Artist: Charlie Overbey
Hometown: Cerrillos, New Mexico
Latest Album: In Good Company (out July 26, 2024)
Personal Nicknames (or rejected band names): āPunk Rock Spy In The House Of Honky Tonkā (courtesy of Lemmy of Motorhead)
What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?
In 2016 I was touring with Blackberry Smoke and we were playing The Fillmore SF. As I walked up to the microphone, the magic of the Fillmore ghosts overtook me and I just stood there caught in the moment. I could hear the crowd getting louder and louder, but I was deep in the history of it all and then all of a sudden ā I popped out of it and said, “Sorry, folks! I was having a Fillmore moment!ā That crowd got louder at that moment than I had ever experienced! I think Iāll remember that moment even when I canāt remember my name anymore.
What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?
The night my Father died I sat down and wrote “This Old House.” The emotion one feels in such deep despair and loss is hard to put to song or on paper. The fact that I have never played it live and have a hard time even hearing it solidifies for me the depth of “This Old House.”
Genre is dead (long live genre!), but how would you describe the genres and styles your music inhabits?
Genre is a tricky thing ā as artists, we all want to avoid that word and focus on writing from feeling and heart, delivering whatever comes from there. I have a long history and background in music from rock to punk to country and I tend to write with all of that mixed in, which in the music “business” is not favorable. They say, “You have to fit into a genre” or “People need to know how to classify you to have any success.” This could explain why Iām still a struggling musician, because I donāt steal from other writers and I donāt commit myself to a “genre.” I just do what I do. When I was a kid, my favorite local punk band, The Tazers, had a song called “Donāt Classify Me” and I guess at heart Iām still a young punker, semi-growed up, with an acoustic guitar and a killer band behind me.
What is a genre, album, artist, musician, or song that you adore that would surprise people?
I have always loved the depth, emotion, and songwriting of Barry Manilow. I have seen him 5 times in the first 4 rows. I am a pretty solid Fanilow and have never been shy or closet about it.
Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?
I would love to sit at an all you can eat taco bar for hours listening to Raul Malo play guitar and sing.
Photo courtesy of the artist.
