Search - Mick Overman & Maniacs :: Good Thing Happen

During his lengthy career as a singer, songwriter and guitarist, Mick Overman has produced a body of work, bolstered by extensive touring, which has made him one of the most-beloved and well-respected artists in the San Francisco Bay Area. While trends came and went, Mick Overman remained a rock-solid performer always doing what he does best: creating exciting, roots-based music with a stick-to-the-ribs quality that knows no boundaries or limitations. Overman, whose music has been described as "bluesy folk & roll with jazz attitude," is considered a Bay Area legend, having been long regarded as one of the West Coast?s hardest-working and most-prolific artists (He?s played as many as 379 shows in one year!). He?s also a poet and a master musician, with an honest, gutsy style of singing and guitar playing that?s been dubbed "Berklee College of Caveman." With the release of his latest album, Good Thing Happen, he is presenting his first release as "Mick Overman & The Maniacs," which represents the respect and attachment he feels for the band he?s assembled over the last few years since his 2002 album, Authentic. Joining Mick Overman (guitar, harmonica, vocals) are Craig Owens (bass, vocals), Jim Norris (drums) and - most-recent addition - Patrick O?Connor (mandolin, guitar, banjo, vocals). "After that last album, I wanted to have a regular band rather than a large rotating cast of sidemen," says Overman, "and as Craig, Jim, Patrick and I performed together live and did some recording, it began to feel like a band. I decided that I wanted to make an album written with this particular lineup in mind, which would in addition to featuring my songs, vocals and guitar playing, be the expression of the whole being greater than the sum of the individual parts. More than once after a performance, I've received remarks from people listening that when the four of us were really locked in it seemed like an invisible fifth member of the band was present and that another element emerged through the music which couldn't be accounted for. I feel like this is a special group and wanted to do the best I could at documenting it." Good Thing Happen was co-produced by the band members and Cookie Marenco, who has engineered or produced five Grammy-nominated albums, several gold albums and an Academy Award-winning documentary. "When Cookie Marenco joined the team as engineer and co-producer, another key element emerged," says Mick Overman. "Cookie has long been recognized as one of the recording industry?s most influential women and brought a new perspective to the production and recording. It?s also the first time that a woman?s point of view has so dramatically influenced the making of one of my records." The new album features seven brand new Mick Overman originals written specifically for this band, three songs from Patrick O?Connor and two covers: "Take Me Back To Texas" (written by Katy Moffatt and Greg Leisz) and the band?s take on the traditional folk song, "Shenandoah." "For Good Thing Happen, I wanted a primarily acoustic recording which also was accurately representative of the band?s live sound," says Overman. "Although I play probably more acoustic guitar live than ever before, I still wanted to include some electric guitar without it dominating. Listeners may notice a distinct difference in the amount of guitar solos from some of my previous releases in favor of other textures like harmonica, ensemble arrangements and certainly mandolin, which was due in large part by Cookie Marenco?s input," he adds. Good Thing Happen adds another benchmark album to Mick Overman?s impressive collection.