Happy The Man - The Muse Awakens
SKU
17-INSIDEOUT40542
For me, Happy The Man is the greatest symphonic rock band that the US ever produced. Their greatness lies in their excellent musicianship and their willingness to really 'push the envelope' both in writing and performance of the symphonic sound. They came out of rural Virginia and moved to Washington D.C. where they exploded on the scene and where they signed to Arista and released two US classic progressive albums, eventually breaking up at the very end of the 70's. I guess one should never say 'it can't happen', because the band reformed a few years ago, and played a monsterous show at NEARFest 2000. Now, 4 years later, finally, comes the new album, and it's a solid, winning effort. The band consists of 3 original members (Stan Whitaker-guitar/vocals, Frank Wyatt-keyboards/sax/flute and Rick Kennell-bass) plus two excellent newcommers: David Rosenthal-keyboards, who manages to truly channel Kit Watkins' sound and feel, and is an excellent keyboardist, and Joe Bergamini-drums, who is a fine player and sounds very comfortable playing all the pieces. Very good! [Inside Out]