Everybody’s got a choice so why not choose joy?

We’re all headed in a new direction.

Everybody get along, if you feel like jumpin’ on,

We’re all headed for Happyland.”

‘

The moment they had finished writing those lyrics for the song Happyland, sitting in Gabriel Rhodes‘ backyard last spring, Kimmie Rhodes mused, “You know, that it would be a great name for a band.”

Zoom forward from that day to October 30, 2023 when at Kimmie’s request, Gabriel assembled a stellar group of local veteran musicians to play her show billed as, Kimmie & Friends, a ten show series to raise funds and awareness for HOME (Housing Opportunities for Musicians and Entertainers, hosted by Joe Ables, owner of The Saxon Pub, Austin’s premier song-swap venue.

Gabriel rounded-up the volunteers to play the gig fairly effortlessly. Johnny Goudie (guitar, vocals) Harmoni Kelley (bass) John Chipman (drums) Louis Rhodes (piano, Gabriel’s son) had been co-writing songs and recording them together prolifically over the past couple of years at Rhodes Bumshoe Studio in south Austin. Of late many of those songs have found their way onto a soon-to-be-released album produced by Rhodes for Shawn Pander (guitar vocals) titled Forever and For Now and also Hypnotized, Kimmie’s up-coming album, the first single being slated for release on January 26.

The Saxon show was magical– the music, the harmonies, the songs, the fans, the joy­. When everyone ended the evening singing along to a brand-new song, Happyland, a band was born. Kimmie calls it a happy accident and likes to refer to it as “Austin’s new feel-good-pop-up band.”

The “why” of the band is found in the song lyrics. “Takes a little from you, takes a little from me. Everybody give a little and let’s all meet in the middle. Everybody come together, all try to do better, and we’ll be headed for Happyland. Believing that it’s what the world needs most right now the aim is to have fun playing uplifting, up-tempo songs, with lots of harmony vocals and even throw in the occasional all-time favorite sing-along cover song. They also plan to collaborate on new songs for future shows.