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 John-Alex Mason - Town and Country Naked Jaybird Music, LLC
www.johnalexmason.com
This is the season to be nominating folks to receive a "Keeping The Blues Alive" Award at the 2009 ceremony. Possibly, the sponsor, The Blues Foundation, needs to add one more category: Performer. John-Alex Mason would then be my choice because this young bluesman will turn your head around, literally.
While artists are only eligible for a Blues Music Award and the K.B.A.s are for non-performers, noted guitarist and alum of a Muddy Waters band, Bob Margolin, claims, ""I first heard John-Alex Mason in the distance when he played at the King Biscuit festival in Helena, Arkansas a few years ago. His Delta Blues sounded so right and appropriate... mixed with the echoes of the Blues from the past.... John-Alex was whuppin' it with the fire, passion, and understanding of the language of Blues Music. I had to find out who was playing...."
One has to think that past one-man-and-his-guitar originators like Skip James, Son House, and Robert Johnson would be proud to see their songs and styles furthered into the 21 century by quality artists like a young John-Alex Mason. Personally, I can imagine a wry smile creeping across an early bluesman's face if he could see Mason playing a cigar-box and broom handle "LoweBow" guitar. "What the hell is that thing you got there, boy? Can't you afford no gee-tar?" he might inquire. Of course, Robert Johnson would also be more than a little awed by that electrical amplification stuff.
"Town and Country," the fifth album from Colorado's Mason, contains a mixture of seven originals, five traditional songs, and three Mason arranged covers (Skip James' "Cypress Grove," Elmore James' "Shake Your Money Maker," and Robert Johnson's "Terraplane Blues.") All fifteen songs feature the incredible, wearied singing voice of Mason that one just does not expect from a younger man. With a nasal resonance, his strong voice propels each song, creating an interest matched only by the remarkable rhythm of his instrument playing and Footdrumming.
Mason on a National resonator, steel bodied, Style O guitar, electric guitar, and LoweBow is like a juggler keeping several balls in the air as he keeps several rhythms going simultaneously. By striking the strings with all five fingers, alternately thumbing the bass strings for rhythm and plucking the treble strings for melody lead notes, he can play both simultaneously.
Songwriting: If Mason ever took a composition class in school, I'll bet he scored highly. Imagine an assignment: "Class, poetically express your take on 'home is where the heart is.'" Mason's homework (now found in his song "Bury My Boots"): "'Bury My Boots' baby / By the highway side / I don't want to see another / Greyhound bus to ride." Another assignment: "Class, finish this sentence, 'I miss you more than I miss _?_.'" Mason's homework: "The Sun." Further excellence is found in his song "Strange Things (happening in this world)" where Mason poignantly conveys the idea that true solace is best found in the bosom of a lover.
In John-Alex Mason, one gets the complete package of singer, songwriter, guitar player. Now add the exuberance of youth and the devotion of a blues soul, and voila, this year's winner for keeping the early blues alive.
Reviewer James "Skyy Dobro" Walker is a noted Blues writer, DJ and Blues Blast contributor. His weekly radio show "Friends of the Blues" can be heard each Thursday from 4:30 - 6:00pm on WKCC 91.1 FM in Kankakee, IL

