Dave Mason - Alone Together (1970)

Dave Mason is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist, best known for being a founding member of Traffic.

Dave Mason formed Traffic in 1967 with multi-instrumentalist Steve Winwood, percussionist Jim Capaldi and woodwind player Chris Wood. With Traffic, he shared guitar and lead vocal duties with Winwood, and also contributed other instruments such as bass and sitar. He wrote and sang roughly half their early repetoire. He was responsible for their highest-charting single, 1967's psychedelic pop classic "Hole In My Shoe", which got to #2 in the UK. He briefly left the band after their debut album, and released a non-charting solo single ("Little Woman" b/w "Just For You"), but then re-joined during the making of their second, which contained one of his best-known songs, "Feelin' Alright" (which was covered by all sorts of artists including Joe Cocker, Three Dog Night and Rare Earth). However he departed again in late 1968, due to creative differences with the other members.
During his time with Traffic, he also befriended Jimi Hendrix. It was Mason that introduced Hendrix to Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower" at a party. When Hendrix decided to record his version later that same night, it was Mason who played the song's acoustic 12-string guitar. He also appeared on The Rolling Stones' 1968 album Beggar's Banquet, but was not credited (he apparently played the Indian shehnai on "Street Fighting Man" and the mellotron (using a mandolin voice) on "Factory Girl"). He also played live as a guest with Delaney & Bonnie, appearing on their 1970 On Tour album.
His debut solo album came out in 1970, featuring many of the musicians he had met through the Delaney & Bonnie experience - Leon Russell (piano), Carl Radle (bass), Jim Gordon (drums), Rita Coolidge (vocals), plus bassists Chris Ethridge and Larry Knetchel, drummers John Barbata and Jim Keltner, guitarist Michael DeTemple, and others. It turned out to be a fantastic singer-songwriter/rock album, with eight strong Mason originals. It was recieved well be the critics, and a single, "Only You Know And I Know", got to a modest #42 in the US (the song had also featured on On Tour, and would later be recorded by Rita Coolidge).

|> Headkeeper (1972)
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