Here’s Thom Jurek’s review of Over the Rhine’s The Trumpet Child.
Jurek, like Andy Whitman, is one of the music critics whose reflections always challenge, inform, and inspire me… even when I disagree.
His review of The Trumpet Child is sharp and full of references to send you scurrying about and discovering the treasure troves that inspired Over the Rhine to make this music. He singles out a couple of tracks he wishes they’d left off. Me, I would have made different selections… but that is often the case with OTR listeners.
Jurek would probably include me in what he calls “the devotional wilderness of [Over the Rhine’s] cult.” And I suppose that’s not far from the truth. I am an enthusiastic fan, because their music has had a profound influence on my life and led me into an appreciation of genres and traditions and artists I would otherwise have missed. One song in particular I can honestly say “changed my life.” And I’ve ordered the vinyl version of this album, just so I can frame that beautiful¬†cover and hang it up. (I do, however, insist on writing about the aspects of their albums that don’t work for me… and always have. I’m not going to slavishly celebrate anything they record.)
I’ve written two reviews of The Trumpet Child: One will be in the next print issue of Christianity Today, and then I’ve contributed some more thoughts on the album to the next issue of Risen.
And by the way… for you poetry readers out there… Karin Bergquist has admitted that the great poet Scott Cairns inspired a line on this album. Can you figure out which line that is?
I thought you were a Shorelinite? 😉