Email Author Rick Mason

2010 Stories by Rick Mason

• Don Williams

  published November 3, 2010

  This is a relatively rare sighting of "Gentle Giant" Don Williams, whose laid-back baritone repeatedly carried him to the top of the country... More >>

• Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band

  published November 3, 2010

  Back in the dim recesses of the '60s, Peter Rowan moved from his native Massachusetts to Nashville and landed a coveted spot with Bill Monroe's... More >>

• Greg Laswell

  published November 3, 2010

  With a nearly obsessive tendency to ruminate about a succession of doomed relationships, matched with lush, minor-key melodies that billow and... More >>

• The Richard Thompson Band

  published November 3, 2010

  At this late date, some four decades after Richard Thompson started out with folk-rock pioneering Fairport Convention, it's tough to add to the... More >>

• Los Amigos Invisibles

  published October 27, 2010

  Conceived on the Caracas club scene in the early '90s, Venezuela's Los Amigos Invisibles essentially launched a Latin-fueled global dance party... More >>

• Amanda Shaw & the Cute Guys

  published October 27, 2010

  Just past her 20th birthday, Amanda Shaw is a wily music biz vet who has been a household name in Louisiana for a dozen years. She's a cultural... More >>

• Dar Williams

  published October 27, 2010

  One of the premier latter-day folkies, Dar Williams meets the 21st century head-on with rapier dissections of society's foibles and fractures,... More >>

• New Orleans Halloween Party

  published October 20, 2010

  The Crescent City is notorious for using anything—or nothing at all—as an excuse for a party. All the better if masquerading is... More >>

• Great Big Sea

  published October 13, 2010

  Emerging from the St. John's pub scene nearly two decades ago and rooted in the rough-and-tumble, Celtic-laced folk music of its home province,... More >>

• Sleigh Bells

  published October 13, 2010

  The dynamic duo of Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss jingles it up with such revolutionary zest that Sleigh Bells have emerged as one of this year's... More >>

• Max Weinberg Big Band

  published October 13, 2010

  The formal confirmation that bandleader Max Weinberg would indeed not be joining Conan O'Brien on his new TV program (revealed first in City... More >>

• Jimmy Webb

  published October 13, 2010

  One of the most acclaimed songwriters of his generation, Jimmy Webb is a superb craftsman who has been called a contemporary version of Hoagy... More >>

• Hugh Masekela

  published October 13, 2010

  For better or worse, Hugh Masekela and his former wife, Miriam Makeba, were for many the international face of the real, joyous South African soul... More >>

• Gorillaz

  published October 6, 2010

  Arguably the biggest cartoon band this side of Kiss, Gorillaz, from the get-go, have been far more interesting musically than the bland roar of... More >>

• Louis Hayes Trio

  published October 6, 2010

  Detroit native Louis Hayes is an iconic hard-bop drummer whose roots go back to the revolutionary jazz days of the mid-'50s, and who is still... More >>

• JP, Chrissie & the Fairground Boys

  published September 29, 2010

  JP is Welsh singer-songwriter JP Jones, who once had a band called Grace. The Fairground Boys are friends of his. Chrissie is longtime, iconic... More >>

• Anat Cohen Quartet

  published September 29, 2010

  When burgeoning clarinet titan Anat Cohen first appeared at the Dakota last spring, she led an all-star quartet in a repertoire inspired,... More >>

• Tannahill Weavers

  published September 29, 2010

  Scotland's Tannahill Weavers adopted their name from Scottish poet Robert Tannahill and the traditional industry of the band's hometown of... More >>

• Davell Crawford

  published September 29, 2010

  Known as the Piano Prince of New Orleans since before he was 10 years old, Davell Crawford has long been considered the logical successor to the... More >>

• Bettie Serveert

  published September 22, 2010

  The Dutch band Bettie Serveert (whose name was copped from a tennis instructional tome) have been around for somewhere in the neighborhood of 20... More >>

• Ruthie Foster

  published September 22, 2010

  First she was lauded as The Phenomenal Ruthie Foster, then returned as a soulful seer bearing The Truth, backing up both... More >>

• Charles Lloyd New Quartet

  published September 22, 2010

  Seemingly way ahead of the curve throughout his lengthy career, saxophonist/flautist Charles Lloyd continues at age 72 to create definitive... More >>

• Eels

  published September 22, 2010

  Eels mastermind E (Mark Oliver Everett, formally) issued three albums of new material in just over a year, essentially taking him from desolation... More >>

• Drive-By Truckers

  published September 22, 2010

  The Drive-By Truckers' unmistakable southern musical roots and gothic inclinations have long made Patterson Hood and associates the leading rock... More >>

• Willie Murphy

  published September 15, 2010

  As inextricably tied to the Twin Cities scene as any musician in modern times, Willie Murphy has just about done and seen it all in a career that... More >>