Happy Rhodes - "Mercy Street" live (Peter Gabriel cover, w Bon Lozaga)

Happy Rhodes's cover of the Peter Gabriel song "Mercy Street" accompanied by Bon Lozaga on guitar at the Tin Angel in Philadelphia, PA, July 24th, 1999. The studio version of this cover is on the Project Lo album Black Canvas (and can be heard here: http://youtu.be/oG3sO1BYOmg). The original is of course by the great Peter Gabriel and is on his 1986 album So.

Shot on a Canon XL-1 with a soundboard feed.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• happy
• rhodes
• ecto
• female
• singer
• songwriter
• concert
• mercy
• street
• peter
• gabriel
• bon
• lozaga
• project
• lo
• tin
• angel
• kate
• bush
• philadelphia
• philly
• black
• canvas
• cover

[nodestudio]

Beautiful cover. If I had to categorize her voice I'd say it's supernatural. Whenever I see her sing on video it's astounding because even though she's quite beautiful it still sounds like that voice is not coming from her. I keep catching myself looking at her mouth to see if some kind of light is going to come out of there. It's the most amazing suspense from reality to watch her sing.

[k8fan]

@nodestudio Have you had a chance to see her live?

[pbrogue823]

Is this the show where she almost cut her finger off (or whatever happened)? Because I know there was one show where she couldn't play because of an injured hand... I don't know if there were any other shows where she didn't play.

[k8fan]

No, that was "Ectofest West". As far as I know, there is no video of that show. This was at the Tin Angel in Philadelphia, and she played both keyboard and guitar here.

[k8fan]

@k8fan To update, there is video of that show, and it's on YouTube. Just search for Ectofest West

[mydlands]

Never heard of Happy Rhodes before, but I love this song. She sings it so well! I kept expecting her to croak out using her bottom range like that, but it was clear and in tune. She probably does have a 4 octave range as one of the other commenters noted. It's extremely rare but considering how good she sounded, I'd believe it!

[k8fan]

Happy's highest recorded sung vocal phrase is D6, two octaves above middle C in a live performance of the Queen song "Lily of the Valley". She has sung higher notes as "la" or "oooh". Her highest example of this type of singing is in her song "Runners" from her album Equipoise, where she hits G-Sharp6, two octaves above middle C.

Her lowest note is A2, one octave below middle C, in her song "Charlie" on her album Find Me.

A2 to G-Sharp6 (aka A-Flat6) gives her a total range of 4 octaves.

[19brummbaerle53]

beautiful...

[toni7777ful]

What an interesting voice! Cool!

[tonytone74]

OMG ! Amazingly BEAUTIFUL !!!! The best cover !!!!

[edmoortjips]

Great!!!!!!!!!!!!

[CuddlyBadger]

I've heard the criticisms of Happy, and I've never liked them. I've had my own, in fact one time I think I lobbed one directly at her. But I regret them all. It's so hard to find someone as truly talented as she is. Not just as a vocal performer but as the amazing songwriter... and she always was. She might never fit our box, but we need to embrace these differences so the things we love can commingle with the other things we love.

[eydukackbratze]

OMG, she is Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush in one body :-o

Creepy AND amazing !!!

[Sharmilka]

wow, the same vocal trick as with WTRCD...she's stunning

[BloomAndGrow]

wow this was a very cool cover. I love this song :)

[richardpeej]

This is so beautiful I love happy's voice......so original..Thank you for sharing this video k8fan...........Richard