Reviews
EXCERPTS FROM REVIEWS: (Full reviews below)
Steve Poltz says “I love it. He’s my hero, the energy of punk rock and punk folk.” VIDEO HERE
The Expresso says “Every guy in the English speaking world needs a copy of Happy Ron’s Terribly Happy if only to sing along with the roadmap of his own life.” http://www.theespresso.com/
Dominic Pedler, author of the 800 page book Songwriting Secrets Of The Beatles says “Great stuff, great attitude and lyrics as well as cool songs. Not to mention brilliant titles” Click Here
Bart Mendoza says “Masterpiece… anyone who listens will be amazed at the depth of Happy Ron Hill’s songwriting.” http://www.sandiegotroubadour.com November 2008
Clifford says “Fantastic masterpiece… makes the album format fun again to listen to.” http://www.myweekmagazine.com November 2008
Songsalive says “a funny, sad, poignant, entertaining, story driven album that is worth listening to. Check it out!”, Songsalive http://songsalivereviews.blogspot.com/search/label/%22Terribly%20Happy%22
The San Diego Reader says “one of the most famous bands you’ve never heard of” and says it’s a “band to watch”
Gregory Page says “ I didn’t like it, I LOVED IT!!!”
Aaron Bowen says “it’s one of the best albums ever to come out of San Diego”
And my producer Sven-Erik Seaholm says “I laughed until I barfed!”
There are only 900 copies left order yours now at
FULL REVIEWS
http://www.theespresso.com/
Listening to Happy Ron will make you Terribly Happy
Local songman’s CD is a must have!
by John A. Rippo
Local Music Treasure Happy Ron is a very odd duck; a guy so obviously full of soul that he has to sing in order to explain his own depth of feeling to himself and perhaps make some sense of his life and relationships with women, and, as he freely admits, he’s a guy who doesn’t know sharp from flat and doesn’t much care about that, either. Maybe that combination is what makes his music unforgettable and an absolute must-listen, especially to guys who’ve been around the block with too many women and who have the scars to prove it.
There are twelve cuts on Terribly Happy and echoing the twelve descriptive images of the Stations of the Cross, these describe an entire lifetime’s journey of angst in the misadventures with women from Happy Ron’s point of view. Every emotional roller coaster smack-down gets its airing; from the fruitless pursuit of wanton, manipulative strippers in “Sick of Her Shit” to the incredibly funny “Mean Therapist Blues” where Happy Ron battles for sanity against an unhappy, manipulative female therapist to the hands-on therapy dished out in “All She Needs is a Spankin” to the ironic title cut and the more serious and hearfelt “No Angel” that tells of staying with one you chose, even when temptation comes along. Ah, yes, we’ve all been there…
Happy Ron’s vocals are brilliantly backed by the Pacific Coast Horns and a brace of female vocalists who add perfect nuance, pitch and drama to the cuts. Though Ron himself seems to lack some of these qualities, his charm and innate wisdom more than makes up for it; his music is the tuneful version of the bits of brilliance that sometimes get dispensed from the guy propped up at the end of the dive bar, and the insight he displays is more than that of too many guys who got educated instead of drunk one too many times. After all, how many clear-headed white wine drinkers are there who can rattle off the critical similarities between gold-digging strippers and female shrinks? Ron has em pegged though; the strippers are the ones that cause too many problems, while the shrinks are happy to share the news that you’re really unhappy if that’s what it takes to get that Porsche.
Happy Ron’s Terribly Happy isn’t just a collection of funny songs but a series of good songs that stay in your head for days and that happen to be quite funny, too when they’re not self-deprecating or dead on serious.
Consider the following “I don’t need no pouting princess with her perfect shoe,” Happy Ron’s way of telling the real flesh and blood gal who has less than perfect days and less than perfect hair that she’s the one, in spite of all the available female fashion, glam and glitz out there. Maybe the 21st Century doesn’t get any more romantic than that and if it doesn’t, it’s nobody’s fault but our own; at least Happy Ron has the cojones to say what matters in his own language and if he’s misunderstood, it’s somebody else’s loss which is how these kinds of things tend to work.
Every guy in the English speaking world needs a copy of Happy Ron’s Terribly Happy if only to sing along with the roadmap of his own life. Though some may call Ron a misogynist, they’d be full of it if they did.
There’s much more, too: “No Tantric Woman Blues”, which explains the relationship between women and ice, media analysis in “The Good News” and the harsh consequences of letting a woman down in “Dickless Wonder”.
We wish Happy Ron a long run of creativity and continued success. His music isn’t for kids or for those committed to the joys being politically correct or those guilty of having read Iron John, but he gets a lot of things just right in his songs and his tunes are worth your time, even if some of them wrinkle your nose. Terribly Happy is worth the purchase price for “Don’t Stop Playin” alone, which ought to be the anthem for what’s left of the baby boomers and perhaps every generation to follow them, too.
