Daily Nourishment for July 15, 2024: Relentless Tenderness with Guidance from Words and Music by Over the Rhine
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 35 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 15 minutes
“For if I had to characterize the music of Over the Rhine with two words rather than the standard one-word paeans we resort to as armchair critics—Awesome! Amazing! Dope!—it might be these: relentless tenderness.” - Bradford Winters
Pause.
Take deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while listening to “Born” by Over the Rhine. (This is a six-minute song, and I recommend you listen to the whole thing.) You can read the lyrics here.
Prompt.
Read the excerpt below from an interview with Linford Detweiler (who is one half of Over the Rhine) published in issue 99 of Image journal:
Joe Henry: At what point in your young life did you realize that a song is something someone creates, as opposed to a naturally occurring phenomenon like salt, dirt, onions, or thunder?
Linford Detweiler: Maybe I should start by saying that as a child, much as I received my mother’s milk, I also took in the story that salt, dirt, onions, and thunder were all lovingly created. And although I am one hundred percent open to and interested in the curious discoveries of science, I never intellectually dispelled once and for all the idea of a creator—some sort of mysterious creative entity or force—behind the universe. There are days, to be sure, when I doubt it. But in truth, there are also nights when I can’t help but believe that there remain mysteries infinitely bigger than the laboratory, bigger than carefully collected data. So I’m not sure it ever occurred to me that songs were any different. Of course there was someone behind the song.
This congenital instinct may be connected to my mother’s hymnal. I could often get out of washing dishes after supper—a sort of barter occurred—if I would sit at the upright piano and play hymns while my mother did the washing up. I would try to find an old hymn that she didn’t know, and I don’t think I ever did. She would sing along in her high clear soprano, her hands in soapy water, washing silverware.
And my mother was interested in who had written what. She would sometimes go through the hymnal and list all the hymns by a certain writer. She was also fond of discovering the stories behind the songs, which were often tragic. For instance, the old hymn “Let the Lower Lights Be Burning” was written after a shipwreck in Cleveland, Ohio. It was a foggy night, and the man working at the harbor had been drinking and forgot to turn on the harbor lights.
I think an argument could be made that we’d have no Johnny Cash or Elvis without their mothers’ hymnals. And I’m not putting myself in their company. As Leonard Cohen would say, when it comes to the tower of song, I hear them laughing a hundred floors above me. But what I am saying is that you really can’t separate gospel music from the fabric of American songwriting.
I hope I didn’t wander too far from the question. But yes, songs have writers, and I knew it from the start.
Practice.
Take notes or journal in response to the song and words above. Or listen to “Born” again or more music by Over the Rhine.
Want More?
Read the entire interview with Linford Detweiler here.
If you’d like to subscribe to Image, here’s a discount link for $30 for a full year’s subscription.
This Daily Nourishment offering touches on some of the reasons I love attending the Glen Workshop. Linford and Karin of Over the Rhine have led many songwriting workshops and performed many times at the Glen over the years. This year’s songwriting workshop will be led by Liz Vice. During the month of July, Spiritual Direction for Writers® Daily Nourishment will feature Glen Workshop facilitators and other Glen-ish people, places, and things. Enjoy!
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Upcoming Workshops & Gatherings
—The July Co-Writing Schedule is live.
—July 13-18: $11 Summer Book Sale
—July 21-27: Charlotte Donlon will provide a few spiritual direction offerings at the Glen Workshop in Seattle
—July 27: Online Revision Stations Designed by Lauren F. Winner
—Save the Date: Spiritual Direction for Writers® + Enneagram for Creativity Gathering will take place on Saturday, September 28th. Recordings will be available if you can’t join us live. Speakers will be announced soon!
Today’s Daily Nourishment was provided by Charlotte Donlon.
*Please help us protect our intellectual property, our creative process, and the integrity of our work. Spiritual Direction for Writers® Daily Nourishment is covered under the Spiritual Direction for Writers® trademark. You are welcome to share this link with others, but any other use (written or spoken) is prohibited without written permission from Charlotte Donlon.