Music • Willy
Mason provides a fresh sound to the music
scene. Tom Sheehan
A ‘private’ concert
by indie rocker Willy Mason
By
Ricky Cruces
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
The first thing I said to set off the chain of events that happened on the
day I was supposed to interview Willy Mason on April 28 was:
“
Holy Shit! 6:00 p.m.!? It’s already 5:45! How the hell am I supposed
to make it from Downey to L.A. in 15 minutes?”
I then quickly left my friend Danny’s house and we set off to Tangier’s
in Los Angeles. We left without a camera, a pencil, the voice recorder we had
planned to take and a single question.
Dodging and weaving in and out of a sea of automobiles in a manner as safe
as possible, we arrive at Tangier at approximately 6:30 p.m., half an hour
late to interview Mason.
I walked in and said, “Hi, I’m here from the Daily Forty-Niner
in Long Beach and I’m here to interview Willy Mason.”
The woman behind the reservations desk replied, “Willy who?”
I finally got a hold of the promoter and he pointed me in the direction of
Mason, a man who we had just walked past upon entering the establishment.
We started out with how he got signed. Mason said he had achieved it by playing
some of his music on his father’s radio station while another bigger
radio station owner was listening. It eventually got passed along and Team
Love signed him.
I asked how many people are jealous of him for how he got signed. It was a
really large stroke of luck. A case of being in the right place, at the right
time.
“
I wouldn’t have had the patience to do it any other way,” Mason
said.
During the tour he had been thinking of where his life was going and where
it went.
“
I was afraid I missed growing up,” Mason said.
Mason, who was 19 when he started recording and touring, is a different and
profound type of person and one can immediately figure this out by talking
to him. Who honestly thinks about missing out on growing up while they are
living every young musician’s dream?
Mason is from Martha’s Vineyard, where his tour mate and viola player
Nina Violet is also from.
In Martha’s Vineyard, there are no major restaurant chains or department
stores and the closest mall is a ferry’s ride away.
After exchanging anecdotes and stories for a while, it was time for a sound
check.
However, that is not how I looked at it. For Danny and I, this was a private
concert for two, which lasted about five minutes.
And let me say, those were quite possibly the greatest five minutes of my life.
In those few minutes he played a song off his most recent record (“Where
the Humans Feed”) and one song that’s not on anything anywhere.
I felt honored.
Mason is a spot on performer who is even better to hear live. Willy Mason gives
me hope in the future of performing artists.
The show was about to begin and this is where the entire situation got sticky.
Apparently, I was not on the list at the door.
And me being the poor college student I am did not keep $12 with me to get
in. Willy gave us one of his empty spots on his guest list to get in. But I
couldn’t just leave Danny out in the cold. And besides, we were both
supposed to be in already.
So I called Danny, who was still in the venue and he had told me Mason had
managed to get us another spot on the list, which by now was of no use to me.
This made me even more depressed.
Mason, being the good guy he is, came outside and ran me back to the back door
where we had interviewed, to try and sneak me in.
However, I am not per se the most inconspicuous looking fellow. It’s
not hard to spot a running 6 foot 3 inch Mexican man with an Afro. So we were
quickly found out and I was again denied entrance by the doorman.
The night ended with Willy, Danny, Nina and I sharing a smoke in front of the
venue.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I interviewed, was given a private show
by, and was unsuccessfully snuck into a show by Willy Mason.
To some, it might seem like a failed day for not completing the main objective,
which was seeing the show.
But in the end, no matter what anyone says, it was a success.
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