Amateur Shortwave Radio

Description

Amateur Shortwave Radio, sub-titled Ten Years of Show Business on the disc, is a compilation album by the American alternative pop band Over the Rhine, independently released on Grey Ghost Records in 1999. It’s an album marking the band’s tenth anniversary, featuring a mixture of concert recordings and live radio performances from the entire span of their career, plus three new tracks.

The same year Linford Detweiler released his first solo album, I Don’t Think There’s No Need To Bring Nothin’, a solo piano instrumental album.

Cincinatti’s Over the Rhine has been a band in transition for the past few years. Original members have left, new members – and entire new formats – have been experimented with, they’ve landed a major international tour opening for the Cowboy Junkies, and been in extended negotiations for a new major label record deal. And through all of the transition, the once prolific act has been strangely silent, leaving fans to guess what all the changes mean to the music. Well, with two new releases from the Over the Rhine camp, there’s no need to fret.

First out of the gate is Amateur Shortwave Radio, a collection marking the band’s tenth anniversary. The disc is made up of a mixture of concert recordings and live radio performances from the entire span of their career, plus – and here are the real gems – three new tracks recorded as demos for Capitol Records in the fall of 1998. Included are live versions of «Like a Radio» and «My Love is a Fever» featuring original guitarist Ric Hordinski (Monk), an orchestrated version of «Mary’s Waltz», covers of «Ruby Tuesday» and «Blackbird» – the first Over the Rhine covers to appear on record, and live versions of «Jack’s Valentine» and «Circle of Quiet» featuring current guitarist Jack Henderson. The three new cuts («Moth», «Anyway», «I Will Remember») all continue farther down the road begun on the Good Dog Bad Dog album; they’re quiet, poetic pieces, elegant in their simplicity. The sound quality on the live cuts is excellent, as is the packaging which once again draws on the photographic work of Michael Wilson. This should be more than enough to tide fans over until the release of the next record, which the band promises to start recording this summer with an announcement as to whether they’ll be going with a major label or staying independent also forthcoming.

Second is I Don’t Think There’s No Need to Bring Nothin’, a collection of solo piano pieces from Linford Detweiler, Over the Rhine’s principal songwriter. This collection originally appeared in extremely limited edition as a companion piece to a book of Michael Wilson’s photography (which again graces the packaging) and is now made widely available for the first time. Again, much of what appears here is reminiscent of work on the band’s Good Dog Bad Dog project with gentle melodies and simple ambience. It may not go racing up the pop charts, but this disc is an excellent collection of late night, meditative music. [Todd Brown, True Tunes Magazine]

> iTunes (https://music.apple.com/us/album/amateur-shortwave-radio/444966809)

CD tracklist:

01. Like A Radio – 8:55
02. Ruby Tuesday – 4:35
03. Mary’s Waltz – 4:16
04. Blackbird – 4:44
05. Moth – 5:06
06. Jack’s Valentine – 5:45
07. Circle Of Quiet – 7:45
08. Anyway – 4:47
09. My Love Is A Fever – 5:00
10. I Will Remember – 7:27

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