''Snow Angels'' is the ninth studio album, and second Christmas album, by

Over the Rhine Over-the-Rhine (often abbreviated as OTR) is a neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Historically, Over-the-Rhine has been a working-class neighborhood. It is among the largest, most intact urban historic districts in the United Sta ...

, released independently in 2006. The album was released by Great Speckled Dog on October 2, 2007. ''Snow Angels'' was released ten years after the group's first Christmas disc, 1996's ''

The Darkest Night of the Year ''The Darkest Night of the Year'' is a Christmas album by the group Over the Rhine (band), Over the Rhine, released independently in 1996. It is their fifth studio album overall, and the last to feature the band's original lineup. The album fea ...

''. While Darkest Night was largely composed of interpretations of traditional Christmas songs, ''Snow Angels'' was almost entirely original material. The only non-original track in the album is a lounge-inspired take on "Jingle Bells" that debuted during the 2004 Christmas tour.

Track listing

# "All I Ever Get for Christmas Is Blue" (Bergquist, Detweiler) - 4:24 # "Darlin' (Christmas is Coming)" (Detweiler) - 3:33 # "White Horse" (Detweiler) - 4:14 # " Little Town" (Traditional; Additional words and music: Detweiler) - 3:22 # "New Redemption Song" (Detweiler) - 2:25 # "Goodbye Charles" (Detweiler) - 2:17 # "Snowed In With You" (Bergquist, Detweiler) - 5:07 # "North Pole Man" (Bergquist, Detweiler) - 3:07 # "Here It Is" (Detweiler) - 3:24 # " One Olive Jingle" (Traditional; Arrangement: Bergquist, Detweiler) - 3:55 # "Snow Angel" (Detweiler) - 4:28 # "We're Gonna Pull Through" (Bergquist, Detweiler) - 2:47

Personnel

Over the Rhine * Karin Bergquist – vocals * Linford Detweiler – acoustic piano (1-3, 5-7, 9-12), acoustic guitars (2-5, 8, 9, 12), backing vocals (2, 4),

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

(3),

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

(4, 5, 9),

bell A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inter ...

s (9) Additional musicians * Brad Jones –

Lowrey organ The Lowrey organ is an electronic organ named for its developer, Frederick C. Lowrey (1871–1955), a Chicago-based industrialist and entrepreneur. Lowrey's first commercially successful full-sized electronic organ, the Model S Spinet or ''B ...

(2), bass (2, 5, 9),

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

(3), electric guitars (5, 9), acoustic guitars (9) * Byron House –

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

(1, 4, 6-8, 10) * Mickey Grimm – percussion (1, 2, 9, 10), drums (3-7, 9, 10) * Fats Kaplin – violin (7) * David Henry – cello (11, 12)

Production

* Over the Rhine – producers, additional photography * Brad Jones – producer, recording, mixing (6) * Pete Hicks – recording *

Paul Mahern Paul Mahern (born September 11, 1963) is an American rock and pop record producer, mixing and mastering engineer, singer, songwriter, professor, and yoga teacher. Mahern has worked with acts such as John Mellencamp, Lily & Madeleine, The Fray, Ig ...

– recording, mixing (1-5, 7-11) * Kevin Loyal – additional recording, mixing (12) * Roger Seibel – mastering at SAE Mastering (Phoenix, Arizona) * Owen Brock – design * Michael Wilson – photography * Clinton Reno – illustration

Notes

* "Goodbye Charles" is a piano instrumental inspired by

Vince Guaraldi Vincent Anthony Guaraldi (; birth name, né Dellaglio, July 17, 1928 – February 6, 1976) was an American jazz pianist best known for composing music for animated television adaptations of the ''Peanuts'' comic strip. His compositions for this s ...

's compositions from ''

A Charlie Brown Christmas ''A Charlie Brown Christmas'' is a 1965 animated television special. It is the first TV special based on the comic strip ''Peanuts'', by Charles M. Schulz. Produced by Lee Mendelson and directed by Bill Melendez, the program made its debut on C ...

'' * "Darlin' (Christmas Is Coming)" was performed live as far back as the 2001 Christmas tour as a straight mid-tempo folk/pop song. The ''Snow Angels'' recording was drastically re-arranged into a swing-style arrangement and performed this way on the 2006 tour. * "White Horse" was written and first performed in 2004; a live version appears on '' Live From Nowhere, Volume 1''. * "All I Ever Get for Christmas Is Blue" was first performed live on the 2001 Christmas tour, and was regularly performed on each subsequent Christmas tour. * The title "North Pole Man" was inspired by a drawing by Polly Wilson, age 7, called "North Pole Man Holding a Map Looking for a Warm Place". * The front cover illustration is by Clinton Reno, who had worked with Over The Rhine previously in designing a tour poster commemorating their 2006 tour with

Hem A hem in sewing is a garment finishing method, where the edge of a piece of cloth is folded and sewn to prevent unravelling of the fabric and to adjust the length of the piece in garments, such as at the end of the sleeve or the bottom of the ga ...

References

External links

''Snow Angels''
- entry on OtR's official site {{Authority control Over the Rhine (band) albums 2006 Christmas albums Christmas albums by American artists Folk rock Christmas albums