Environment plays a big part in perception. The basic album tracks for Ha Ha Tonka's latest effort, ‘Death of A Decade’, were laid out in a two hundred year old barn in New Paltz, about eighty north of New York City. You can imagine the thirty foot ceiling capturing every note, letting the tones take shape organically. Lead singer Brian Roberts wanted to seal in what they were creating, “We wanted to make sure we left in all the imperfections of the barn such as the chairs squeaking and the boards creaking”.
Once the band had shaped the songs, the tracks were worked up back to their native Missouri and fine tuned for release. The place where country meets city, the recordings meet the studio, open spaces meets cramped quarters holds a mirror up to some of the observations in ‘Death of A Decade”. The path that takes us from youth into responsibility receives a look over on the album. The views of that passage come veiled in the story of hill fires roaring, brutally cleansing life (“Jesusita”) as choired voices intone “Heaven Help Us All”. In “Westward Bound”, the travelers path towards the setting sun (“Hard times, we left them back east, the future moves under our feet”)parallels the years that 
have piled up to form a life (“I realize that youth is wasted on the young. Oh, I know that now my wasting days are done.”). Given the subject matter, Roberts again weighs in to remind us that ‘Death Of A Decade’ is not about lost youth but a way to embrace the notion that the passage of time is better than the alternative
Ha Ha Tonka have homegrown wisdom at their back. The band calls the Ozark area of Missouri home. Their geography lands them in the south; their branding of sound marries Southern Rock by default with a strong sense of Indie’s future. The hum of mountain mandolins alongside the commitment of headstrong rhythms. Angular riffs that bend around emotive vocals that pipe feeling into the literary textures of the lyrics.
While their minds and bodies handle the change of years, Ha Ha Tonka stay 
in motion. The Missouri state park that grants title to the band for a name may seem like their only tie in days of touring that pegs home base. The band has played SXSW, CMJ, Sundance Film Fest and Lollapalooza as well as supporting tours by Cross Canadian Ragweed, Old 97’s, Langhorne Slim among others. The guys of Ha Ha Tonka are no strangers to the fluidity of calendar days going by. As they point out on “Made Example of”, “if you don’t watch out where you’re going, you’re going to wind up right where you’re headed”.
‘Death of A Decade’ is the sound of a band stretching its skin out to accept change and grow. For more on Ha Ha Tonka, their website offers touring information, music and prominently displayed paths for social networking.
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