Tim Anthony
The Happy Door

Pop singer/songwriter Tim Anthony takes a break from his many other projects and head honcho duties at Jealousy Records and treats pop enthusiasts to an excellent 13 song disc with psuedo- 60's and mainstream pop tunes.Tim has crafted a seamless album with plenty of catchy melodies,and he adds chiming guitars to such songs as "BABY I'M BACK" and "NO WORDS".
Eric Sorensen, fufkin.com

Discovering a singer songwriter who has the talent to produce near perfect power pop songs and then perform them with consummate vocal and guitar talent is refreshing. Tim Anthony from Central New York toured internationally in a band called The Brambles, he is now working solo and runs his own label Jealousy Records. Anthony whose writing and performing styles could be compared to Neil Finn with added dashes of George Harrison’s minimalist sweet guitar sounds, has teamed up with pop multi instrumentalist Ed James on his latest release, The Happy Door. This collection of well crafted songs of lost love and heartache is filled with tight vocal harmonies and hook filled melodies. Standout tracks are the classic pop Maryellen and Baby I’m Back with its flowing guitar solo, while the thoughtful ballad More features Ed James on French horn. No Words combines superb guitar with catchy harmonies, while the moving string laden Disappear was written for Anthony’s late father. Each track’s origins are fully described in the liner notes on the CD cover.
Chris Clark, Hidden Tracks Column, South Australia Life Magazine (Australia) 03/2006

There’s nothing complicated or tricky about The Happy Door -Tim Anthony offers a solid disc of finely crafted, emotionally true melodic songs that will undoubtedly sound as fresh twenty years from now as they do today. Anthony, one-half of the underappreciated Brambles (with cousin Lou Anthony), here teams up with pop wunderkind Ed James to create forty minutes and six seconds of melodic magic. The Happy Door opens with “Maryellen,” a pure pop confection floating upon layers of ethereal background vocals (all courtesy of Anthony himself) that calls to mind the best of Chris von Sneidern. Throughout, Anthony’s guitar work is economically tasteful, with nary a note wasted. The buoyant vocals and infectious melodies of “Mondays With You” invoke the spirit of the late, lamented cartoon rockers The Vandalias. James’ embellishments are subtle, yet significant, from the mellotron and glockenspiel in “It Was You” to the B3 organ in “This Autumn” and the handclaps in “Up to You.” “Disappear” is a lovely ballad, dedicated to Anthony’s late father, while “The End of Us” is mid-tempo rock written for, but not used in, the TV show “Ed.” “Maybe This Girl” invokes the spirit of Walter Egan, circa 1979. “This little ditty is a poppy radio friendly song, that’s all,” writes Anthony in The Happy Door’s liner notes. As a former Beatle once asked: what’s wrong with that?
Rick Schadelbauer, amplifiermagazine.com (Boston, MA) 03/2006

Just got a copy of Tim Anthony's "THE HAPPY DOOR" with one quick listen sounds like a winner and something we can do some pleasant damage with. Congratulations on bringing home this most pleasant baby.
Bruce Brodeen, notlamerecordings.com 10/15/04

Great job on the new CD "THE HAPPY DOOR" by Tim Anthony. I think it is his best release yet to date. Personal faves are "BABY I'M BACK", "MARYELLEN" and "DISAPPEAR". Actually I think every track is excellent. Tim's songwriting along with Ed James' playing and assistance make an excellent pop team. People will be very happy with "THE HAPPY DOOR". They are really going to dig this one.
Jeremy Morris, jamrecordings.com


Eight Questions for Tim Anthony
Gary Pig Gold, fufkin.com 05/2006

In the snap-happy global playpen which is the home-grown, bedroom and basement-recorded domain of the one-man bandwagon, Syracuse's very own Tim Anthony most rightfully rests head and high shoulders above the usual three-part, four-to-the-bar Power-popping practitioner. And his latest Jealousy Records release, The Happy Door, sure does prove it …and THEN some indeed.

A dozen songs, craftily arranged and expertly sequenced (the latter of which is a long-lost audio art in and of itself), Tim runs glorious gamuts between the requisite Raspberries ("Baby I'm Back" and especially "All This Time") and Beatle blasts ("Mondays With You" most bittersweetly recalls the greatest of John Lennon's final Bermuda demos, while "Disappear" and "It Was You" are definitely much more creatively chaotic than anything Sir Macca has managed to come up with since Ram at least). Above and beyond all that said, a delicate three-minutes-forty entitled "More" somehow evokes precisely the kind of baroque 'n' folk unheard since your favorite Chad and Jeremy long-player of yore, while "Maybe This Girl" ultimately fades away amidst a panoramic choral wash the circa- Sunflower Beach Boys would truly be envious of.

In a simple word, then? WOW. But that's still not all:

Handclaps! Killer deep guitar hooks! Tambourines and "dit-dit-dit"s galore ("Up To You," for example). A late afternoon's stroll through Central Park with Winona Ryder to the accompaniment of some Rubinoos ("This Autumn"), and at least one song called "Maryellen" that in a just and kind world would today be flowing from atop each and every Top Forty in the rockin' free world. You can then perhaps fully understand why your humble scribe honestly had no choice but to contact The Man Himself to ask, once and for all of us…..

