''Happy Come Home'' is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Victoria Williams. It has received positive reviews from critics.

Reception

Editors at AllMusic rated this album 4 out of 5 stars, with critic Lindsay Planer writing "''Happy Come Home'' is the personification of the word eclectic" and "there is an undeniable strength and maturity in Williams' songwriting". In ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

'', Billy Altman praised Williams' vocals and songwriting that shows she is "blissfully at peace with the universe". In a review of Williams' career for '' Trouser Press'' by Ira Robins, Wif Stenger, and Floyd Eberhard, the publication blames producers Anton Fier and Stephen Soles for "burying Williams and her eccentric voice in a massive studio effort", but praised the string arrangements by Van Dyke Parks.

Track listing

All songs written by Victoria Williams, except where noted. #"Shoes" – 3:00 #"Frying Pan" – 3:34 #"Merry Go Round" – 4:26 #"Happy" – 0:58 #"TC" – 3:57 #"I’ll Do His Will" (

James Cleveland James Edward Cleveland (December 5, 1931 – February 9, 1991) was an American gospel singer, musician, and composer. Known as the King of Gospel, Cleveland was a driving force behind the creation of the modern gospel sound by incorporating trad ...

) – 5:09 #"Big Fish" – 3:36 #"Animal Wild" – 3:01 #"Main Road" – 3:02 #"Lights" – 1:45 #"Opelousas" – 2:55 #"Statue of a Bum" – 4:43 #"Poetry" – 1:17

Personnel

* Victoria Williams – vocals, painting *Lamar Alsop – violin *Sarah Auld – production coordination *Amy Berger – instrumentation *Peter Blegvad – vocals *

Carla Bley Carla Bley (born Lovella May Borg; May 11, 1936) is an American jazz composer, pianist, organist and bandleader. An important figure in the free jazz movement of the 1960s, she is perhaps best known for her jazz opera '' Escalator over the Hill'' ...

– piano *Alfred Brown – strings * T-Bone Burnett – guitar *Ralph Carney – saxophone * Greg Cohen – bass guitar *Tony Conniff – bass guitar *

Bob Cranshaw Melbourne Robert Cranshaw (December 3, 1932 – November 2, 2016) was an American jazz bassist. His career spanned the heyday of Blue Note Records to his recent involvement with the Musicians Union. He is perhaps best known for his long associa ...

– bass guitar *Stephen Croce – backing vocals *Robin Danar – recording *Angel Dean – backing vocals * Anton Fier –

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

on "Merry Go Round", "I'll Do His Will", and "Opelousas"; production *Irwin Fisch – instrumentation *Ralph Forbes – drum programming on "Animal Wild" *Danny Frankel – percussion *Jody Harris – guitar *Jeri Heiden –

art direction Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the visi ...

*Lisa Herman – backing vocals *Chris Howard – recording * Fats Kaplin – fiddle *"Iron" Mike Krowiak –

audio engineering Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to: Sound * Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound *Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum * Digital audio, representation of sou ...

at Grog Kill Studio *Jesse Levy – cello *Tony Maimone – bass guitar *George Marino – audio mastering at Sterling Sound *Hugh McCracken – guitar *LouAnn Montessi – violin * Van Dyke Parks – string arrangement on "Shoes", "TC", and "Main Road" *Mark Pawlowski – arrangement on "Shoes", "TC", and "Main Road" * Bobby Previte – drums * Hans Reumschuessel – instrumentation *Stephen Soles – backing vocals, production *

Syd Straw Syd Straw (born 1958) is an American rock singer and songwriter. The daughter of actor Jack Straw (''The Pajama Game''), she began her career singing backup for Pat Benatar, then took her distinct voice to the indie/alternative scene and joined ...

– backing vocals *Steve Swallow – bass guitar *David Van Tieghem – percussion * Bernie Worrell – keyboards

Commercial performance

''Happy Come Home'' was difficult to market and by 1997, it had only sold 14,000 units and did not chart on any ''Billboard'' charts.

References

External links