dave mason alone together again

​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.
 
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