HappyRon
Terribly Happy
Written by Bart Mendoza
A labor of love for all involved, Happy Ron’s latest opus, Terribly Happy, will go down as his masterpiece, his Sergeant Pepper’s if you will. True, his sandpaper vocals and quirky songs, with titles such as “All She Needs Is a Spanking” or “Dickless Wonder,” won’t be everybody’s cup of tea. But anyone who listens will be amazed at the depth of Happy Ron Hill’s songwriting.
Keeping the Beatles analogy for a moment, producer Sven-Erik Seaholm is the George Martin of the equation, casting each song in lush arrangements that manage not only to bring out every melodic nuance in these songs, but also to somehow emphasize the sentiment in the lyrics.
A true showcase, the pair have put together a stellar backing band featuring a who’s who of San Diego musicians; guest appearances include the Smart Brothers (banjo, guitar, hand drums, backing vocals), Cathryn Beeks (backing vocals), Isaac Cheong (backing vocals), Robin Henkel (bass), and Kelsea Little (harp) of the Wrong Trousers. Topping the cast are Paul Litteral (trumpet) and Paulie Cerra (saxophone) of the Pacific Coast Horns. That’s Litteral heard on such hit records as the B-52’s “Love Shack,” James Brown’s “Living in America,” and Tom Waits “Rain Dogs” album.
Sonically, the disc reminds me most of Waits, perhaps as scored by Van Dyke Parks, but the bottom line is, this is an old school album, every song loving crafted and avoiding a template of any sort. It’s made for listening rather than background audio. Especially effective are the bits of studio chatter and media clips that show up at key points in the proceedings, further immersing the listener in Happy Ron’s aural world.
The high point is “No Angel,” with a dreamy, impossibly catchy chorus and a sweeping harp that colors a melancholy lament. Seaholm’s mellotron work adds just the right amount of tension to the song. It’s the closest thing to a single here, the sort of tune that could become a barroom standard.
Contrasts are plenty. There’s “Pretty on the Inside,” which comes across like a modern day pirate tune, albeit with relationship type lyrics and call and response backing vocals. Terribly Happy also manages to rock a little, with “The Good New Is,” having a bit of the seventies Stones about its riffage, the sort of tune that the Dragons could’ve once blasted out at the Casbah, while “Boy Toy” sounds like a ready-made stadium rocker.
This album is unique and clearly comes from the heart. Perhaps it’s a little too quirky for Top 40 play, but Terribly Happy has all the makings of a cult classic.
Happy Ron – Terribly Happy
Being from Greenland you don’t get to hear much wonderful music all the time so when I was given the opportunity to listen to a debut album by a local musician by the name of Happy Ron I thought to myself what is there not to like about this guy. Anyone who goes by the name “Happy” had to be a special person. When I popped the album in my CD player I was right.
The thirteen song debut album by Happy Ron entitled “Terribly Happy” is magnificent. The sounds from the album reminded me of Frank Sinatra who was popular when I was younger. The song that caught my ears and made me smile was the second song “Pitter Patter” in that it had me tapping my toes the entire time. The lyrics were very catchy and also the backup singers were very good as well. The harmonies were very balanced and also the backing instruments were not overbearing with just the right blend.
All the songs have their value on the album in that none are filler or junk songs and are definitely catchy in their own special way with their lyrics and instrumentation. Sven-Erik Seaholm who produced the album in my opinion helped make it magical with his ability to make sure everything sounded great and also that nothing on the album took away from the masterpiece. There are definitely a few tunes on the album that are radio worthy such as “Pitter Patter, Don’t Stop Playin’, Terribly Happy and Boy Toy. The album itself is definitely a fantastic masterpiece of a musician who in my opinion is a cult legend in San Diego.
Terribly Happy is definitely a wonderful mixture of blues and ballads with some Frank Sinatra pizzazz mixed in along with dirty stripped down rock and roll. The album to me is ballsy and down right genius in that it goes into the life and times of the man known as Happy Ron who definitely knows how to rock and make the album format fun again to listen to. He is definitely a throwback to the crooners of yesteryear such as Sinatra, Jim Morrison, Bobby Darin, and Elvis Presley with his lyrics and aurora of high energy that brings the listening audience full circle.
Clifford “The Red”
SEE ALSO ARTICLES HERE:
San Diego Reader: Happilicious HappyRon’s 1000th Open Mike
San Diego Reader: Reviews Pitter Patter Single
Famed Beatles Author Does Musical Analysis Of The HappyMan’s Music