Happy the Man
Happy the Man is an American progressive rock band that was founded in the early 1970s.
Band History
Stanley Whitaker and Rick Kennell met in 1972 at a U.S. Army base in Germany know and a brief break after their return to the U.S. with the keyboardists Frank Wyatt and Kit Watkins and drummer Mike Beck and, initially, the singer Cliff Fortney a band. Kennell, Beck and Fortney had previously played together in a band, Whitaker knew Wyatt and Watkins from James Madison University. The first appearances denied Happy the Man partly still with cover versions of Genesis, King Crimson and Van der Graaf Generator, first demo tapes with his own pieces were made in 1974. Then Fortney left the band and was replaced by Dan Owen, however, a few months later left the band. Without Singer Happy the Man changed their musical direction on mainly instrumental pieces.
After another demo in 1975, some airplay on radio Georgetown University and samples with Peter Gabriel, who was looking for a backing band, Happy the Man received a contract with Arista Records. The end of 1976 they recorded their self-titled debut album with complex and varied Progressive Rock with producer Ken Scott. The band was founded in 1977 sent by her label with Renaissance, Foreigner, Hot Tuna and Stomu Yamashta on tour, but could not provide the expected financial success.
While Wyatt Watkins and Whitaker now working on pieces for a second album, Beck left the band due to musical differences. He was a friend of Beck, replaced by Ron Riddle, but got out after the filming to Crafty Hands. Coco Roussel ( Heldon, Clearlight ) was in June 1978 the new drummer. Soon, however, Arista terminated the contract with Happy the Man, because the label was dissatisfied with the sales figures and the musical direction of Crafty Hands. The band began working on a demo in 1979 and took on. Since no label found for its publication and Watkins joined Camel, Happy is the dissolved Man. The members remained partially still musically active.
Until the foundation of the band in 2000 appeared several times live and archived material on Cuneiform Records. Whitaker, Kennell, Wyatt and Riddle came with keyboardist David Rosenthal at NEARfest 2000 in Pennsylvania on; Whitaker, Kennell, Wyatt and Rosenthal published in 2004 with drummer Joe Bergamini a new studio album on InsideOut Music.