Stolen from Terra Incognita

Woodstock Times, July 3, 1996

Happy Nights are Here Again

by Haven James

Happy Rhodes headlines this week's adventures of Women in Music on Sunday, July 7 at Tinker Street Cafe at 8 p.m. Returning to the live stge for her first area appearance since '94, the new Happy Rhodes trip-plus-one will do a mix of material with particular focus on her newest release on the Aural Gratification label, titled The Keep.

"Mostly it's just to do," says Rhodes of this opportunity to stretch her four-plus octave voice for fans at this intimate hometown haunt. "This is sort of a unique presentation of Happy Rhodes because it's kind of a pared down, quieter side...normally I would go out with a full band."

Happy will play guitar and sing, of course, Kevin Bartlett, helmsman at Aural Gratification, will be featured on guitar, lute and effects (or "electronic thingies," as the press release puts it). Carl Adami of Quiet City will play bass, and Kelly Bird will travel from Albany to do a special appearance, accompanying Happy with backup vocals.

That her music is generally more "otherworldly," as in "heavily Synthesized" and driven by "heavy rhythms" where "the vocal overdubs are insane," she is quick to note. The Keep, though, manages to be hauntingly ethereal while fairly straightforward in production. Acknowledging this, Happy states flatly that it "isn't representative of what I normally put out" and that it wasn't intended with radio and heavy commercial promotion in mind; rather, it was meant more as an interesting, personal gift for her ardent fans.

The CD opens with a beautiful, very feminine vocal part through a verse of so, and then enter vocal two--a deeper, seemingly masculine voice. The natural thought was, 'Oh, Kevin must also be singing on this one.' But, as the lyric progressed the voice began to rise, line by line, until suddenly you realized it was not another person at all but Rhodes climbing up through octaves and textures, portraying a variety of persona. "That's my natural register," say Happy of her full-spectrum voice, acknowledging it to be a product of her genes as opposed to classical training.

"Brian Ferry meets Annie Lennox" or "Kate Bush meets David Bowie" is how she puts when pressed for a clue as to how to define her style. Not that she sounds like any of the above per se, but that's where she's coming from and where her influences are rooted.

Most of Happy's material Sunday night will be original compositions, though there'll also be a few unusual covers. Happy mentions a couple of pop tunes along the order of Peter Gabriel and Yes or maybe Queen or Bowie.

Webwolves have an opportunity to touch base directly with the Happy family of music, since a variety of sites on the Internet are sponsored by fan groups as well as the production organization. A good place to start is at the FAQ page at * and from there just follow the links.

Sunday's show is 8 p.m. It's $7 at the door and the smoke-free rule is in order; with the patio open, everyone should find a comfortable spot. Call 679-2487 for reservations.

* Obsolete page deleted. I'd replace it with the Ecto Home Page.