Over the Rhine Issue #33

The Trumpet Child (Great Speckled Dog)

By Annie Anderson
Published: September 1st, 2007 | 12:00am

It’s safe to say Over the Rhine’s trumpet child is Christ, the One to which the duo constantly sings for relief and revelation. Thus, their new album’s name, The Trumpet Child, is a shout-out to their Savior. But it’s also a literal translation for this collection of songs. There’s the usual lyrical blend of God, love, and politics, but the accompanying elements — trumpets and horns — doctor up the band’s piano-guitar-bass bread and butter.

After more than a dozen recordings, the band is as palatable as ever. The Trumpet Child brings forth Karin Bergquist’s earthy, precious vocals. She shudders and smiles as her husband, Linford Detweiler, provides tidy but sweeping piano accompaniment.

The album is sandwiched by two standout tracks, opener “I Don’t Wanna Waste Your Time” and closer “If A Song Could Be President.” They create a hall of mirrors, reflecting concern onto each other and infusing the album’s other songs with the band’s bittersweet language of spirituality and self-consciousness. Though not named, it’s impossible not to imagine the decrepit streets of New Orleans on the first track, which deftly blends Billy Joel–like ivories and Dixie horns. Likewise, the spectre of war lingers over the final track, a wistful country ditty in which the band imagines appointing Neil Young (“even though he came from Canada”), Emmylou Harris, and John Prine to various government positions. “If A Song Could Be President” has all the protest OTR can muster at this point.

The Trumpet Child, like all OTR outings, has a few haunted hallways, but there’s less fever than usual. It speaks less in Ohio’s angsty overtures and more in a hunkered down resignation. Once, on the song “Changes Come,” from Ohio, Bergquist implored, “Jesus come / Bring the whole thing down.” That tune, propped up by the just-launched war in Iraq, breathed fire onto OTR’s scorched earth. These days, the band seems content to make an oasis out of their music.