John-Alex Mason

Town and Country

Naked Jaybird Music
distributed thru Burnside
visit John's website
and on myspace
also available on cd baby

This occasional one-man band mixes 7 original tunes with 8 by people such as Charley Patton, Robert Johnson, Skip James, and Bukka White among others, with a deftness that makes for a seamless blend of material.  He mixes his love for Piedmont, Delta and Hill Country blues with equal results on this disc, and unites it all with a voice that is drenched in the intensity of the songs, that belies the fact that he grew up in Colorado, thousands of miles from the closest of these regions.  He knows his traditions and is faithful to them even on the songs he writes; the blues influences of these three regions are evident.  On the eight  “Town” tracks he plays an electric guitar, Lowebow (the Lowebow is a cigar box guitar with one super low bass D string and 3 guitar strings tuned to a baritone DAD chord, made by Johnny Lowe, another one-man band)

 


John-Alex Mason
and foot drums, when he goes up to the seven country tracks his instrument is a National Style O guitar.  The music often has that hypnotic Hill Country Blues drone that is so good for getting people up on the dance floor.

There aren’t any surprises or revelations in the music, but there is plenty of good music, individually the songs are good, but there isn’t a dynamic that makes an individual song stand out. It shows what one person can do to create a movin’ and shakin’ atmosphere.  The art of a one-man band is a disappearing art and this would be a performer that would be worth checking out, both for the novelty and the good music he produces.