Songfacts®:

• Treaty Oak Revival's lead singer and primary songwriter Sam Canty wrote "Happy Face" about missing his wife when he's away touring. Think of it as the Texan cousin of songs like "Faithfully" by Journey or "Here Without You" by 3 Doors Down.
• Touring, as any musician will tell you, is equal parts adventure and gloom: you're out seeing America, but your heart is back home doing the dishes without you. The song opens with Canty describing that familiar stomach-drop moment when you hug your loved one goodbye, but the chorus is where the song earns its title and its sting.
  
  I watch the breakers break
  Put on my happy face
  
  The weight of Canty's longing for his wife feels like waves crashing over him, but he masks his melancholy with a smile to hide this feeling from those around him.
• Canty wrote "Happy Face" the day the Treaty Oak Revival released their second album, Have a Nice Day. Washed over by homesickness in Gulf Shores, he began scribbling lines on a scrap of paper, including, "Okay, I f---ing love and you know sometimes I miss you too," which was the starting point for "Happy Face."
  
  "I had called my wife," Canty told Rolling Stone. "We had been on the road for a long time through the Southeast and I hadn't seen her in a while. I hung up the phone, and the guys were all in a restaurant. I remember thinking, It's crazy that here I am having the time of my life with my friends, but I am wishing I was with my wife, wishing my family was here."