Happy Traum - Just for the Love of It (2015)

Timeless blues and traditional songs featuring powerful acoustic guitar fingerpicking and vocals by a veteran folk artist, with backup by some of the greats of the Americana music scene. Charted #3 on FolkDJ List for October 2015!


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A long-time veteran of the Greenwich Village and Woodstock acoustic music scenes, Happy Traum has performed and recorded with many of the greats in what has become known as "Americana" music: Bob Dylan, Levon Helm, John Sebastian, Pete Seeger, Jorma Kaukonen, Eric Andersen, Allen Ginsberg, Paul Butterfield, Maria Muldaur and innumerable others. He was a student of blues great Brownie McGhee, who greatly influenced his fingerpicking guitar style. Happy and his late brother, Artie Traum, played and recorded as a duo for many years and developed a sound that, according to Rolling Stone, "defined the Northeast folk music style."

"Just For the Love of It" was co-produced by multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell and features an amazing line-up of back-up musicians and singers: Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams (The Levon Helm Band); John Sebastian (The Lovin' Spoonful); Byron Isaacs (Levon Helm, OIlabelle); Justin Guip (Levon Helm); Jerry Marotta (Peter Gabriel and many others); and others.

Happy writes in the album's liner notes:

"The songs in this collection are either old and traditional, or have been composed in that style by writers with deep connections to what is now called 'American Roots Music.' This is the kind of material I have always been attracted to, and these are songs that I have known and loved for most of my increasingly long life.

My idea for this recording was to play and sing “live” in the studio, to try and capture that wonderful interaction that happens spontaneously with musical friends. There are a few obvious places where overdubs were inevitable, but for the most part the music on this CD reflects the way it happened in the moment - no frills and as honest as I could make it.