http://www.netrhythms.com/reviews.htmljohnalex

John-Alex Mason - Town And Country (Naked Jaybird Music)
As implied by the title, this is sortof an album of two sides, sure, but unified by Mason's own strong musical personality: as Colorado-born Mason himself puts it, "an album that was true to life, just like me and my live show". Town And Country is a genuinely solo effort, where Mason plays National style O guitar on the "country" tracks and electric guitar, Lowebow cigar-box guitar and foot drums on the "town" cuts. Infused with Mason's passion for creating a personal brand of electrified country-blues (out of the key influences of Robert Johnson, Taj Mahal and Alvin Youngblood Hart in particular), the whole record has an attractively rough-hewn vibe. Yep, this guy really understands the blues, its musical and emotional language. Johnson's Terraplane Blues gets a richly persuasive reading, and yet Mason's own compositions (like the opener Steel Pony Blues, a kinda tribute to Charley Patton, whose Boll Weevil he covers so vitally later on in the disc) turn out to be no less distinguished. I specially rate Strange Things, which says some deep things in a simple but effective way. The "Town" tracks are good too, especially Mason's primitive yet infectiously funky cover of Bukka White's Jitterbug Swing and his "electrified Skip James" revisit of the moody Cypress Grove. The early-Chicago groove of Shake Your Moneymaker translates really well to the one-man-band rig setup too. Whatever he's singing about, Mason's keening vocals really do get into your brain and make their lyric point. OK, in the end, if forced to choose, I'd say the "Country" side wins over the "Town" side for me, but it's marginal and I reckon the two facets of John-Alex Mason are pretty much complementary in a way you don't get with many bluesmen: his respect for the blues tradition is total and unwavering, and his artistry and musicianship stunning in both milieus.

www.johnalexmason.com

David Kidman September 2008

http://www.lahoradelblues.com/criticas.htm

John-Alex Mason "Town & Country". Naked Jaybird Music / BlindRaccoon 2008. Realmente impresionante, John Alex Mason es un jovencísimo cantante y guitarrista que se entrega con pasión y respeto a la música que interpreta, y cuando digo con pasión, me refiero a que pone los cinco sentidos en lo que hace. Mason vive la música y especialmente el blues, con honestidad y convicción. John-Alex canta blues del Delta intentando emular a los viejos 'hollers' con enorme respeto, cariño y atención. De los quince temas que integran este estupendo 'Town & Country' siete son composiciones del propio Mason, el resto son canciones pertenecientes a la tradición de los 'songsters', como Robert Johnson o Charley Patton. Para este disco John Alex ha utilizado guitarra eléctrica y National Style O, mas un 'foot drums' para marcar el tempo con el pie y dar asi un toque percusivo a su repertorio. Este es un trabajo donde Mason explora el presente y el pasado de la 'afro roots music', naturalmente desde la perspectiva de un jovencísimo interprete de blues acústico, conocedor e investigador del folklore mas racial, cuyo conocimiento abarca no sólo el blues del Delta, sino también el de Piedmont o el Hill Country Blues que, aunque poco conocido, no por ello menos importante. Estais ante un gran profesional con un amplio futuro por delante, para desubrir y disfrutar del hipnótico blues, a veces bailable, a veces melancólico de John-Alex Mason. MUY BUENO.  

Really impressive, John Alex Mason is a very young singer and guitar player who passionately and respectfully devotes himself to play the music he loves and when I say passionately i mean he gives his full attention to what he is doing. Mason feels music and specially the blues with conviction and honestry. He sings Delta blues on the path of old hollers and he does it with real love and devotion. Seven of the fifteen songs included on "Town & Country" are Mason's own compositions. The rest belong to songsters tradition artists like were Robert Johnson or Charley Patton. John Alex has chosen electric and National Style O guitars, together with a foot drums to emphatize the songs tempos with his foot to give some percussion strength to his repertoire. The cd also investigates on 'afro roots music' past and present from the point of view of an extremely young acoustic blues musician who loves and already knows race folk music, not only Delta blues but also Piedmont and even Hill Country Blues, a non popular kind of music but really interesting and important. You are facing a good professional musician who is in front of a very interesting future. Discover and enjoy the hypnotic, dancing and sometimes sad John Alex Mason blues. VERY GOOD.

John-Alex Mason

Town and Country

Naked Jaybird Music, LLC

Run Time: 57:46

Do you need a Pre-War Blues Tent Revival? Complete with stinging, sliding steel and a hellfire & brimstone preacher? It's all here in IBC Finalist John-Alex Mason's latest release Town & Country.

The most important themes of the entire album are that no matter where you live the blues is present. Secondly, the album's title suggests the difference in styles of the blues he's playing here. Thirdly, it's about the places. Mason's ability to conceptualize and universalize the prewar sounds of blues and bring them contemporary themes is one of the most brilliant points about the album.

