Please note this is an archived topic, so it is locked and unable to be replied to. You may, however, start a new topic and refer to this topic with a link: http://www.banjohangout.org/archive/398416
Joe Connor - Posted - 07/18/2024: 12:13:42
Sad news. Through his books and albums, Happy helped a lot of us learn to play the guitar.
In the '70s, Happy recorded a couple of albums on Kicking Mule records, and the record company also sold a book of tabs for Happy's guitar work on those albums. What a great way to learn.
Nic Pennsylvania - Posted - 07/18/2024: 12:20:06
Geez... This is a bigger blow than most as he indirectly helped so many people.
banjoy - Posted - 07/18/2024: 12:24:00
Happy started out as a banjo picker then switched to guitar later on. I'm hoping recordings of his banjo work might surface ... I'd love to hear that. Bela Fleck, among many other great musicians made wonderful teaching videos and audio tapes back in the day ... a lot of us absorbed like oxygen ... long before the internet or YouTube existed. Somewhere buried in all my stuff are those Bela Fleck Homespun videos ... only because Happy existed. Indeed, he and his work touched people worldwide ... I will be forever grateful for his life's work, he sure touched my life.
RIP Happy.
Edited by - banjoy on 07/18/2024 12:25:57
chuckv97 - Posted - 07/18/2024: 12:35:20
Rest In Peace, Happy. He was on some Bob Dylan albums also. I had the “Mud Acres” album, he and Artie were on it, part of the Woodstock crowd with Bill Keith, Maria Muldaur, Jim Rooney, John Herald, etal.
I was just watching his video on Mississippi John Hurt’s “Monday Morning Blues” the other day, on his signature HT/13 Santa Cruz guitar.
youtu.be/_piAKDDqczs?si=Za9cAlrmA_7ECuds
Edited by - chuckv97 on 07/18/2024 12:47:10
Emiel - Posted - 07/18/2024: 12:35:58
Sad news…
chuckv97 - Posted - 07/18/2024: 13:03:23
And how many of us remember this one?
"We were standing in the hot summer sun in front of a gas station one day, our thumbs in the wind trying to get a ride heading north, when a beat-up pickup truck screeched to a stop. The guy behind the wheel, wearing a western shirt and a straw cowboy hat, eyed our instrument cases and told us he’s give us a ride if we’d play him a song. We eagerly broke out our instruments and got them in tune, ready to show off our best licks before jumping in. “Can you play ‘Under the Double Eagle?’” he shouts at us. “Gee no, sorry, we don’t know that one.” He throws us a withering look, steps on the gas and leaves us in a cloud of dust. Exhausted, hungry and unwashed, we spent our last remaining dollars on a Greyhound ticket back to New York City." - Happy Traum
Edited by - chuckv97 on 07/18/2024 13:07:34
Chuck Buckbee - Posted - 07/18/2024: 13:22:44
happytraum.com/post/recording-...ylan-1971
Recording with Bob Dylan - 1971
Nearly 50 years ago, in October of 1971, I got a call from Bob Dylan asking me if I'd like record some songs with him for his "Greatest Hits, Volume II" compilation. Could I do it tomorrow, and would I bring my guitar and banjo -- and, oh yeah, how about a bass, too? (Never mind that I didn't own a bass, and had never played one in public before. I borrowed one -- fast.)
Now I realize that for most fair-to-middlin' guitar fingerpickers the odds of getting a call like this are about as likely as John Glenn calling to see if you'd like a seat on the next space shuttle, but I was fairly casual about the whole thing. You see, I had been friends with Bob since the early sixties, and had already recorded a song with him on a Folkways recording called "Broadsides, Vol. I." Of course, that was when he was recording his first lp for Columbia; now he was the best-known singer/songwriter in the world! Nevertheless, as neighbors in Woodstock, NY, we often picked together informally, so it wasn't a great leap to take what we had been doing in the living room into the studio. But was I excited? You bet I was!
So, laden with all sorts of instruments, I took the bus from Woodstock to New York City and made my way to the Columbia studios on West 54th Street. To my surprise, the entire session consisted of just Bob and me (and the engineer) in the big, nearly-empty studio. The first song Bob suggested was "Only a Hobo," one of the tunes he had recorded eight years earlier (as "Blind Boy Grunt") on our "Broadsides" session. The machines were turned on, Bob started playing, and I followed along as best I could. After two takes it was obvious that it wasn't coming together, so Bob dropped the song.
Fortunately, the next one, "I Shall Be Released," immediately caught the right spirit and we relaxed into the music. We started the song with a slightly more bouncy feel than I had heard on the Band's famous recording of the song, and it fit right into the bluesy fingerpicking style that I have always favored. Bob played it in A, so I capoed up to the fifth fret and played out of the E position, accenting the ends of lines with bass note hammer-ons and sliding 6ths and pull-offs in the treble. I joined in singing on the chorus, and before I knew it Bob was grinning and we were on to the next song. Now I was starting to have a good time!
I had heard "Down in the Flood" in bits and pieces during the Basement Tapes sessions, but the version that we did at this recording was totally impromptu -- at least for me. It's a blues in G, so it wasn't hard to find some things to play. Again, Bob was strumming the rhythm with his flatpick, so I just tried to compliment his singing with some sliding licks and bluesy, fingerstyle fills on the high strings. The whole thing went by so fast that I didn't realize it was a take until we played it back.
Finally, we cut what turned out to be my favorite of that day's session, "You Ain't Going Nowhere." Bob set the pace with a strong rhythmic strum, and I tried to give the tune a rollicking, joyous feel with a frailing banjo part. I think it worked. We nailed it in two takes, singing and playing together, again with no previous rehearsal. After listening to it we decided it needed a little extra kick, so I made my debut as a bassist. I must admit it was a pretty visible way to start playing in public, but Bob and the engineer seemed to like what I did so my part stayed in. Not long after that session, Bob invited me to play bass on a date he was producing for Allen Ginsberg, so my career as a bassist stayed high-profile for a little while longer before disappearing into a merciful obscurity.
As I re-listen to the CD today I can still hear the informal, home-style picking that so many listeners have told me they like about those particular performances. There's a relaxed intimacy there that I like to think is partly due to our friendship, and to the many occasions in which we sat around the house playing the old songs. Of course, much of it was due to Bob's studio technique at the time: establish a good "feel," play the song as if you really mean what you're singing about, and get it in one or two takes. If you need more than that, it's not happening, so move on. It's a way of working that has created some unbelievably great recorded performances over the years, and I have always been incredibly proud to have been a part of these three.
Tim Jumper - Posted - 07/18/2024: 17:41:52
As did so many other guitarists, I learned a lot from Happy's books -- about both picking and teaching.
R.I.P.
Nic Pennsylvania - Posted - 07/18/2024: 18:48:00
Friend of mine said he got a call from Mary Flower a few days ago saying Happy was in the hospital.
"Traum" is the German word for "dream".
Happy Dreams indeed.
steve davis - Posted - 07/19/2024: 16:39:59
I also have Music From Mud Acres ("A week of parties disguised as rehearsals.") and always loved Happy's music and his choices of who to play with.
'Kay Restoration' 2 hrs
'Miss You All' 7 hrs
'Vintage Hondo neck' 8 hrs
