Ray Mason gets his due
by Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., May 14, 1999) - Usually you have to be incredibly famous or dead to be the subject of a tribute album - a recording of your songs performed by various artists who thereby publicly pay homage to your influence.

Ray Mason is neither famous nor dead. Instead, Mason -- who is indeed the subject of a recent tribute album and who is celebrating the release of a brand-new album of his own with a show tonight at LaCocina in Pittsfield - falls into the rarified category of unsung legend. As the tribute, "It's Heartbreak That Sells" (Tar Hut), makes clear, Mason is a songwriter of enormous breadth and depth who has touched the lives of countless fans and musicians.

"This is a man who loves music for its own sake," said Wolf Krakowski, a Northampton singer-songwriter on whose recordings Mason plays electric bass. "His humility and friendliness are very refreshing. And when I'm in Nashville, the fact that Ray played bass on my CDs gives me a sort of instant cachet when talking with other musicians."

Jim Armenti, who in one form or another has played in bands with Mason for the last 15 years, echoed Krakowski. "His total devotion to music separates him from everyone else -- the amount of miles he logs and the number of clubs he plays, he'll just go anywhere to play if it seems like people will pay attention and listen," said Armenti, who performs Mason's song "Mister Albert" on the tribute album.

Of Mason's songs, Armenti said, "They creep up on you. They seem like the simplest of songs, but then once it gets done and you sit back and listen, there's always something quirky or unique, something that distinguishes them from a million others that would have gone the same way. And he writes about anything and everything."

Armenti, who currently performs with Mason in the Lonesome Brothers, also paid tribute to Mason as a musician. "He's a fabulous bass player. It's just a blast playing with him. Nobody does anything like Ray does. Playing with him is like a dialogue with nothing set in stone."

"Ray has always been real supportive," said Cheri Knight, a Stockbridge native who is now a performing and recording artist in Hatfield, and who has recorded with Mason and also appears on the tribute album. "He's just been a good friend and a great human being.

"Music is such a competitive business and it doesn't bring the best out of a lot of people, but someone like Ray makes it all worthwhile. Everybody likes him. It's really rare to find somebody who everyone will say something nice about. I'm really happy people are beginning to realize what a great songwriter he is.

On the tribute album, King Radio turns in a retro-new-wave version of "Step Back Melody," while Steve Westfield and the Slow Band deliver "I'm Only Human" as a tender, vulnerable soul ballad. Knight makes "Down in the Night" a plaintive, old-fashioned country ballad, while the Incredible Casuals deliver a classic-rocking version of "Between Blue and Okay."

None of this genre-hopping will come as a surprise to any fan of Mason. For three decades, the Pioneer Valley-based rocker has been plying his meat-and-potatoes approach to rock 'n' roll on the New England club circuit. It's an approach which embraces country, soul, pop, punk, surf and rockabilly. Call it roots-rock or alt-country or Americana - Mason was doing it long before record company marketing departments invented or adopted any of those terms.

Mason has never forgotten the Beatles or Elvis, but he's also obviously listened to and love thousands of other pop hits and oddities along the way. He digests it all and spits it out through the unique filter of a tender, ironic, at times childlike sensibility on songs about love, music, pets, fighting, drinking and quitting drinking.

More than anything, what always comes through is Mason's sheer joy in making music. Even when he's singing about loss and loneliness or revenge, he never sounds cynical. He has apparently never lost touch with the idealism that first motivated him - perhaps it's fueled by the Silvertone guitar he bought from a catalog in the mid-'60s and has been playing ever since.

"It's Heartbreak That Sells" also includes Mason songs performed by the Ass Ponys, Claudia Malibu, Ware River Club, Eric Ambel, members of the Scud Mountain Boys and ex-Scruffy the Cat leader Charlie Chesterman.

At the same time others are paying tribute, Mason has released an album of his own featuring a baker's dozen new songs. "Castanets" (Wormco) is more of what we have come to expect from Mason: catchy melodies, insinuating vocals, songs full of individual personality, most of which clock in at between two and three minutes. It's timeless music, and the perfect balm for the listener who wonders what ever happened to rock 'n' roll, or who has forgotten why he ever cared.

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[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on May 14, 1999. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1999. All rights reserved.]