Happy Traum: I Walk the Road Again

Sing Out! The Folk Song Magazine, Winter, 2006 by Mike Regenstreif

Happy Traum I Walk the Road Again Roaring Stream 05

It's been much too long--more than two decades--since Happy Traum, a former editor of Sing Out!, released a solo album. That long wait has resulted in a sweet gem of a CD.

Happy knows how to pick songs and although most of the material is well-known--some, like "Danville Girl" and "Betty and Dupree," have been recorded by countless artists - Happy brings his own touch to them and achieves a wonderful combination of freshness and familiarity on each track that he creates via his warm singing, superb guitar playing and through the creative use of such great musicians as John Sebastian, Jay Ungar, Molly Mason, Larry Campbell, Abby Newton and his brother and lifelong collaborator Artie Traum, who produced the album. Each song has a specially tailored arrangement that ranges from Happy solo to as many as five other musicians. Several also feature some lovely harmony vocals from singers including Amy Fradon and Leslie Ritter.

Happy uses songs from the album to honor several of his musical influences. "Times A-Getting Hard" and "Empty Pocket Blues," were learned from an early Pete Seeger recording while "Betty and Dupree" and "Sporting Life Blues" come from the playing and singing of Brownie McGhee from whom Happy took guitar lessons in the 1950s. Others, like Paul Siebel's "Pinto Pony" and Bob Dylan's "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You," are borrowed from old friends that he's made music with over the decades.

Among the more obscure songs in the set are the title track, a defiant hobo's declaration, and the lovely "Friends and Neighbors," both of which were collected in the 1940s from Catskills traditional singer George Edwards. Albums of this quality are all too rare.