Happy Lucky Combo
a cafe, a carnival, a Cabaret
A Café: sip, sup and socialize to café music, tangos, standards
A Carnival: parade and promenade to a mix of whorled dance music
A Cabaret: it’s show time, with song, dance and shenanigans
always playful, whimsical and a bit mischievous...
History
The Happy Lucky Combo began as a street band; a trio of drums and accordion. The bass drum (Christopher Hibben) was eventually replaced by string bass. This trio of Pippin Barnett/ percussion, Dave Yohe/ string bass and Barry Bless/accordion remain the core of the band.
The band has evolved to include many collaborations both in performance and the recording studio. Long term collaborators have included Nick Lewis/clarinet, Emily Avesian/clarinet and bari sax, Twila Jane Sikorsky/dance and vocal, Stephen Williams/guitar and vocal, Carter Blough/bass.
Guests have been many.
Performing
Other than the street, Happy Lucky has played: galleries, museums, restaurants, themed extravaganzas, Virginia Arts and Letters Live, house parties, Oktoberfests, VCU intercultural Days, Musicircus, Dogtown Mardis Gras, schools, universities, Classical RVA, Byrd Theater, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, VMFA, weddings…
Happy Lucky is reasonably priced and flexible. They can perform as a trio or sextet and everything in between. They can put on an extravagant show or provide ambient background music. And they do sing-a-longs!