Happy Rhodes

A family legend claims that Stamper wrote the well-known song "Shine On, Harvest Moon" in 1903 for Nora Bayes when he was working as her Vaudeville piano accompanist, but sold the rights and credit to Bayes and her husband Jack Norworth.

Rhodes' parents divorced when she was young.

Rhodes has two brothers who are twins.

Rhodes received her first musical instrument, an acoustic guitar, as a gift from her mother, at age 11.

At 14 she was performing original songs in school shows.

She left school early at age 16, choosing to obtain a GED.

From age 16 to 18, Rhodes began performing in open mic nights at Caffè Lena in Saratoga Springs, New York.

During this period, Rhodes met Pat Tessitore, the owner of a recording studio, Cathedral Sound Studios in Rensselaer, and became a studio intern to learn recording techniques.

Tessitore was impressed with Rhodes' voice and songwriting, and volunteered to record all of the songs she had written to that point.

Tessitore introduced Rhodes to Kevin Bartlett, a musician who had his own record label, Aural Gratification, and he urged her to gather up all the songs that she had recorded, to be released on cassette.

Rhodes' maternal grandfather Dave Stamper wrote songs for the Ziegfeld Follies of 1913 through 1931 and composed the music for several other Broadway shows.

Happy Rhodes (born Kimberley Tyler Rhodes, August 9, 1965) is an American singer, musician and songwriter with a four-octave vocal range, releasing 11 albums between 1986 and 2007.

She had enough songs to release three cassettes at the same time in 1986, Rhodes Vol. I, Rhodes Vol. II, and Rearmament.

Aural Gratification released nine Happy Rhodes albums between 1986 and 1995, including Equipoise and RhodeSongs in 1993, Building The Colossus in 1994 and The Keep in 1995.

In 1987, she released the cassette of Ecto.

Her first CD release was Warpaint, in 1991.

The first four albums were only available on hand-dubbed cassettes until they were re-released on CD in 1992.

For the CD releases, Rhodes Vol. I was renamed Rhodes I, and Rhodes Vol. II was renamed Rhodes II.

Each of the CD re-releases contained bonus tracks not on the original cassettes.

In 1994 Rhodes performed at YesFest, a convention for fans of the band Yes.

She has also performed at the Knitting Factory in New York City as a guest of the band Project Lo.

As a solo artist Rhodes has performed in Philadelphia, New York City, Cambridge, MA, Troy, NY, Albany, NY, Saratoga, NY, Woodstock, NY, Bearsville, NY, New Haven, CT, Danbury, CT, Maple Shade, NJ, Denville, NJ, Bryn Mawr, PA, Mechanicsburg, PA, Cleveland, OH, Toledo, OH, Kenosha, WI, Chicago, IL and Santa Cruz, CA.

Rhodes has also played The Middle East Club in 1995, the Mann Theater (opening for 10,000 Maniacs) and the University Museum Auditorium, both in 1992.

In New York City Rhodes has played the Bottom Line several times.

Rhodes left Aural Gratification in 1998.

Rhodes' 10th album, Many Worlds Are Born Tonight, was released in August 1998 by Samson Music, a label founded by Norm Waitt Jr., brother of Ted Waitt, co-founder of the Gateway Computer company.

Rhodes was dropped from Samson when the label decided to concentrate on other genres of music and Samson transferred rights to the material back to Rhodes, as well as unsold product.

Her last major solo tour was in support of her album Many Worlds are Born Tonight in 1998, playing the El Flamingo Club in New York City, the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in Troy, New York, the Painted Bride Arts Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the Bearsville Theater in Bearsville, New York.

Though the tour received positive reviews, it was not an economic success due to the ambitious multimedia presentation of the material.

Rhodes married musician Bob Muller in 2006 and they currently live on a farm in central upstate New York.

Rhodes has cited Wendy Carlos, Kate Bush, Queen, Yes, David Bowie, Bach and Peter Gabriel as primary influences.

Her father owned a large record collection which included Bagpipe music and Switched-On Bach, by Wendy Carlos.

By age nine, Rhodes could sing along with every note from that album.

As a teenager she discovered the music of Queen and was impressed by their harmonies, which she later emulated on her first few albums.

When Rhodes was introduced at age 16 to Kate Bush's music by an English pen pal, she was impressed by Bush's original writing style, vocal abilities and independence as a female artist.

Rhodes has cited Bach's Air on a G String as her favorite piece of music.

Most of her live shows have been in the northeast of America, primarily Philadelphia and New York City.

Rhodes has sold out every show she's performed in Philadelphia when she was the headliner.

She has performed several times at the Tin Angel, where she always plays two shows in an evening.

In 2001, Rhodes recorded an 11th album, called Find Me, which was released October 19, 2007.