Mason's biography is a natural progression from childhood influences of the church and Led Zeppelin down to Johnny Winter and James Cotton into Columbia Records' release of Robert Johnson recordings. He honed his skills on stages all around the world while working in the Army and met another neo-revivalist Gerry Hundt in college. Here, Mason brings both his one-man band acoustic act and his early influences together.

Mason brilliantly reworks the prewar classics of "Shake 'Em On Down," Robert Johnson's "Terraplane Blues," a reworking of Charley Patton's "Pony Blues" to a more 21st Century context called "Steel Pony Blues," Charley Patton's "Boll Weevil," Bukka White's "Jitterbug Swing," Skip James' "Cypress Grove," and the modern Elmore James "Shake Your Money Maker."

Whether Mason is doing it on his own or with bare minimal help, his guitar playing is dead on gutbucket straight from the Delta Blues. His haunting reworking of Skip James' "Cypress Grove" with electricity is pure genius enough. Then, you throw in "Chef Menteur" which means "big liar" in French, and you have a songwriter who's aware of his surroundings. The song is a superb commentary on the deception of the Katrina disaster and is a brilliant tribute to the city. After that, you can take away an actual event and just hear Mason' commentary on the whole in universal themes like "What Are You Hungry For?" and "Strange Things." Roll all that away for a second and hear the stripped down but amp charged rendition of "Money Maker" and you'll just want to dance.

Mason has got it all here in pre-war styling. You've got the Mississippi Hill Stomp sound of "Locomotive," and at one point in the song you can probably almost hear the chuga-chuga of the wheels next to you in your speakers. Mason's voice has a lot of depth belying his age. It's a mix between a howl soaked in gin and white lightning and gravel gruff. It suits him well and this body of work well because it shows great character, individuality, and the most important thing to pre-war acoustic blues: emotion! Most of the songs are double that in time to their originals, giving space for Mason to demonstrate his superb ability in this style. For me, he has presented something that very few can reproduce repeatedly which is the highly emotive roots of all American music, the pure solo acoustic blues.
Posted by Ben the Harpman at 8:20 PM
Labels: CD Reviews

Review by Scott Yanow

4.5 Stars

An important new voice in the blues, John-Alex Mason has a powerful and eerie voice and a quiet but emotional guitar style that is a throwback to the country blues greats of the 1930s. Early on, he was greatly affected by seeing concerts by Johnny Winter and James Cotton and, although he earned a degree in conservation biology, he found playing the blues to be much more creative. He won the Telluride Acoustic Blues Competition in 2001, developed into a teacher of the blues, worked one summer as a street musician on Memphis' Beale Street, and since then has worked with many of the who's who of blues musicians. Based in Denver, Mason is in brilliant form throughout Town and Country. While he performs revived classics by Skip James, Elmore James, and Robert Johnson ("Terraplane Blues") and a few traditional numbers, more than half the selections on Town and Country are his originals, so he is building on the legacy of the blues rather than just repeating the past. Lovers of the country blues will certainly love this impressive effort.

