Mason Interview: Stockton Record

[michelej1]

Stockton Record, November 6, 2008

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.d.../A_ENTERTAIN01

By Tony Sauro
Record Staff Writer
November 06, 2008 6:00 AM
Dave Mason began his latest recording project just to entertain himself.

After all, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member and co-founder of Traffic has been entertaining millions of other people for 42 years.

His six-year writing, recording and producing diversion, however, eventually evolved into Mason's first studio album in, "oh, probably 20 years," he said.

"I was pretty much doing it for my own amusement," said Mason, 62, who brings his veteran four-piece traveling band to Lodi's Hutchins Street Square on Sunday night. "I didn't really give much thought about whether it ever came out, frankly.

"As I sort of progressed along and kept working with it, people at a (record) label - that a very good friend of mine was a partner in - loved the album and wanted to put it out. We arrived at an amicable arrangement."

That resulted in the Oct. 14 release of "26 Letters - 12 Notes" (referring to the alphabet and musical scale), an engaging and appealing mix of pop, rock and blues styles with lots of the guitar riffing that typifies Mason's lengthy career.

"It's just hard to explain," Mason said of the 12-track album on which he worked with 10 co-producers and 30 musicians, including Willie Nelson. "It's not like I can play just blues, country or jazz. It's got bits and pieces of that stuff all over the place. I lean heavily toward songs and things with melodies."

That tilt began in 1967, when he and teenage friend Steve Winwood formed Traffic - which Mason described as "one of the original alterna-rock bands" - with the late Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood.

After playing in several bands (Jaguars, Hellions, Deep Feeling), Mason, from Worcester, England, briefly had been road manager for the Spencer Davis Group, whose lead singer was Winwood.

Something of a contrarian, Mason dropped in and out - and then in and out again - as Traffic recorded its first two albums of psychedelic, baroque and jazzy inventiveness ("Mr. Fantasy" in 1967 and "Traffic" in 1968). He rejoined for one 1971 live album ("Welcome to the Canteen"). That was it.

Mason wrote the London-based band's second U.K. hit single ("Hole in My Shoe," No. 2 in 1967) and "Feelin' Alright," one of Traffic's best-known songs (in versions by Joe Cocker and others), but ultimately wasn't interested in pursuing Winwood's jazzier meanderings.

"You know what? When you're 18 and stuff, you sort of think nothing's gonna end at that age," said Mason in reference to the still-substantial popularity of Traffic. "I don't think there was that much thought given to it, frankly."

After a brief alliance with Delaney & Bonnie (Bramlett), Mason began a solo career that included the 1977 top-20 U.S. hit "We Just Disagree" (written by Jim Krueger) and has continued steadily if unspectacularly. He and his band will do "somewhere around 120-odd" shows this year.

The setlist now includes five songs from the new album, Mason's sturdy hits and three early Traffic tunes ("Feelin' Alright," "Dear Mr. Fantasy" and "40,000 Headmen").

"I've always been more of a live touring band," Mason said during a telephone conversation from a tour stop in New York City. "I suppose part of it is driven by the fact I need to keep my band together as a unit.

"It's not like Chuck Berry going into a town and picking up musicians who know three chords. My stuff is a little more elaborate than that.

"We've always had a great audience following. It's not as big as it was. But I don't have the, per se, hit song out there. It's certainly enough to keep everything going."

Mason also has kept it going with a roster of other Rock and Roll Hall of Fame types.

He once was a member of Fleetwood Mac (1993-95) and performed and recorded with Gram Parsons, Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones and Cass Elliott (Mamas and the Papas), among others.

"All the people I've been lucky enough to work with," said Mason. "There's just a bunch of them. I've been lucky enough to be part of a lot of that stuff, which is great."

Like many of his still-active contemporaries, Mason must contend with the kind of age-ism once blithely invoked by the Who's Pete Townshend: "Hope I die before I get old."

"Just because you're not 18 anymore is not to say there's not good music being made and it's not relevant," said Mason, an Ojai resident who's lived in the U.S. since 1969 and retains only the merest trace of an English accent. "When young people hear us, they're like, 'Wow, that's great. What is that? They actually play.' "

His main refrain remains: "Rock and roll. It's an attitude ... not an age!"

"It speaks for itself," said Mason. "Basically, that's your whole life. It's an attitude. If you have a bad one, you'll get bad results. If you keep a good attitude, hopefully you'll get some positive results.

"Aging and getting old are two different things. Aging is something you can't do anything about - nobody can - but you can do something about getting old."

Touring and entertaining - both himself and his audiences - never gets old.

"Most of it's got to do with the fact that, live, we deliver," Mason said. "I think people remember that. We kind of deliver the goods."