love song must survive Your third-story windows On thirteenth and Main Still glow with an eerie Mysterious flame Where we learned to slow dance By dawn’s early light And tried to be tender With all of our might And just down the street At the Milner Hotel Rosie’s sloppin’ the hogs And the infidels They all went out of business When the market took a dive Baby our love song must survive There’s nights when I mostly Just feel like a thief With a prized possession A gleeful belief That love’s both a joke And a serious matter You don’t quite know your muse But you know when you’ve had her When I first saw your face yeah It hurt you to smile Your lips tasted like tears I could kiss them for miles On a midnight train— May it never arrive Baby our love song must survive There’s days when we lose Our appetite And days when we’re bruised And losing the fight Of a lifetime, days When we’re looking inside Wondering if We’re half dead or alive But the slow honey drip Of those young nights long gone— The memory’s a friendly whip Urging us on My mouth on your lips Is just trying to revive Baby our love song must survive This love’s the affirmation Of everything good The oxygen coursing Through the blood The feel of being understood The belief that, Oh Yes, Somehow we could And the milkyway looks Like a flimsy blouse But now we’re gentrified In our civil war house Safe as a painting By Currier and Ives Baby our love song must survive So I still sing The bebop apocalypse Lean into you God’s hands on my hips Grip the midnight microphone Steel every cell of my flesh and bone I still wrestle my angel In smoky stage lights Climb Jacob’s ladder Two thousand more flights C’mon St. Christopher, how ‘bout a high five— Baby our love song must survive (c) Over the Rhine, from the album, The Long Surrender, Produced by Joe Henry
