It’s a mistake to presume Dave Mason is simply trading on his early (aborted) membership in the hallowed British band by calling his current routing – 1967-2015 World Tour ‘Traffic Jam’. With shows like the one he played in Barre VT October 3rd, the guitarist/songwriter is not only doing justice to the legacy of that hallowed British group, he’s validating the contributions of other notable figures for whom he wrote and with whom he recorded over the course of his fifty-year career.
Wisely dividing the two hours plus into separate sets, Traffic tunes, well-known (“Dear Mr. Fantasy”) and not so well known (“Medicated Goo.”), a longer segment ensure devoted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s solo career. Mason wisely and immediately dispensed with his hit, “We Just Disagree,” in favor of more emotionally honest numbers that populate his own discography and, almost equally notably, “How Do I Get to Heaven?,” a genuinely touching tune he collaborated on with the drummer and vocalist of Traffic, the late Jim Capaldi.
In a similar vein, Mason was ingratiating, occasionally to a fault, when he spoke between numbers during the course of the performance. Yet he was consistently fluid and to the point when he soloed with his stripped down quartet, somewhat preciously dubbed (by the announcer in the Opera House) as ‘The Feelin’ Alright Band.” Guitarist Johnne Sambatero, vocalist/keyboardist John Patler and drummer Alvino Bennett may have looked like journeymen but they didn’t play like them, fully engaging themselves and each other throughout the show.
Following his self-admitted public service announcement about the charity with which he works (“Work Vessels for Veterans”), playing “Shouldn’t Have Took More than You Gave” was a stroke of near genius sequencing that more than made up for the fluffing of the final verse of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower.” And that’s not to mention the misconceived quasi-disco arrangement of “Feelin’ Alright;” Mason and co. might well have simply copied the late Joe Cocker’s arguably definitive arrangement of the latter because the quartet refused to ape Traffic in the twists they applied to “The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys” .
Selections from Dave Mason’s early tenure in that group were nevertheless more satisfying because “Pearly Queen” and “Forty Thousand Headmen” are of a piece with his own material such as “Look at You Look At Me.” Renditions of numbers such as the latter have aged well, particularly as Mason’s guitar playing, simple and elegant as Eric Clapton’s though not so deeply passionate, renders them complete unto themselves, even without extensive improvisation (his vocals did sound somewhat robotic at times, though, prompting one wag in the audience to wonder aloud about auto-tuning).
With vintage photos and colorful, though occasionally gauche graphics projected continuously on the stage backdrop, the sold-out Vermont audience had every right to be satisfied with what they saw and heard this crisp autumn night, especially insofar as Mason took the time, more in the first set than second, to offer points of interest on his own personal history and that of Traffic. He might’ve also done so either before or after a rollicking rendition of “Only You Know and I Know” because the film and photos shown of himself and Slowhand with Delaney and Bonnie deserved equal elucidation: there was little or no response from the attendees otherwise at the appearance of the duo that had so much to do with the recording of Mason’s first solo album, 1970’s Alone Together, on which he basically used their band.
Yet there was too much good cheer, to the point of an honest standing ovation at shows end proper and post-encore, to rightfully quibble with such details. If it’s true many filling the cramped seating in the orchestra and balcony didn’t come out to see shows such as Dave Mason’s Traffic Jam too often, they might well be moved to think about making more nights like it.