Blues Revue, April/May 2008, pg 51-52, By Art Tipaldi

Don’t let those boyish looks fool you. John-Alex Mason’s voice sounds like comes from another time and place; its mature, smoky curl jumps from the speakers with a density many singers spend years trying to achieve. Mason’s songs take his listeners on a journey through long, back-breaking days and hot juke-joint nights. One listen and you’ll hear pure Delta blues truth reincarnated in this young soul. But Mason is no novice to the blues scenc; in 2001 he won the Telluride Acoustic Blues Competition, and in 2004 he copped the Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival’s prestigious Most Promising Emerging Artist award.
Town and Country, Mason’s fifth solo release, offers faithfully rendered country blues chestnuts alongside original tunes crafted by an artist who deeply loves everything Delta and Piedmont. The disc’s title refers to the two styles on display here; Eight tunes feature Mason digging into his National steel, while seven "town songs" spotlight earthy dance grooves. The disc opens with a droning one-man-band of Mississippi’s Fred McDowell’s "Shake ’em On Down" before turning down a country lane for "Steel Pony Blues," Mason’s modern derivation of every pony song since Charley Patton’s "Pony Blues." On "Bury My Boots," Mason borrows floating verses from Robert Johnson’s "Me and the Devil," and on "Chef Menteur," he sings of the hard rain that fell on New Orleans in 2005. (The literal translation of "chef menteur" is "chief liar," and Mason uses the French phrase to address government-sponsored lies that haunt that national disaster.)
"Locomotive" and "What Are You Hungry For?" are raw Hill Country howls, and "Rabbit Song" rewrites a rural folk tale.
A penetrating look into Skip James’ "Cypress Grove" might be the finest work here, with Mason’s moans and trance-like guitar echoes totally dialing into the world of Bentonia. He covers Elmore James’ "Shake Your Money Maker" and Bukka White’s "Jitterbug Swing" with unbridled enthusiasm, and the disc ends as it began, with "Shake ’em On Down," this time in a drumless version. Mason is one to watch.

The Audiophile Voice, Volume 12, Issue 6 By Don Wilcox

I’D LIKE TO BELIEVE John-Alex Mason’s Town and Country is reflective of a fundamental shift happening right now in an American society that is breaking away from the kind of prejudices that cause people to judge others’ abilities to lead – or in this case offer a musical message – based on their color, gender and age. Specifically, Mason’s fifth full-length recording is a 15-cut CD that is one of the most effective examples I’ve heard recently to offer proof against some of the most persistent prejudices that have dogged the blues genre for most of the last millennium.
Prejudice no. 1: A white man can’t sing and play the blues. Mason comes out of the same school as R. L. Burnside and Hound Dog Taylor on an album that features a "town" portion and a "country" portion. With 15 cuts total, the "town" numbers are performed with electric guitar, lowebow and foot drums, and he fits comfortably into the Skip James framework with "country" songs done on a National Style O guitar. John Hammond has spent 45 years countering complaints from some critics that he’s imitating a black voice. Mason sounds more down-home than Hammond, and if Watermelon Slim can get away with it, so can Mason.
Prejudice no. 2: A young person has to pay his dues to play and sing the blues. Mason puts enough spaces between the notes to be mistaken for an 85-year-old rural Mississippi blues guitarist in a blindfold test, and his lyrics have not only the wisdom of a much older man, but the simple imagery of an avuncular uncle.
Prejudice no. 3: White blues artists are stealing and cleaning up the black heritage and cleaning up in general with a mass audience. This album will never compete with Kenny Wayne Shepherd for mass appeal. Crossing over is obviously not his intent. While Mason has a rocker’s heart, his delivery is straight-ahead; he give us realdeal blues which demonstrate he has learned more from his elders than how to execute guitar chords.
Prejudice no.4: Blues is not pretty. Mason is blond, blueeyed and he looks like he bathes regularly.
Prejudice no. 5: Blues must … or must not … change to survive. (Pick your prejudice.) Blues will survive because the best blues reflects the passion of the artist from within. The idea that change, in and of itself, regardless of what that change is, determines longevity, is as hollow in music as it is in politics. Show me the meat. John-Alex does just that. He is both creates original songs and changes traditional songs to communicate his view of the world, but he’s doing it from a framework that is traditional in sound and tone with original lyrics that deserve the same decoding as 19thcentury field hollers and spirituals with their metaphors and hidden meanings. Mason’s lyrics touch the same heart strings and fundamental, unvarnished truisms as Willie Dixon’s. He may not have slept under a hollow log, but his godmother Viola Marigna got enough of that old Baptist religion into his head and heart that he’s been able to infuse into his lyrics the same kind of "code" that the lyrics of old spirituals carried for slaves seeking escape. Much of the music over the last 100 years is in code. Rockers sing in code for youngsters seeking the forbidden fruit under the watchful eyes of parents. Hip-hop artists are more straight-forward in their sexual braggadocio, but the words themselves take on a code often with ironic meanings, e.g. where "bad" means "good." And jazz and funk artists speak in their own hipster funk lingo, but few white artists outside of Dr. John have met the black blues fundamentalists in code on their own ground with the depth of understanding that Mason does.
On "Rabbit Song" Mason can sum up the problems of the world where everyone sees others only as they relate to their own perspective and how that myopia causes misunderstanding. The coyote may eat the rabbit, but he’s also dead meat in the sights of a rancher’s 30.06 rifle.
In the press release accompanying the album, Mason comments on "Cypress Grove" by Skip James. His comments on the song are in themselves a rationale for not persecuting the musician who delivers the song if he doesn’t match the stereotype of what’s expected. "Skip (James) sang it in the winter of his life," says Mason, "and the meaning changes significantly when sung by a young man. That is one of the reasons that I love revisiting some of these old tunes; often the double entendres shift meaning with a change in time and place or artist."
On "Chef Menteur," he integrates the horror of Hurricane Katrina into a fundamental view of New Orleans that is neither horrific nor glorifying, but instead enlightening in its vision of a culture that is disparate and unique in America: "Sachmo and Kermit / Dr. Professor and Fats / The Swede with the need / Strutting moccasin spats."
Two of the "town" songs, "Shake ’Em On Down" and "Locomotive," offer the kind of primal mantras that I’d expect from a guy who’s been hangin’ out on Beale with Richard Johnston. "Shake ’Em On Down" bookends the album with a version in the beginning that features percussion and one without at the end of the CD, both valid. I keep hearing Rory Block in my head when I listen to "Steel Pony." Rory complained that it took her 30 years of playing old Delta blues before she could begin to write like that, and this young guy sounds like he was working as Charley Patton’s co-writer on the tune concerning his car which has an "engine like a junkie /always wanting more."
By Don Wilcox The Audiophile Voice, Volume 12, Issue 6

