Tom Mason: Press

Tom Mason Alchemy Gas Station Music An all-round musician, singer and songwriter Tom Mason has been a part of the East Nashville musical community for a long time now, either in his own right or as a valuable sideman. His latest album has little to do with country music but a lot to do with great playing and striking songwriting. It covers many bases that touch on numerous sources that he makes his own from the opening Conjuring which features a great vocal contribution from Sheila Lawrence, who along with Pru Clearwater add strong vocal contributions throughout. Other Nashville notables involved include ex-Derailer Mark Horn, David Jacques, Jen Gunderman, Joey Spampinato and Billy Block amongst others. The eclectic nature of the songs in this cases make the album more interesting rather than having any lack of focus. It is all held together by Mason’s defined and dignified vocals and playing. The songs touch on blues, vaudeville, gypsy music and range from songs like percus- sive Chano Pozo’s Shoes, a somewhat Waitsian The World Is Drunk, the sea shanty Pirate Song and the story telling of The Amazing Lorenzo which would actually makes sense to Chris De Burgh fans. This is a delight of Americana music and all the influences that were awash in that country a century or so ago.Tom Mason makes musical alchemy that delivers it’s magic and deserves a wider audience for its musical wonders. www.tommason.net

Tom Mason Actor and musician (or musician and actor), seems like an all-round good guy, living life to the full and keen for us to have some fun with him. He is one very fine guitar player and has got a cohort of familiar Nashville names to help out here - Jen Gunderman, Dave Jacques and Mark Horn of The Derailers amongst them. A joyful melange of American sounds from the modern country of I Surrender (as in, I could imagine Mary Chapin Carpenter singing it)to the Cuban rhythms of Chano Pozo's Shoes, Alchemy displays a familiarity with and love for all the rich veins of twentieth century American music.

Lyrically, there's a lot of unembarrassed hokum here, from the faux-voodoo of Conjurin' to the fakest of fake shiver-me-timbers accents for Pirate Song. This has a cheerful chorus of 'We'll all go down, we'll all go down with the ship' and I saw Tom Mason perform this when I was in the company of a man whose boat had indeed sunk beneath him. It's a measure of the songs pantomine qualities that my companion just grimaced a little, then grinned. There's a loose theme of magic, myth and mystery going on here but Little Walter and Chano Pozo's Shoes are testament to Tom Mason's deep love affair wth music. Mostly it's all about as serious as Kirsty McColl's 'In These Shoes?'.

What is unusual for an Americana record is that songs are frequently extended with long instrumental developments that are absolutely the best reason for getting hold of this cd. Always interesting and coloured by some lovely guitar work from the man himself there is never a sense of these passages rambling on aimlessly but, rather, a strong sense of the thread of the song hanging in the air with all the musicians dancing around it before coming back to the original tune. The Clown falls Down and Stealing Stars are both particularly fine examples of what these guys can do and make you feel that an evening listening to them play would be an evening well spent.
John Davy

On the back side of the liner notes, "Renaissance Man" Tom Mason presents the following description of A Slide Guitar Christmas: "Sizzling side guitar! Exotic rhythms! Dazzling dobro!" That about says it all--Tom Mason breaks loose in mighty fine fashion on this instrumental holiday album. Very, very nice.

The holiday music market already includes oodles of acoustic guitar instrumentals, but Mason's release is different. Not the quiet reverence of acoustic or classical guitar, Mason wails on slide guitar and dobro, which are the stars here. The accompanying percussive touches and bass flourishes provide great support and creative context. These ten tracks are consistently lovely; the music is vibrant, but relatively low-key.

A Slide Guitar Christmas opens with a syncopated, salsa-licious We Three Kings. It was the perfect eye-opener on a cold Halloween night--energizing, but nothing brutal. Not surprisingly, Drummer Boy is drum intensive; the track includes a bluesy edge and sweetly shifting beats. In fact, most tracks present the unexpected, often flexibly flying around a Latin Christmas tree, and the exotic vibes are naturally addictive. For me, less is sometimes more, making Mason's minimalist Joy to the World a gentle, moving delight, and the brief, bongo-fied Silent Night equally fun.

Everything on A Slide Guitar Christmas should put a smile on the face of most holiday music aficionados. Unfortunately, the smiling fades after only 35 minutes, when the "sizzling slide guitar," "exotic rhythms," and "dazzling dobro" fade away. Even so, Tom Mason's instrumental interpretations are exquisite for the duration.

--Carol Swanson
(Reviewed in 2009)

More
From the liner notes:

Recorded at Blue Bourbon Music, Nashville, by Jerry Hager

Tom Mason: Dobro, Guitar, Accordion & Trombone
Craig Wright: Drums & Percussion
Matt Jackson: Electric & Acoustic Bass
Lonesome Bob: Bongos on "Silent Night"

"What Child Is This?" and "Jolly Old St. Nicholas" recorded by Eliot Houser & Craig Wright, with
Tom Comet: Bass
Kami Lyle: Trumpet
Joey Spampinato: Saxamaphone

Top Pick: "Tom Mason Blends Blues, Theater for Stellar Show”
“Tom Mason plays terrific guitar and bad trombone, and manages to make each of those things pretty entertaining.
... a show that should combine his flair for theater and his love of bluesy roots music. He’ll play slide guitar, sing plenty of well-written songs, change costumes at some point in the evening, and, yep, growl away on that trombone.”

