Chad Mason

Mason's new EP release will be a staggered seeing individual tracks delivered monthly to streaming platforms. Listeners can Pre-order the EP exclusively via iTunes due July 5th.

Mason’s live show will tear you apart with visceral, honest, rock and roll, and then he’ll gently put you back together, before breaking your heart all over again. And you’ll want to thank him for it.

The songs have a deep hope of redemption that coincides with a deep vein of sadness, even if it’s not a redemption for himself, even if it’s only for the person he is singing it to.

It’s not only in the writing, it’s in the delivery, the way he conveys the songs in such an immediate way makes them greater than the sum of the separate parts. He blends the concrete with the abstract in a way that is reminiscent of David Gray or Bob Dylan. It’s an effective conjunction of lyricism with language that is candid, and direct. The result is something very much his own, and distinguishable; as if he is the perfect vessel to convey this deep universal truth about sadness and the hope of redemption. It’s a truth that almost everyone feels, but so few can ever truly convey.

The arrangements on the record support Mason’s voice, and allow him to deliver the song unhindered by anything that isn’t truly necessary. Which is how the songs themselves exist.

There is a selflessness in the songs, there is always someone in the song with Mason, whether it’s a ghost from his past, or someone he is with to escape the past. He is never alone in the song, but there is a pervasive loneliness cast over everything. There is a shadow that floats around the room that he is trying to address. It’s a shadow that we all acknowledge to varying degrees but somehow Mason is able to look at it straight on and and give it a name.

Annalise

Watching addiction slowly crush a loved one is a devastating experience to endure. Written in just 30 minutes as part of a writing exercise, Mason takes the experience head on. Overdriven Wurlitzer and a guitar solo very much of the George Harrison ilk intertwine beautifully behind Mason as he delivers an inside perspective of the outsider

When You Die

The song opens, Mason solo with his guitar unguarded and without distraction. The first line, “This is hard you know, losing sleep and counting up the cash”, emphasizes Mason as somewhat reminiscent of a blue collar Springsteen. The slide guitar gives a tip of the hat to Derek Trucks, while singer/songwriter Soren Hansen of New Politics joins on backing vocals. Their harmonies reinforce Mason’s point: even during life’s darkest moments, there is always hope… “When you die inside there’s a light that swallows up the dark”.

Montana

If you have never been to Montana, Mason will take you there. Montana shares the story of a man longing to return to a place and a partner that time decades have distanced him from. Raw, open and honest, Mason’s references are subtle, adherently steering the listener to Jim Harrison’s book of poetry, Songs of Unreason. Pedal steel soars high over the Big Sky as Mason is joined by Rainee Blake of Nashville CMT, singing “It’s where we said we would go in the summer, to Livingstone to take it all in. If I could go back to the Bitterroot of it all, I’d do it all over again.”