Izvajalec: Mason, Willy
Založba: EMI Records
Izid: 2007
Willy Mason, a voice that sounds like it’s got way more miles on it than just 22 springs (or winters, since he was born in November 1984). His music isn’t exactly super modern either. Taken as a whole, his musical expression feels more like the work of some troubadour who trends and modernization never got anywhere near.
Tim Hardin once had a similar presence on the music scene. Willy Mason also draws on country-blues patterns for his confessions, along with the vivid but hard-to-access narration of a singer-songwriter. Now, if Tim Hardin came across like he needed a new song for his old bones, Mason is the exact opposite: he needs an old song for his young bones. With a bit of imagination, he could fill the missing link connecting the work of The Wallflowers, Jacob Dylan’s work in particular, with the new hope of the sort-of-singer-songwriter crowd, Declan O’Rourke.
Three years have passed since his last and, at the same time, first album “Where Humans Eat”, but that doesn’t mean anything has really changed radically since then, at least not in the music. The voice stays low, the music on average slower than a calm, resting heartbeat. The mood is dark but not oppressive, relaxed, perfect for cozy evenings in intimate company over a glass, or for evenings alone, over a glass, when strange thoughts and memories creep in by the glow of a young moon and the first stars.
“If The Ocean Gets Rough” stays on a path that knows it’s surrounded by thorns, but that doesn’t hold it back; it winds its way skillfully through them, searching for hope and consolation. “There’s demons in the trees, come and save me. It’s a simple town; where the face becomes a veil,
where the eyes become a jail” Willy sings in Simple Town, but he settles things down, at least on the surface, with the closing When The Leaves Have Fallen, “will we sleep sound while the rich shake in their shoes, until they learn to sing the blues”.
When the rich will learn to sing the blues is a question that isn’t expecting a quick answer, but Willy Mason is doing pretty well with it and he’s worth listening to.
Production
Chris Shaw, Doug Easley and Willy Mason
Track List
01. Gotta Keep Walking
02. The World That I Wanted
03. We Can Be Strong
04. Save Myself
05. I Can’t Sleep
06. Riptide
07. When The River Moves On
08. If The Ocean Gets Rough
09. Simple Town
10. The End Of The Race
11. When The Leaves Have Fallen
Album length: 42:14
