DAVE MASON’S STILL HERE
AT 77, ENGLISH SINGER-GUITARIST MAY BE PART OF AN ‘ENDANGERED SPECIES,’ BUT HE CONTINUES TO WRITE NEW MUSIC AND IS RAISING MONEY FOR MAUI FIRE VICTIMS
English guitarist and singer-songwriter Dave Mason is 77 years old, but he is hardly slowing down. He’s still writing music and touring, with a date tonight at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts.
“There will be great music and a great band playing some real music as opposed to some of the stuff that is out these days,” Mason said of his concert with Vanilla Fudge founder and keyboardist Mark Stein.
Mason, who co-founded the British rock band Traffic with Steve Winwood and others in 1967, said he has known Stein for 35 years. Their concert will feature music from both of their careers.
“Mark brings so much to the stage and to the music,” Mason said. “We’ve always enjoyed each other’s music, and the chemistry really works. Traffic and Vanilla Fudge released their debut albums in the same year, so we rose up together in the same era.
“Watching and listening to Mark’s mastery of the Hammond B3 onstage will certainly add to an already special night of music,” Mason said. “We can’t wait to get out there and perform for our fans.”
Joining them will be JohnneSambataro (guitar and vocals), Ray Cardwell (bass and vocals) and Marty Fera (percussion).
The concert will likely feature Traffic’s “Feelin’ Alright” (which Mason wrote at age 19) and Vanilla Fudge’s “You Keep Me Hanging On.” Other songs include “All Along the Watchtower,” “Only You Know and I Know,” “Dear Mr. Fantasy” and “We Just Disagree.”
Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 for his years with Traffic, Mason said that even six decades after first picking up a guitar he still loves what he does.
“I love making music,” he said. “I’m really a guitar player who learned how to sing. I am guitarcentric musically.”
Mason said he named this year’s concert tour “Endangered Species” because so many of his fellow music artists have passed away in recent years.
“Look how many have died recently. There are not many of us like me left,” he said.
Besides performing music, Mason said he’ll tell some stories from throughout his career to the Poway audience. Many more of these stories will be featured in his upcoming memoir “Only You Know and I Know,” which will be published by early next year.
“My whole 77 years are in
there, the musical highlights,” Mason said. “It has been an interesting project.”
Mason said he wrote the autobiography because “I was badgered into it, by the fans, everybody. Otherwise I would have never done it.”
Mason was inspired to pursue music at age 15 after seeing Hank Marvin of The Shadows play on a shiny red Fender Stratocaster. Six years later he co-founded Traffic and eventually got a red Fender Strat guitar that he still plays.
As a young man, Mason said he had “three jobs in two seconds and realized I was not meant to work a 9-to-5.” That coincided with what he said was mostly the beginning of the rock ’n’ roll era, and the rest is history.
“I taught myself, been lucky and persistent,” Mason said. “I dedicated my whole life to music.”
Mason said life experiences are what has inspired his songwriting. He has penned around 100 songs. During the pandemic he stayed at his home in Maui and wrote a couple of new songs, including one inspired by a mango tree on his property that his neighbors say grows some of the best mangoes on the island.
His property is far away from Lahaina, which was devastated in August by a wildfire that claimed nearly 100 lives. To help Maui residents who lost everything in the fire, he is donating 100 percent of the writer’s share of sales proceeds from the song “Mangos” to the Maui Food Bank. “Mangos” can be downloaded for $9.99 from his website at davemasonmusic.com.
“They lost everything, and there are so many who are missing or dead,” Mason said.
As for other projects in the works, Mason said he has a new album coming out in November, which he said will include a “really fantastic, great version” of the song “Dear Mr. Fantasy.”