★★★★★
Light and darkness spar with each other throughout Lessons, the striking new album by indie-Americana quartet Ha Ha Tonka. The music is lively and joyous, as rich as anything the band has produced before. The lyrics, though, ponder the corrosive effects of time -- how the passing of years tends to bleed the color right out of us, to paraphrase one of the songs on the album. Ha Ha Tonka's reputation has grown steadily over the course of its first three records...
- www.popmatters.com
2013-10-11
★★★★★
Despite much moaning and groaning to the contrary, it is actually a pretty good time for rock and roll. It is a rich genre that still embraces its indie spirit and cherishes both its diversity and unique sound. Lately, a number of rock and roll bands have been turning their hands to music that is more country inspired. Certainly, it is nothing new to have country music mixed with rock, or even country music blended with Grunge. Ha Ha Tonka is a bit different...
- www.roughstock.com
2011-05-16
★★★★★
A few facts about Springfield, Missouri's favorite sons Ha Ha Tonka. Despite their moniker, they're not a goofy barroom band, though they call Bloodshot home and can bring the rock when the situation demands it. They're really more of a singer-songwriter-y, folk-y, indie rock-with-a-mandolin band these days. Second, these guys really know how to give an album an evocative title ('07's Buckle in the Bible Belt, '09's Nove Sounds of the Nouveau South and now Death of a Decade)...
- www.popmatters.com
2011-04-25
★★★★★
Rock criminally neglects the mandolin, an instrument too often relegated to album-ending acoustic ballads or cash-in unplugged records. So the high, tight strums stand out on Ha Ha Tonka's third album, Death of a Decade, as Brett Anderson plays the lead riffs on "Usual Suspects," lending the song an aerodynamism that makes it an ideal opener. Elsewhere, he shades in the songs the way an artist might use a pencil to add subtle shadow...
- www.pastemagazine.com
2011-04-11
★★★★★
Ha Ha Tonka is the name of a state park full of natural bridges, sandstone cliffs, caves and a castle - well, the ruins of a castle, anyway - in southwestern Missouri. It's also the (terrible) name of a (terrific) band from Springfield, Missouri, whose new album, Buckle in the Bible Belt, is an infectious one, rife with sanctified four-part harmonies and blistering southern-style rock riffage...
- www.hour.ca
2010-11-02
★★★★★
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- spin.com
2010-08-25
★★★★★
The inspiration for Novel Sounds of the Nouveau South comes from the 1907 novel The Shepherd of the Hills. Like that novel's protagonist, Ha Ha Tonka spend this album wandering through the South, mining bloody pasts and personal demons in search of some hope for the future, some slight redemption. As themes shift, so does the sound of the record, making for an album that is both eclectic and dark, moving through blues and folk traditions at every turn...
- www.prefixmag.com
2009-07-03
★★★★★
Like most complex organisms, bands have a distinct evolutionary cycle. Buckle in the Bible Belt, the initial offering from Missouri rockers Ha Ha Tonka, finds the band at the puppy stage of its development: eager to please, zipping from one place to the next, prone to making a lot of noise. The members of Ha Ha Tonka deliver each song with an exuberance that demonstrates the sheer amount of energy they put into their music...
- www.prefixmag.com
2009-06-08
★★★★★
Ha Ha Tonka, formerly known as Amsterband, is a band from Springfield, Misssouri. The name Ha Ha Tonka comes from a state park in the Ozarks; Amsterband was, presumably, a nod to the Dutch capital city and, speculatively, perhaps an homage of sorts to Heineken and/or weed. (The name-change was a good call, guys.) Springfield is the Show Me State's third-largest city (pop...
- www.popmatters.com
2009-03-21