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Dave Mason is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist, best known for being a founding member of Traffic.
With Mason having left Blue Thumb Records in 1973, his old record label were keen to cash in on him one last time as he signed a new contract with Columbia and started work on his next album. Blue Thumb put out the live album Dave Mason Is Alive! without his permission. However they were obviously struggling to find material to release, as two of the recordings had already appeared on Headkeeper. Though the circumstances behind its release make it a bit of dubious addition to Mason's discography, it's still a fine live album, showing Mason's talents as a guitarist, singer and bandleader.
Headkeeper (1972) <|> It's Like You Never Left (1973)
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Dave Mason is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist, best known for being a founding member of Traffic.
After his splendid debut of 1970, Dave Mason recorded a modestly successful duet album with Mama Cass Elliot. He then briefly rejoined Traffic, which had recently expanded into a new six-piece lineup. He was only with them for six live performances in the UK, but it was from these gigs that the recordings for their fifth album, Welcome To The Canteen, were extracted. Mason played guitar throughout, and also sang on two of his own songs from Alone Together - "Sad And Deep As You" and "Shouldn't Have Took More Than You Gave". After Welcome To The Canteen, he left Traffic for the third and final time.
Back in America, he started work on his second solo album. However he got involved in a contractual dispute with his record label (Blue Thumb), who ended up putting together a half-finished studio album bulked out by live tracks, without Mason's consent. Headkeeper came out in 1972, the live tracks recorded in concert at The Troubadour, with the backing of Mark Jordan (keyboards), Lonnie Turner (bass), Rick Jaeger (drums) and Felix Falco (percussion). The live side featured three songs from Alone Together, and two old Traffic numbers - the Winwood/Capaldi tune "Pearly Queen" (which Steve Winwood had sung on the original version), and Mason's own "Feelin' Alright" (which by then had already been covered by Joe Cocker, Three Dog Night, Rare Earth, Grand Funk Railroad, Mongo Santamaria, The 5th Dimension, Chairmen Of The Board, and others).
Though Mason himself was not happy about the album's release, it still came together quite well.
Alone Together (1970) <|> Dave Mason Is Alive! (1973)
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Dave Mason is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist, best known for being a founding member of Traffic.
Dave Mason formed Traffic in 1967 with multi-instrumentalist Steve Winwood, percussionist Jim Capaldi and woodwind player Chris Wood. With Traffic, he shared guitar and lead vocal duties with Winwood, and also contributed other instruments such as bass and sitar. He wrote and sang roughly half their early repetoire. He was responsible for their highest-charting single, 1967's psychedelic pop classic "Hole In My Shoe", which got to #2 in the UK. He briefly left the band after their debut album, and released a non-charting solo single ("Little Woman" b/w "Just For You"), but then re-joined during the making of their second, which contained one of his best-known songs, "Feelin' Alright" (which was covered by all sorts of artists including Joe Cocker, Three Dog Night and Rare Earth). However he departed again in late 1968, due to creative differences with the other members.
During his time with Traffic, he also befriended Jimi Hendrix. It was Mason that introduced Hendrix to Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower" at a party. When Hendrix decided to record his version later that same night, it was Mason who played the song's acoustic 12-string guitar. He also appeared on The Rolling Stones' 1968 album Beggar's Banquet, but was not credited (he apparently played the Indian shehnai on "Street Fighting Man" and the mellotron (using a mandolin voice) on "Factory Girl"). He also played live as a guest with Delaney & Bonnie, appearing on their 1970 On Tour album.
His debut solo album came out in 1970, featuring many of the musicians he had met through the Delaney & Bonnie experience - Leon Russell (piano), Carl Radle (bass), Jim Gordon (drums), Rita Coolidge (vocals), plus bassists Chris Ethridge and Larry Knetchel, drummers John Barbata and Jim Keltner, guitarist Michael DeTemple, and others. It turned out to be a fantastic singer-songwriter/rock album, with eight strong Mason originals. It was recieved well be the critics, and a single, "Only You Know And I Know", got to a modest #42 in the US (the song had also featured on On Tour, and would later be recorded by Rita Coolidge).
|> Headkeeper (1972)
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