PICTURE HIM HAPPY

PICTURE HIM HAPPY is a response to the saying that our music is made by and for people who have chosen to feel good in spite of conditions: even if you can’t change what happens to you, you can always affect how you respond to it.

The central image is that of Sisyphus, the mythical man doomed to push the same rock up the same hill for eternity. French philosopher Albert Camus suggested that given the similarity between the life of Sisyphus and our lives today, the only reasonable response—in a world that often seems absurd—is to try to imagine him happy. Hence the title of this project. We live in hard, frustrating times—perhaps we always have—and now more than ever, we need to turn to the music to make this hill we climb bearable.

ANOTHER OLD BULL is a song about Trump and all the other little trumps out there. The antidote to their cynicism and self regard is found in the prescient music of the late Mose Allison, whose personal wisdom and wise words are recounted in TOO MUCH TOO LATE as well as in BIG BROTHER, and WAS. The song I COULD BE WRONG recounts what we’ve lost and EVERYBODY’S FAKING IT explains how we lost it. And for levity, there’s THANK GOD FOR THE F TRAIN, a love song dedicated to the subway that brings the hipsters in and out of Brooklyn, and a louche look back at our communal COLLEGE experience.

All together, twelve songs, captured on September 12 – 18, 2016 at Electric Poodle Studios in Park Slope with Will Lee on bass, Will Bernard on guitar, John Ellis on saxophone, Leo Sidran on drums and the inimitable Moses Patrou and Trixie Waterbed, recorded by Leo Sidran and Tomek Miernowski, mixed by Hector Coulon and mastered by UE at Sterling Sound.

Picture me happy – Ben Sidran

Ben Sidran

Tracklist
1 – College
2 – Discount Records
3 – Picture Him Happy
4 – I Might Be Wrong
5 – Too Much Too Late
6 – Shaboogie
7 – Faking It
8 – Thank God for the F Train
9 – Another Old Bull
10 – Big Brother
11 – Who Are You
12 – Was

Crédits

• Backing Vocals – Trixie Waterbed
• Bass, Backing Vocals – Will Lee
• Drums, Vibraphone, Backing Vocals – Leo Sidran
• Guitar – Will Bernard
• Percussion, Backing Vocals – Moses Patrou
• Piano, Vocals, Producer, Liner Notes – Ben Sidran
• Saxophone – John Ellis (5)