Happy Rhodes (her real name) is a singer/songwriter/musician with 10 albums to her name, and plans for more. She lives on a farm in upstate New York and makes music for the sheer love of it.
Happy started making music when she was 11. At 17 she started working as an apprentice engineer at a recording studio. To learn the equipment and techniques, such as how to do overdubs, Happy started recording her own songs. When Pat Tessitore, the owner of the studio, heard her he was astounded, and gave her time to record whenever she wanted. Tessitore introduced Happy to Kevin Bartlett, who owned a small, cassette-only label, Aural Gratification, to record his own music. He encouraged her to gather up all the songs she had recorded up until then, and he would release them on AG. The number of songs she had already recorded turned out to be enough for 3 full-length albums, which were Rhodes I, Rhodes II and Rearmament, released on cassette in 1986. Soon there were enough songs for a 4th album, called Ecto. Happy's first "real" album, conceived and recorded as an album release, Warpaint, was released on CD in 1991, and the "1st4" were re-issued on CD in 1992.
Happy released a total of 9 albums on Aural Gratification before moving to Samson Music with her already-recorded album Many Worlds Are Born Tonight. Samson provided artwork and released the album, but then dropped her because they didn't know what to do with her. Happy is currently working on her 11th album, due to be released later this year.
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