The Acorn 4/9/2015 By Stephanie Bertholdo
http://www.theacorn.com/news/2015-04...he_Canyon.html
Legendary rocker Dave Mason returns to The Canyon
Fabled rocker Dave Mason is coming back to The Canyon club in Agoura Hills on Sun., April 12. He’s played the venue several times before and always draws raucous applause from his devoted baby boomer followers.
A founding member of Traffi c, the legendary British rock band with such early hits as “Dear Mr. Fantasy” and “Feelin’ Alright,” Mason later went solo and found recording success with other rock and roll legends.
A guitarist, songwriter and soloist, Mason talked with The Acorn about the long and winding road that has led him back to The Canyon.
“We’ve been out doing the Traffic Jam tour,” Mason said. “It basically kind of turned into more or less a show, going from early Traffic days all the way through (my) current stuff. It’s a musical travelogue of my life at this point.”
Mason said in addition to the live music, his April 12 Canyon show will feature a photographic montage on a large stage screen and commentary from himself about rock’s glory years.
Mason is not only a master musician and vocalist, but an apt storyteller. If you’ve lived through the ‘60s, you know where he’s coming from.
Mason said one of his fondest memories involves the formation of Traffic in 1967. He was barely out of his teens when he started the legendary British group with Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, and Chris Wood.
It was truly uncanny how a few square miles of English turf could have produced such rock ‘n roll royalty, he says.
“Basically I was doing what I was doing,” he said. “I couldn’t really give a damn. I had no worries. The first song I ever wrote (‘Hole in My Shoe’) was a really big hit.”
The hugely popular single “Feelin’ Alright” defined Mason’s early success, but he also pointed out, “(The song) became great after Joe Cocker performed it.”
Mason’s personality and musical style soon ran counter to that of Winwood and Capaldi.
“I left after the first year,” he said. “I couldn’t deal with it, frankly.”
A guitarist, singer and songwriter, Mason recorded his own version of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” and also did it with friend Jimi Hendrix on his 1968 masterpiece album, “Electric Ladyland.”
Pursuing a moderately successful solo career, Mason went on tour with Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett, a married musical duo that just happened to have guitarist Eric Clapton playing alongside.
Finding his main niche behind the scenes, Mason collaborated with Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones, Graham Nash, Stephen Stills, Rita Coolidge, Leon Russell, Ron Wood and Mama Cass Elliot. He appears on George Harrison’s first solo effort, “All Things Must Pass,” and was second guitarist for the group Derek and the Dominos.
Fast-forwarding to the present, Mason says changes in the music industry have been disconcerting.
“The Internet just killed it,” he said, referring to the ease in which fans can still snatch songs for free online.
Music, he said, used to be introduced on the radio as fans waited on the edge of their seats to hear the latest songs from their musical heroes.
Profits from album sales are virtually non-existent today, and the only way a musician can make a living is to perform live, he said.
“It was a tough road before,” Mason said of the music industry’s control over album sales. Now, he says, “All that’s left is live.”
But playing live is perhaps what Dave Mason does best.
To attend one of his shows is to relive the glory days of rock ‘n roll.
And Mason loves it.
Last year he performed in 110 shows and has the same extensive tour schedule notched out again this year.
“As long as I can do it, I’ll keep doing it,” he said. “I’m just doing what I do, and that’s it. I think at this point, I can’t change the world.”
Mason is working on a new CD, and preparing to move from his current Ojai home to Carson City, Nevada.
Mason’s goal for his concerts?
“To have people walk out of there in a better mood than when they walked in,” he said.
And that’s not hard to do.