Will Overman has been playing live music since he was a high school student in Virginia Beach. It started with his dad, Bill, whose cover band Dr. Bob and the Burning Desires played shows around town.
They would play music by the Avett Brothers, The Grateful Dead, Mumford and Sons and the Eagles, with Will singing along. “It was a nice mix of ‘dad rock’ meets Americana,” he said.
Between those years (Overman graduated from high school in 2012 and headed to the University of Virginia after attending Piedmont Virginia Community College) and now, the younger Overman has stretched and grown as a performing artist and is in the early legs of a long-awaited tour derailed for a time by COVID-19.
He played his first live show since the winter of 2020 at a Crozet brewery earlier this spring, promoting his new LP, “The Wine Maker’s Daughter.” Overman’s music is a blend of folk, pop, country and rock.
Although the pandemic put Overman’s live performances on pause, he nearly quit singing and songwriting altogether after three grueling years of touring with his eponymous first band while also a full-time UVA student studying sociology. Studying, writing music, managing a band and booking shows was more than a 40-hour-a-week job.
