Behold some find Mason-ry

By Sam Fran Scavuzzo
Collegian Staff
April 12, 2006

Stand back kids, here is the next Bob Dylan. What we have here is an acoustic-guitar yielding folkie spinning songs about justice, equality and brotherhood. He’s already opened for The (Grateful) Dead, and I’m sure The Band would get back together just to play a set with him. Strap yourself in and be prepared to listen to the Dylan from New England… well, not quite.

Singer/songwriter Willy Mason, despite drawing comparisons left and right to the folk icon, is not Dylan, and that’s probably a good thing. Yes, he has done all the things mentioned in the initial paragraph, minus reuniting the Band, and there is an enormous amount of hype about him. However, Mason has found his own niche in the music world outside of the folk standards, and leaves the impression he could possibly advance his songwriting with each oncoming song. His latest release, Where the Humans Eat, serves as a perfect example of this.

Playing almost all instruments on the album and co-producing it with his brother, Sam, and Tom Schick, Mason avoids using standard chords or normal song patterns for a good deal of the album. Much unlike the simplicity of Dylan, Johnny Cash or Woody Guthrie albums, Mason adds somewhat complicated riffs to back his heartfelt, thought-provoking lyrics.

At the early age of 21, Mason’s maturity and independence is evident in every track on the album. Where the Humans Eat, his first album with Astralwerks, sets out what Willy’s place is in the world, what is wrong with it and what’s his solution. Opening with the jumpy slide guitar track “Gotta Keep Movin,’” the tone is set early – this will be a different sort of album then any other 20-year-old’s you’ve heard before. His voice is of a lower octave, but remains very clear. It possesses a certain warmth that always contains a caring vibe.

In the middle of the album, though, Mason changes everything around with the Pink Floyd-esque “Letter #1,” which utilizes the studio space for Mason to discuss why he likes dreaming, without one guitar easily heard. It moves into the harder, and slightly disturbing, “Harvesting Digital Children” transitioning to the classic rock-feeling tracks “Sold My Soul” and “Our Town” before getting back into the folky stuff.

Mason, the son of folk musicians Michael Mason and Jemima James, has a deep folk background that comes out in several social commentary tracks. Despite being harsh and critical towards society in songs like “Hard Hand to Hold,” the British hit single “Oxygen,” “All You Can Do” and the title track, Mason keeps a positive tone throughout all of them. “Oxygen,” written in his senior year of high school and admittedly stolen from the melody of a song from The Music Man, sets up his ideal society free from hypocrisy, television and Ritalin.

One thing that’s clear about the writing is the amount of thought put into the songs. Lyrics such as “You’re just a kid, you shouldn’t read Dostoevsky at your age,” “Hopelessness is on the TV and on sea from sea to shining sea,” and “Is that a guitar or a machine gun? Don’t make me take it away” demonstrate both his maturity and shows his odd point of view.

A top-to-bottom good album, Where the Humans Eat is thoroughly enjoyable to fans of many different types of rock music. Maybe the comparisons to Dylan are valid: Mason, like Dylan, is able to break down the “stigma” folk sometimes accrues. On tour currently with Beth Orten (he just played the TLA on Monday), Mason will open for Radiohead this summer. Something tells me Mason may steal the show.

scavuzzos1@lasalle.edu