OVERLAND EXPRESS BACK WITH NEW MUSIC
Shortly after longtime friend and former bandmate Keith Sherman died in 2014, Rick Williams determined he needed a break from performing. He told the guys in Overland Express and several other local musicians with whom he was playing semi-regularly that he was done.
“I needed a break,” he says.
Then he agreed to sing with the band for a celebration of life for Denny Hennen, the former co-owner of Yesterday’s, where the band used to draw huge crowds in the 1970s and ’80s, and he got the bug again. So much so, the band is re-energized and Williams is even writing new material.
“It’s fun again,” he says. Overland will perform on Friday night, Jan. 25, at Songbirds. In addition to performing familiar cover songs by artists like Van Morrison, The Allman Brothers and Jackson Browne, as well as older originals from their album “Prisoner of the Street,” they will do the new stuff. Williams wrote “Great to Be Alive” with Tom Paden, a former Chattanoogan now living in Nashville, and “Leaving Train” by himself.
The former is about the band itself; the latter is a blues number.
“My baby got up this morning and got on that leaving train,” Williams sings over the phone to describe the title.
Joining Williams in the group are fellow founding members Randy Clark and Michael Welch. Tommy Lifsey was the group’s drummer during much of their early years. Kris Phillips is new to the group and adds a lot of energy and a second lead guitar attack.
Overland has been one of Chattanooga’s most popular bands for more than 40 years. Williams says the goal these days is to play and have fun doing it.