http://www.bluenight.com/BluesBytes/wn0208.html

It's still January as I write this, and already I have a strong contender for my favourite blues CD of 2008!Town & Country is the first that I've heard of John-Alex Mason, a Colorado native who recorded his album in Boulder, but I'm hoping that I'll be hearing a lot more of him.

Seven of the 15 tracks on the CD are originals, the remainder being copies of mainly traditional old blues – it's not easy to choose between them for a favourite, as the originals are all well-written and performed.
However, I have (just) managed to pick out a favourite, and it's only really because I've liked every version of it that I've ever heard, making it just about my favourite blues song of all time – "Shake 'Em On Down." And, I should be so lucky, there are TWO versions of it on this CD!!

Some of the original songs are as good as any traditional old blues, and they show that this musician has a real feel for the blues, especially traditional country blues.

The CD opens and closes with versions of "Shake 'Em On Down," which I've already made mention of, and then goes into two Mason originals, "Steel Pony Blues" and "Bury My Boots." The latter could easily be taken from a 1930s bluesman's songbook, it has so much atmosphere. There are covers of "Terraplane Blues" (Robert Johnson), "Cypress Grove" (Skip James), "Shake Your Moneymaker" (Elmore James), and the traditional "Jitterbug Swing," "Boll Weevil" and "Milk Cow Blues," and a great mix of songs written by John Alex Mason.

The feel the whole way through the CD is of quality, mainly country-style blues played in an authentic style that would do credit to many of the big bluesmen of the 40s and '50s.

To see a photo of John Alex Mason, and then relate the face to the voice, is very difficult – he looks like a surfer, but sounds as though he's at least 60 years old! But, make no mistake, this guy can write and sing the blues with the best of them – and he deserves a wide audience.Buy this CD and enjoy!

http://www.madmacreations.com/bluesreviews/

February 26, 2008
John-Alex Mason Town/Country (Naked Jaybird)
--This album begs the question: What if God gave us Robert Johnson, and nobody cared? We already know the answer to the reciprocal solypsism: What if we made a beautiful city, and our leaders let it wash away.

