Celebrating a Two-Decade Discography, Over the Rhine Comes to the Birchmere

When Karen Bergquist and Linford Detweiler, the duo known as Over the Rhine, hit the road on tour, they have just one ground rule:

“We insist upon eating at least one meal a day at a restaurant that serves wine,” Detweiler said. “That keeps the whole endeavor somewhat civilized.”

The duo will appear Sunday at , which raises the question, does the Birchmere count as a wine-serving establishment? Or will the band be out on the town in Alexandria?

Detweiler only said that he “didn’t know where to begin” listing the band’s potential haunts. Over the Rhine last performed in Alexandria in January 2009. Last year, the band’s D.C. venue was the gilded dome of Sixth & I Synagogue. Now touring in support of their new album, “The Long Surrender,” Detweiler and Bergquist find themselves back at the Birchmere.

The new album marks 20 years of recordings for Over the Rhine, originally a four-member band with ties to the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. Bergquist and Detweiler married in 1996 and have remained the band’s only constants, but each subsequent album and tour finds them on the road with an array of talented musicians.

“The Long Surrender” could have been an anniversary retrospective. Instead, Bergquist and Detweiler traded their cozy, Civil War-era farmhouse for the ostensibly less-inspiring confines of a Los Angeles studio, where they laid their songs down at the feet of Grammy-winner Joe Henry.

Henry is equally known for recording his own blend of rootsy Americana and for producing records for artists ranging from indie-chameleon Elvis Costello to late R&B great Solomon Burke. Asking Henry to helm their next album wasn’t easy; Detweiler had no idea if he even knew their music. Turned out not only did Henry know, he said his parents had tickets for an upcoming concert in North Carolina.

“Wow. We thought, ‘If we could win over Mom and Dad Henry this might actually happen,’” Detweiler said. “But Joe was definitely familiar with our music.”

Listeners familiar with both Henry and Over the Rhine's work will sense his presence from the opening measures of “The Long Surrender.” He contributed two lyrics, talked Lucinda Williams into singing a duet and recruited musicians playing instruments never before heard on Over the Rhine albums, including the tenor guitar and mandocello. He also brought in Keith Ciancia, a keyboardist with a collection of synthesizers to rival Detweiler’s own, which is saying something.

“[Ciancia] was conjuring up some sounds that were spooky and weird and wonderful,” Detweiler said. “He deserves some credit for how the 'The Long Surrender' sounds three dimensional.”

The word “ethereal” comes up often when listeners describe Over the Rhine’s music (Google it: more than 30,000 hits). Bergquist’s voice wafts over poetic lyrics crafted by both musicians. In concert, she’s centerstage while off to one side, Detweiler’s gangly frame peaks out from above a piano, Hammond B-3 organ or whatever other member of the clavichord family he’s playing that day.

To prepare for the 11-city tour that opens in Boston Friday, Detweiler has been pondering how to rearrange songs on “The Long Surrender” for the forces he’ll have with him. None of Henry’s studio musicians will be on the bus. Instead, he’ll have a drummer, an upright bass player and two multi-instrumentalists whose arsenal includes the harmonica, pedal steel guitar and a Brazilian mandolin-like instrument called the cuatro.

Thankfully, the Birchmere has a long, horizontal stage.

“We always try to let the songs breathe onstage and grow and develop on tour. We are not obsessed with recreating the album,” Detweiler said. “Hopefully we will be conjuring the spirit of the recording, but conjuring the songs in a way that allows them to continue to evolve.”

Over the Rhine will be performing at the Birchmere Sunday at 7:30 p.m. Lucy Wainwright Roche is opening. For ticket information, click here.