“Red-hot resonator and slide guitar expert and Americana songwriter”
“Mason is noted not only for his impressive and versatile guitar playing but for his gritty songwriting and amiable stage presence”.

Ring of Fire

Reviewed by Eric Marchese
JUNE 10, 2009

PHOTO CREDIT
Michael Lamont
Stage biographies are often tripped up when the actor portraying the celebrity bears little resemblance to that person or, worse, attempts an impersonation that falls flat. Created by Richard Maltby Jr. and William Meade, this revue about the life and music of Johnny Cash neatly sidesteps that problem by using a variety of actors, and even some of the onstage musicians, to portray the Man in Black for nearly three dozen of his songs. By doing this, the show gets at the core of Cash's being and his artistry as a performer. Bits and pieces of Cash's life are dribbled out in brief accessible doses by the 10-person cast (four singer-actors and six musicians), beginning with Cash's birth in Arkansas and culminating in his rise to stardom, romance with June Carter, and death at his lakeside home in Tennessee. Evocative black-and-white photos offer scenic vistas and portraits of Cash at key points in his life.

As a performer, director Jason Edwards' appearance and style most closely approximate Cash's charisma. Edwards is frequently tapped to recount parts of the singer's biography, as in the "Man in Black" segment where Cash describes why he wears black before singing the iconic number. Edwards is most frequently paired with Michelle Duffy, who lends legato phrasing and an expressive tone to "All Over Again." Troy Burgess' emotional tenor captures the lonesome feelings of the introspective "Sunday Morning Coming Down," and Christa Jackson adds a Southern twang and saucy demeanor to "Cry Cry Cry."

Tom Mason's work on guitar and harmonica, Brantley Kearns' fiddle work, and John W. Marshall's percussive style of bass contribute mightily. Some of the best set pieces involve all 10 performers, such as a hoedown-style treatment of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." Jeff Lisenby's music direction and Jane Lanier's musical staging enliven Lisenby and Steven Bishop's inventive orchestrations, and John Iacovelli's versatile set encompasses a backwoods shack, a prison, and the Grand Ole Opry. This is a superb show not just for Cash's fans but for all fans of the genre and anyone who loves music.

Presented by McCoy Rigby Entertainment at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada. June 5–21. Tue.–Thu., 7:30 p.m.; Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2 and 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 and 7 p.m. (562) 944-9801. www.lamiradatheatre.com.

RICHARD THE THIRD, NASHVILLE SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL
Shakespearean shtick

Over at Belmont University's Troutt Theater, Nashville Shakespeare Festival performs its winter production, Denice Hicks' imaginative adaptation of Richard the Third, which pretty much blows the lid off typical expectations. What is usually an infamously dour piece of endless betrayal and murder is duly transmogrified into a slice of early 20th century vaudeville, replete with tinkling piano accompaniment, groaning one-liners (rimshot!), arch physical comedy, a little tap-dancing and juggling, delightful costumes (including derbies, skimmers and top hats) and an energetic and versatile cast of 17 who play the shtick to the hilt and make it work throughout.

NSF newcomer Navada Shane Morgan is impishly good as the humpbacked, limping Richard, destroying every human life in his path on his way to the top of the British royal line. While the Bard's dialogue gets a face-lift from Hicks that reveals cheesy (and often mirthful) melodrama, we still get the complicated story of high-level politics, with Richard's snide asides inspiring the rest of the dramatis personae to their own level of wisecracking.

Instead of a serious soliloquy, Brenda Sparks' Cassandra-like Queen Margaret delivers a tough, minor-key blues. Meanwhile, Nan Gurley, as confused Queen Elizabeth, belts out Irving Berlin's "Show Business." Then Phil Perry's ill-fated Hastings enacts a nearly literal head-on-a-platter routine that is very funny indeed.

Others offering cleverly cartoonish work are Jessejames Locorriere, Nathan Lee, Tom Mason, R. Alex Murray, and Claire Syler. Some of the players double up and, in the case of John Silvestro, triple up on roles.

When we're not hearing old-timey musical chestnuts (e.g., "White Cliffs of Dover"), we're hearing the original score of musical director/pianist Tom McBryde, all of it music-hall-appropriate. The multitalented Mason also contributes Richard's comical, bravado-rich Act I ragtime closer, "The Big Time."

With its Palace Theatre setting, lively staging and broadly creative, tongue-in-cheek approach to the Bard, Hicks' Richard is more George M. Cohan than Kenneth Branagh—and that makes it a perfect tonic for these tough economic times. The show runs through Jan. 31.