Dave Mason
Alone Together

THE REVIEW

There are evenings when alcohol doesn't allow you to clearly focus on what is happening around you. You hear music in the background, but it’s not exactly that catchy tune that you start humming and can't shake off. Instead, they are vibrations that enter your head and settle there, only to resurface later, suddenly. At first, in a confused way. Because that night you probably had something more interesting to do. But soon everything becomes clearer. You remember everything. Warm lips like never before. Lips that speak too soon. And tell a story, sad and intense like you. Sounds and words that disinfect the soul, much more effectively than alcohol.

The “Sad And Deep As You” I heard for the first time was the live version performed by Traffic in “Welcome To The Canteen”. A delicate and melancholic ballad that has the intoxicating scent of those early seventies. Only later did I discover that the original was contained in Dave Mason's first solo album: “Alone Together”, as well as the other small gem “Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave”.

The album is undoubtedly the best the multi-instrumentalist has produced in his solo career. A work that still retains the flavor and freshness of Traffic and their total music. Probably because many of the songs were written during that enlightened period.

Freed from the ego clashes with Winwood, Mason delivers a series of seemingly simple songs, but played divinely and with a remarkable supporting cast. Accompanying him is a respectable collective of Anglo-American musicians, including friends Jim Capaldi and Leon Russell, the very popular duo Delaney & Bonnie of that period, and capable instrumentalists like Jim Gordon, Carl Radle, and John Barbata. The music moves in undefined territories, between soul and rock, sometimes touching that West Coast folk that especially recalls the writing of Stephen Stills. It goes from the bouncing boogie rock of “Waitin 'on You”, enhanced by the almost gospel harmonies of Rita Coolidge and Claudia Lennear, to the final ride of “Look At You, Look At Me”, co-written with Traffic's Jim Capaldi, which is certainly one of the most intense and inspired tracks of this work and gives us a spine-chilling final guitar solo.

Dave Mason will never reach these levels again, but he leaves us nonetheless this hidden gem that withstands the test of time, music that is instinct governed by technique and releases groove in abundance. Dear Mr. Fantasy, play us another tune, something to make us happy. Do anything, but take us out of this sadness.