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![]() Dave Mason (from the album Alone Together Again available on BMG) Fledgling Rock radio began in earnest in the late 1960’s. The available records featuring album cuts for the format becoming champions of the FM underground. British band Traffic was one of the artists whose music became a staple on early Rock radio and when guitarist Dave Mason left the band to go solo, his debut Alone Together, was well-received by the format. The album was stacked with A-list players, featuring Leon Russell on keyboards, Traffic’s Jim Capaldi, future Derek’s Domino’s, and Delaney & Bonnie alumni, Carl Radle and Jim Gordon, as well as backing vocals that included Bonnie Bramlett, Rita Coolidge, and Claudia Lennear. Full disclosure, the Alone Together album was a staple for this writer when he and teenage bud Drew Goss cruised late night streets. The same can be said for the album’s author, with Dave Mason citing ‘I’ve played these songs for the better part of 50 years because I love them. I re-recorded the whole album because I still feel inspired by the music. This makes Alone Together Again a true labor of love. Some things I know for sure; music is relationship and love is best when shared. That is the whole conceptual play of Alone Together’. For Alone Together Again, Dave Mason does not mimic the cuts from the original. His understanding of the songs has grown over the five decades and Alone Together Again mirrors the emotions that have affected the musician, and by extension, his songs. “As Sad and As Deep as You” is a painful memory, Spanish-flavored guitar lines peppering the Folk Rock of the tune. The organ huffing in the opening of “Look at You, Look at Me” extolls deeper breaths as the groove of the song goes low and rough, taking the feel of the original 1970 storyline from a tender request to a desperate cry. There is a familiarity to opening cut “Only You Know and I Know” heard in the chord strums with Dave Mason’s vocal slightly more accusatory while “Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave” keeps its beat as the melody drifts through hazy psychedelia. The original 1970 release needed no polishing or primping, and Dave Mason has made no attempt to better the record as he introduces Alone Together Again with maturity in words and music due from a vintage age. “Waitin’ on You” stays true to both its hurried beat and original delivery as “Can’t Stop Worrying, Can’t Stop Loving” layers a dreamy flow over the swaying groove while “Just a Song” backs the story with prominent banjo picking and “World in Changes” steps to island rhythms. For the 1970 release, 30% of the albums were released on marble vinyl. To mirror and celebrate the process, Alone Together Again features CD discs in the same marble pattern. Listen and buy the music of Dave Mason from AMAZON For
2 Comments
drewski
1/9/2021 03:21:44 pm
ah yes....Love the memories of those late night cruises with you, raymond & others. thanks for stirring the flashback pot brother danny! miss you & Love you! d'ski
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Michael Farrell
1/9/2021 10:39:59 pm
Like a lot of people my age who still lug guitars around and worry about humidification levels in the wood, I remember the original album from my student years at Holy Cross. A guy down the hall named Phil Sullivan whom I believe went to med school and I would play together a couple of times a week and he had tabs from somebody for Shouldn't Have Took More and Sad and Deep as You. I was able to figure out a way to play Feelin Alright which wasn't particularly exciting from a skill set but it was kind of cool for me at the time. Traffic wasn't as approachable after Mason left and most guys i knew didn't play the records that often. John Barleycorn Must Die was probably the most popular of the Traffic's albums. The version of Feeling Alright that most people would listen to was from Mad Dogs and Englishmen. The Steven Winwood that we all knew was the guy who played Organ and Guitar and Sang in Spencer Davis Group. Blind Faith woke us all up; I actually got interested in Steve Winwood the first time I heard "Back in the High Life Again."Mason hasn't been as great as everybody expected him to be, but he has been playing ever since, and he's a good musician. Only You and Me is one of my favorite songs, and as a middle aged man skating on the thin ice of being ancient, I kind of wish Phil and I could sit down sometime and see what we could still play together.
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