Thank you Janis! Thank you StG! Thank you to the others who donated (I don’t know your usernames here)! And thank you Nicest of the Damned for thinking of me and starting this thread.
Because I want people to know how extraordinary Happy Rhodes is (the GoFundMe is not the only thing she’s doing for me), this is something I wrote for a music site. It was rejected, probably because it’s too long, but I want to share it here.
Hi, I wanted to tell you about an extraordinary thing that an extraordinary artist is doing. The artist is Happy Rhodes. She’s very very obscure, but she’s been making music since 1986, has 11 wonderful albums with original music, interesting lyrics, and one of the most phenomenal voices you’ve ever heard. Happy has never had a major label contract. She’s released her 11 albums on small indie labels. Her last album was released in 2007, and she has seemed pretty much retired, though in recent years she sang lead on a few tours with a Peter Gabriel tribute band called Security Project, with Trey Gunn and Jerry Marotta. Happy does have a small but devoted worldwide fan base who still listen to and love her music and voice.
My name is Vickie Williams. I’ve been a fan of Happy’s music since 1988, when I was given a mixtape by a fellow Kate Bush fan. At the time I had a radio show on a 100,000 watt Community radio station in Kansas City, KKFI. My show was called Suspended in Gaffa after a Kate Bush song and I featured music by female artists, ranging from Kate to Jane Siberry to Carla Bley to Victoria Williams to Siouxsie and the Banshees to Sister Rosetta Tharpe to Diamanda Galas. I immediately started playing Happy’s music on my show and she built a following from that. Then, also in 1988, I started pushing her on an internet music mailing list (Love-Hounds) and Usenet newsgroup (rec.music.gaffa) for Kate Bush and Happy got fans from that. In fact in 1991 it led to another Happy fan creating an Internet mailing list dedicated to Happy, called Ecto. Over the years I’ve built websites and just generally been a besotted fan. What I did is not that important, but what Happy is doing for me is, I think.
Last October I was diagnosed with Stage 4 small cell lung carcinoma. I was given a prognosis for about a year to 18 months. One of the things that I wanted most dearly was to see Happy perform her own music one last time before I died. With nothing to lose but my pride, I wrote her and asked her if she would come to Kansas City and perform a concert. Amazingly, she said yes! The concert is set for April 10th. It will be a small, intimate gathering of fans (about 100 or so), and people are coming from all over the country and Canada to be there to see her perform for me. Happy insists on paying her own expenses (she lives in central upstate New York) and refuses compensation for the concert. I’m not trying to get more people to come to the show. Most of the people there will know both Happy and me, and they care about us both. I do think people should know what she’s doing though because it’s such an incredibly kind and generous thing for her to do.
That’s actually not all. Happy started a GoFundMe to send my husband and I on a dream trip while I’m still well enough to enjoy it. I’m sure there are other artists who have done great things for their fans, but even as obscure as Happy is. I think her name should go on that list. I don’t mind the thought that my name will be forgotten in the future, but I hope that Happy’s kindness and generosity toward one fan will never be forgotten.
The trip will be an Alaskan cruise, something I’ve dreamed about since I was a kid living in flat Kansas. It will also include a train trip through the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada mountains. The kid inside me who dreamed of mountains is floating in glee at the thought. I don’t know how much longer I have (I’ve had chemotherapy and now I’m on immunotherapy) but these things, the concert and the trip, will sent me out on Cloud 9, and will leave my husband of 40 years with some great memories.
Thank you donors for helping me on this journey. There’s no reason for you to give anything, so please know that I appreciate your thoughtfulness.
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