Dave Mason - Alone Together and Everywhere

Dave Mason - Alone Together and Everywhere

Dave Mason - Alone Together and Everywhere
A conversation with classic rock’s omnipresent auteur
(by Lee Zimmerman)
 
It would be difficult to overestimate the emphatic imprint that Dave Mason had on the whole of the Rock era trajectory from the 1960s through the 1970s. It began with his often-tumultuous turn in Traffic, a band that found him contributing any number of classic songs to their early repertoire (“Hole In My Shoe”, “You Can All Join In”, and, most famously “Feelin’ Alright?” (carried into the musical mainstream by Joe Cocker) only to drift in and out of its ranks in its early years. So too, his contributions to such stand-alone albums as The Rolling Stones’ Beggars Banquet, Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland, George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, and Venus and Mars by Paul McCartney and Wings, as well as collaborations with Eric Clapton, Graham Nash and David Crosby, Cass Elliot, Fleetwood Mac, Delaney and Bonnie, an early incarnation of Derek and the Dominoes, Family, and former bandmate Jim Capaldi, not to mention his widely heralded debut solo album Alone Together and  later, his massive hit “We Just Disagree” (written by guitarist Jim Krueger) add up to a body of work that’s among the most formidable in modern music.
 
So too, the sheer expanse of Dave Mason’s career, from his early beginnings in the otherwise obscure outfit The Hellions through to a moderately successful solo career and a spate of individual albums that include Let It Flow, Mariposa de Oro, Crest on a New Wave, Some Assembly Required, Two Hearts, 26 Letters 12 Notes, Future's Past, and his most recent offering, Alone Together Again, all but ensured his continuing presence in the decades beyond. Likewise, his constant touring serves as a reminder that when it comes to classic rock, Mason will always be in the mainstream.
 
In recent years, Mason’s switched up his style. While he still tours continuously and performs on music themed cruises — he’s next scheduled to perform on the ‘“70s Rock and Romance Cruise” this March — he’s also taking a cue from the Blues, beginning with a tour taken with Steve Cropper in 2018 and an upcoming Blues album that finds him duetting with Joe Bonamassa on the Traffic standby “Dear Mr. Fantasy”.
 
The Alternate Root recently had the opportunity to speak with the marvelous Mister Mason about his musical journey, from past to present. Having interviewed him in the past, we can honestly say he’s a most unassuming icon who seems to have taken his success in stride. He’s also seems to be an omnipresent individual, much like that lead character in the TV show Quantum Leap who’s continually landing up in past situations while trying to maintain his connection to the present.
An upcoming memoir that details his many musical encounters ought to help shed life on an amazing career. Nevertheless, Mason sounded reluctant when the subject was raised. ‘The book is coming out hopefully in May, quote and it’s available for preorder at Dave Mason music.com’ he said. ‘It's basically my life with all those little highlights from my career, from my upbringing to the various collaborations that I've done and what really happened with Traffic and stuff like that. I was badgered into doing it. If left to my own devices, I probably wouldn't have done it, especially if it had been left up just purely to me. It would never have been done’.
On the other hand, Mason seems willing to explore his past quite willingly. His upcoming Traffic Jam tour finds him replaying the songs that helped that band establish the template for psychedelia and a form of British Folk, among them, “Dear Mr. Fantasy” and “Low Spark of High Heeled Boys”, a song recorded by his former colleagues well after he left the band.
‘I do some of the songs in my set anyway’ he replied about the choice of material. Plus, I’ve got revisited versions of some of them on my upcoming Blues album. There's a version of ‘Dear Mr. Fantasy” that Joe Bonamassa and I recorded. Plus, there’s a Blues version of ‘Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys’ with me and Joe that will be on a Blues album I’ve done called A Shade of the Blues. ‘Dear Mr. Fantasy’ has been out for a couple of months’.
 
Nevertheless, it’s mentioned that it does seem rather gracious of him to be sharing songs that he wasn’t given credit for co-writing, especially considering his on and off relationship with the band and former bandmate Steve Winwood in particular. ‘I think the legacy of the band is worth keeping alive’ he replies. ‘Besides, my versions are radically different from the ones that they did’.
 
Naturally, the classic song that he did write, which was recorded by Traffic early on, is one he’s obligated to perform regardless of the context, is his standard, “Feelin’ Alright?”. ‘We’ll also be doing another one of mine, ‘You Can All Join In’. They’ll mostly be mine, but a lot of them are things that Capaldi and Winwood wrote.  A lot of them haven't been played live in years’.
 
Along with the covers, the new album will contain a limited number of Mason originals. ‘There are some original songs, maybe three or four or five or so on there’, Mason mused. “To be honest, it’s been a while since I looked at the track list. I don't have a list in front of me. But there are some originals on there that actually were on some CDs that I put out myself maybe ten, twelve or fifteen years ago, but I’m doing it because next to nobody really heard them’.
 
When we last met Mr. Mason, it was when he was a guest for the On the Blue Cruise which is curated by Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues. At the time he was touting a new/old album, Alone Together Again, a complete remake of. His classic solo debut. Asked about the reaction he received, his response is typically understated, and, we daresay, somewhat cynical.
 
‘The problem is that making records is frankly an exercise in futility’ he groused. ‘Everybody's stealing everything. It’s destroyed intellectual property. There are no record sales anymore. So, the only thing left is what I’ve been doing since I was 16. And that’s playing shows. That’s where we're at for everybody. I make stuff because when I'm at home, I have a studio. And I like to make stuff. Basically, the stuff that I make is usually what I'm going to take the shows. Plus, we make it available through the through the website and iTunes and all that stuff. But there's no more gold and platinum albums. But you have to remember that if you pay $35 for vinyl, it’s about they were when vinyl was the main thing, because $35 is about what $3.50 was back then’.
 
On the other hand, any discussion involving Dave Mason can’t help but veer into the realms of nostalgia. And yet, for Mason himself, sentiment doesn’t seem any sort of obsession.
 
‘I don't really think about it unless I'm doing an interview, like the one I’m doing with you’ he said. ‘So no, I don't really spend much time dwelling on the past’’.
 
Listen and buy the music of Dave Mason from his Sales site
 
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