Penguin Eggs talking about the album "Happybody"

Album number three from Ottawa's Alex Houghton, an acoustic guitar player who is developing not only her own playing style but exuding a compositional confidence in the process.Happy Body is subtle and understated, but infectious.The haunting Compression evokes a Miles Davis influence complete with Kevin Turcotte on trumpet.There is a grace and charm to tracks like Home as a Theme.The atmospheric textures sit as a backdrop to the precision finger picking.Its easy to be drawn into the heavy groove of Shelf Elf.Dear Peace shows off beautiful melody against Peter Kieswalter's astute counterpoint string arrangements resulting in a nice added touch of drama.Well recorded and well produced,but only clocking in a little more the 3o minutes, Happy Body only strikes one disappointing chord, and that is there should be more.

By Jay Knudson