Quality Americana

Happy People is the third full-length release from Huston Sonhouse. He’s a former auto shop worker that’s now fully focused on performing and recording.

Littleton

Sonhouse grew up in Littleton, Colorado and spent time coming of age in the Denver metro area.

“A lot of my friends were in bands,” Sonhouse said. “The first guitar that I learned how to play on was given to me by one of my friends.”

It was an old department store guitar they had found while cleaning out the attic.

“It was just horribly set up,” Sonhouse said. “Every string like rattled on it. Probably not the best thing to learn on, but it got the job done. It was better than no guitar, that’s for sure.”

Sonhouse was first inspired by Yes and other progressive rock bands before focusing on traditional country.

“I just kind of started moving towards a more acoustic sound,” Sonhouse said, “which maybe was out of my want to not lug my amps around anymore. It’s a lot easier to carry an acoustic guitar than it is to carry an amp.”

You can still hear the influence come though on the guitar solo in “One of These Days.”

“I wanted to write more music that was more personal,” Sonhouse said. “I was always like a guitarist in bands, which is fun and a great time, and you just get told where to be and when to show up. It’s not a bad life to live, but I wanted to do something that was more for myself. I just started writing music that was more in the vein of a solo artist.”

Traditional Country

You can hear other traditional Americana and doo-wop influences in “They Say.”

“I was listening to a lot of traditional country and lap steel stuff,” Sonhouse said.

The story follows a relationship that’s falling apart while the narrator is struggling to keep it together. It has inspiration from Patsy Cline and Hank Williams.

“I feel like anytime I try to write a song in a specific style it sounds fake,” Sonhouse said. “The way that came out was just kind of naturally sounding like those older guys. I feel like you end up sounding like things that inspired you and things that you listen to.”

Sonhouse pushes himself to release an album every year to keep himself motivated.

“You could work on a song or anything for as long as you gave yourself time to work on it and just never end up releasing anything,” Sonhouse said. “I could change this little thing, or change this vocal part, or this guitar part and would end up a year later still working on the same song, so I like to put some sort of deadline on things for my own sake.”

He’s been located in New Braunfels for the past two years, where he’s embedded himself in the songwriter community. Happy People is a journey through the songwriter’s life in the Texas Hill Country.

Support the Artist

More information about Huston Sonhouse can be found here.

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