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Duke Arts Presents

Joe Henry + Over the Rhine + The Milk Carton Kids

Friday, April 11, 2014 | 8:00 pm


Cincinnati duo Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist, better known as Over the Rhine, have been making gorgeous records for two decades that sound like “they sprung from another time” (Los Angeles Times). Singer-songwriter Joe Henry spent the same decades writing and performing songs that seem “to inhabit an older music that never actually existed or one that keeps being forgotten and relearned over and over” (Slant Magazine).

Henry and Over the Rhine first came together when Henry produced OTR’s acclaimed 2011 album The Long Surrender; Henry likewise produced their latest album Meet Me at the Edge of the World. Now, for one weekend in Durham, they add to that mix burgeoning indie folk duo the Milk Carton Kids. The result is a one-of-a-kind ensemble set to engage, according to Henry, the “Great American Songbook,” performing a set of original songs that “embraces songwriters from Robert Johnson to Jimmy Webb, Woody Guthrie to Nina Simone.”

The all-star group unites for an only-at-Duke Performances special event: in front of a live audience at Hayti Heritage Center, Henry, Over the Rhine, and The Milk Carton Kids will perform and record an album of new songs they wrote together, taking advantage of the flawless acoustics at this former AME church.