1. "Munsters" or "Addams Family": Which one's for you, and Why?

Munsters all the way. Although I loved Gomez Addams' positive spin on life. His "everything is possible, with money." Also I loved Marilyn the blond niece; it was funny how the Munster family felt sorry for her like she was ugly. Well I guess to them she was. Proving that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But Marilyn was really hot though... (Heavy sigh or moan)?

2. Who in the world, living or dead, would you most like to play a game of "Twister" with?

That's easy. Stella Stevens in her prime.

Why??? Have you SEEN Stella Stevens in her prime?? Rent "The Nutty Professor" (Jerry Lewis, 1963).

I believe she is still living (I still have a shot) !

* 3. How many Flashcubes records do you own?

Interesting question. I am actually really good friends with them. They are the best export from my home town Syracuse, New York (besides me of course HA HA). I have worked with them time to time and my record label is going to release a Screentest Anthology. "Screentest" was The Flashcubes.

I own "Christi Girl," "Inspired Humans Making Noise" (four-song Screentest ), "You Don't Know Me" ( Screentest single), Brilliant CD, Bright Lights CD, Flashcubes Live In Japan, plus I have a bunch of demo tapes, out-takes, and a bunch of live stuff on cassette. A lot of stuff.

Gary Frenay and Arty Lenin are truly brilliant songwriters. I have always called them The American Beatles! They are like big brother musicians to me. Really great and talented guys.

4. If you had been working the front gate at The Dakota that night a quarter century ago when nasty Mark David Chapman showed up, pistol in hand, to avenge the Chief Beatle for his "Bigger than Jesus" wisecrack, what would you have done?

I would have quickly had Mr. Chapman detained and arrested as a potential threat. To any person or persons living in the Dakota. Especially John Winston Lennon…

5. "Ginger" or "Mary-Ann": Which one's for you, and for How Long?

Mary-Ann, as I chose to learn from life and mistakes.

I would look at Ginger and now say "yeah she is an attractive female, and how much is she going to cost me financially and emotionally." Mary-Ann was the innocent nice girl next door that would probably go the extra mile for you if you know what I mean! Ginger would be high maintenance, you know too worried about her and nails and makeup. Life is just tooooo short. Less Bling and More Zing.

6. What single song, living or dead, do you most wish you'd written. and Why Didn't You?

"She Loves You." That song sums up everything The Beatles were, in just over two minutes. It has everything: hook, harmony, guitar based pop, exciting performance. To me that is the true first power pop song.

Why did I not write it?? I do not think anyone in America could've written that song at that time. Just purely magic... That would be the song to take on a desert isle if I could only take one. Also in two hundred years' time if you want to hear what all the fuss was about listen to "She Loves You."

…Actually my song "Maryellen" from my new CD The Happy Door is kinda of my own "She Loves You" (to me anyway)!

7. Whose 1961-vintage (originally sonic blue; now psycho-delicately painted with dayglo nail varnish) Fender Stratocaster would you most like to be reincarnated as?

Well George Harrison of course. He was a great song writer and a classy guy. A man full of grace. His playing style and well thought out solos really impress me tons... My fave George song, off the top of my head "What Is Life" or "Beware Of Darkness." There are a lot of good ones...

8. In 2000 words or less, Your hopes, Aspirations and Goals, musical and otherwise, for your life and your country?

You know you have goals and ideas and dreams in your head and then someone asks you to name them and you freeze...

OK HERE GOES.... keep releasing solo CD's and every so often release a Bramble CD (my band with my cousin Lou Anthony a crazy wonderful guy with a heart bigger than his brain, I mean that in a good way). Keep releasing tribute CD's. I would really love to get some of my songs in TV-movie-commercials etc
...MTV is using some in "Roomraiders." Hopefully that is just the tip of the ice berg. I have some other big things happening for me musically, but I have to wait to see if MR.BIG is going to sign the papers... I have songs at advertising agencies and publishers. I got to wait to see what they're going to do.

You know as a kid I had these thoughts that I could do this music thing, and now I am doing it. I really love it and will continue to do it until I can't.

One piece of advice I would like to give: do what you love to do. Do the passion; that is why you are here. Some people say have something to fall back on, well that something is what you end up doing not your passion or love...

Also tour more often, I love playing live. I did a tour of England a while back and I would love to do that again. Also a magazine is doing a story on me in Australia ( South Australia Life, March '06). I would love to tour Oz Land and New Zealand. I am trying to get that together now. Maybe Neil Finn will open some shows for me ...or not!

Best of 2005 for Globo Records, globorecords.net (Spain) 03/2006

10. Chris Von Sneidern – California redemption value


Song List:
1. Maryellen
2. Baby I'm Back
3. Up to You
4. This Autumn
5. More
6. No Words
7. Maybe This Girl
8. It Was You
9. All This Time
10. Disappear
11. Mondays With You
12. The End of Us
13. Number Two

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