Happy The Man

Happy the Man's progressive rock approach earned comparisons to Yes for its melodic emphasis and to Gentle Giant for the intricate architecture of its pieces, yet the band distinguished itself through elite-level playing, sweeping symphonic gestures, irregular meters, atmospheric expanses, and flashes of whimsy. Though their largely instrumental catalog lacked uniformity, Happy the Man retained a loyal audience among progressive-rock collectors. Founded in 1974, the group featured keyboardist Kit Watkins, keyboardist and woodwind player Frank Wyatt, guitarist and occasional vocalist Stan Whitaker, and bassist Rick Kennell throughout the seventies, along with a changing roster of drummers. Original singer Cliff Fortney exited prior to the signing with Arista. Recorded with drummer Mike Beck, the self-titled 1977 debut presented each member's distinct writing voice: Watkins supplied symphonic scale, Wyatt favored lyric-driven songs, and Whitaker let humor surface on tracks such as "Stumpy Meets the Firecracker in Stencil Forest" and "Knee Bitten Nymphs in Limbo." The follow-up, Crafty Hands, arrived a year later with drummer Ron Riddle.

Crafty Hands in particular drew favorable notices from progressive listeners, yet the band's technically demanding style grew increasingly unfashionable commercially, prompting Arista to release them. Happy the Man nevertheless carried on, now with French drummer Coco Roussel, as they rehearsed and tracked new material for a projected third album while maintaining live activity. Persistent difficulties eventually proved insurmountable; Kit Watkins departed in 1979 to join Camel, appearing on two of their albums, after which the band disbanded. Watkins later established his own independent label, Azimuth, which issued his solo album Labyrinth in 1980, featuring Roussel on drums and percussion. The title Labyrinth had originally been intended for Happy the Man's unfinished third album, and Watkins's record contained several pieces slated for that project; in 1983 Azimuth released the full band's four-year-old demo recordings for the same album under the title Better Late.... Watkins and Roussel also issued the duo album In Time in 1984, while Watkins continued releasing new-age-inflected solo work into the twenty-first century.

Additional Happy the Man recordings later surfaced on independent labels. East Side Digital released the Retrospective collection in 1989, and during the nineties Cuneiform presented several archival titles from the band's seventies period: the label reissued the Azimuth version of Better Late... in 1990 with two previously unreleased tracks, followed by 1994's Live drawn from a pair of 1978 club performances in Washington, D.C., and Falls Church, VA, 1995's Beginnings compiling early two-track studio sessions with Fortney, and 1999's Death's Crown featuring mid-seventies rehearsal recordings. Minus Watkins, the band reunited to issue the Muse Awakens CD in 2004.