In January 2012, Thomas Lauderdale and our trusty audio engineer Dave Friedlander flew to Los Angeles to visit Thomas’s new friend, Phyllis Diller. While there, Thomas bought a dozen of Phyllis’s bright colorful paintings… and they recorded Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile”, which turned out to be Phyllis Diller’s final recording, and became the soundtrack for the many tributes to her when she passed away six months later.

Thus began the 18-month odyssey to record Get Happy, the long-awaited studio follow-up to 2009’s Splendor in the Grass, an odyssey which featured a cavalcade of vocal royalty visiting our Portland studios, including exotic cabaret sensation Meow Meow, sunny French eccentric Philippe Katerine, the handsome and brilliant radio superstar Ari Shapiro, warm-hearted wunder-siblings The von Trapps, and a riveting appearance by the exquisite Rufus Wainwright!

Anchored by our beloved and elegant vocalist China Forbes, alongside our dazzling co-lead-singer Storm Large, finally making her recording debut with us, the album features sixteen songs selected and arranged by Thomas, including songs in German, French, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Farsi, Turkish and Romanian.