Because, as I keep saying, a Pete Seeger CD has the same carbon footprint as a Flo Rida record. Your music can be used as a torture device , regardless of whether you are Bruce Springsteen or Metallica. But the Blues fights back, don't it? There has always been an undercurrent in American Popular music that sustains the spirit and makes all the negative passions simmer instead of explode. No matter what horror gnashes at the soul along the dark road, our heritage always causes us to whistle at it.

One day, when all the oil runs out, when electricity is rationed and only soldiers can afford media devices, there will still be voices like John-Alex Mason. He is one of those artists who will, like Picasso once said, paint in the dust with his tongue. And he is as desperately welcome today as Robert Johnson and his compatriots were back when it all started.

Mason was a finalist in the Solo/Duo category of the 2008 International Blues Challenge. He may not have won, but I believe he earned huge recognition for potentially infusing new energy into American Roots music. His eerie voice and haunting guitar resurrect that spooky, swampy sound of drunken juke joints. He reinterprets (and thus repossesses) traditional delta blues songs, while his original songs sound like they came from the exact same place. And where do those songs lead us? Ahh... there is the real question, isn't it? That is the question that all masterpieces should make us ask.

Title: Town and Country
Label: Naked Jaybird Music NJBM -006
For more information go to
www.johnalexmason.com
www.nakedjaybirbmusic.com
www.bluesartstudio.at
John is a native of Colorado and during his childhood and teenage years there, he had three very
different influences that would have very singular and significant effects on his future musical
direction; The first of these was the day when his elder brother introduced him to the exotic,
evocative sounds of the second Led Zeppelin album, secondly, his godmother Viola Marignas'
voice, for she sang regardless of whether she was in attendance at her local Baptists church or
not, also the massed choir concerts and meetings where the Baptist and gospel voice could be
heard at its best. As he says, "how powerful the smell of heavy perfume and anticipation was at
Viola's church." Lastly, in his teens he was showing an interest in blues records, but the clincher
was two separate blues concerts that he attended at Colorado College; one by the guitarist Johnny
Winter and the other, by harp player James Cotton; two artists that had a singular connection to
Muddy Waters, in that Johnny Winter was the producer/player of Muddys' album "Hard Again,"
(which, at the time John was currently listening to) and James Cotton; who is featured on the
album and was also part of Muddys band.
After this experience John was determined to perform the blues; whilst at college John teamed up
with Gerry Hundt (currently with Nick Moss & the Flip Tops) to play live concerts, but, after starting
work with a military contractor in Germany John found that being a multi- instrumentalist in his
spare time was a satisfying outlet for his musical aspirations and after spending a good deal of
time plying his busking trade in the cities of Germany, France and Holland he found that finally his
musical skills and natural persona were becoming finely tuned, honed and fully developed.
After returning to America John spent his time over the last six years teaching slide guitar,
recording and performing at festivals and concerts up and down the country; with this album we
hear the culmination of many years of hard work and endeavour. Of the fifteen tracks on offer here
seven are original compositions the others are old numbers but with the addition of original twists.
John's vocals bring to mind a slow southern drawl with gravelly inflections, crossed with what can
only be described as the cold, hungry plaintive emotion of a Native American Indian, spine-tingling
yet somehow comforting. To accompany this astounding vocal he uses the combination of; electric
guitar, Loewbow & foot drums and National Style O guitar.
The deeply rich and lush guitar sounds created here reminds one of long hot summer afternoons
lazing under the plentiful swaying braches of a shade giving tree and nights of energetic country
dances in isolated rural juke joints.
John's re-creation of the rural delta sound is simply staggering and emotion filled, his pace and
inflections inexorably draws you in to the very heart of the numbers. On the more upbeat numbers
you find various parts of your body involuntarily strumming and tapping out the beat.
This album is a very, very fine addition to the delta/country/ roots genre; an essential sound that
never should be forgotten.
----- Brian Harman

http://www.bluesartstudio.at/NeueSeiten/CDReview+2008+Jan+Feb.html