THE SHY REQUESTER Ray Mason Captivating Music
When he shared his new 13-track solo album with us, Ray Mason described the collection as “a 65-year-old man playing a 1965 Sears Silvertone electric guitar through a Peavey Bandit 65 amp.” If that sounds like mere hobby, make no mistake: Mason is one of the hardest working, longest touring, and most talented musicians in the Valley. His new pop folk album The Shy Requester, recorded by Henning Ohlenbusch (Gentle Hen, School for the Dead) is straightforward in the best sense: earnest, unpretentious, and smoothly infused with guest appearances from Ohlenbusch, Lesa Bezo of The Fawns, and Dave Trenholm of Free Range Cats and King Radio on sax. This is Mason’s 13th CD release — not counting eight as a member of the Lonesome Brothers — and although he often plays live with his Ray Mason Band, here’s a fresh chance to hear him shine on his own.
Ray Mason plays Luthier’s Co-op in Easthampton on Saturday at 7 p.m. and Mocha Maya’s in Shelburne Falls on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
MERRILL SHEPARD Merrill Shepard Swamp Guinea Studio
It’s fitting that Merrill Shepard’s first CD is self-titled — the friendly young Hampden County musician plays upfront, plainspoken music on acoustic guitar and piano that draws the listener’s focus into her singing and playing even as she’s backed in the studio by producer A.J. Rubino and others on mandolin, violin, cello, and drums. Shepard sings with the soft confidence of Joni Mitchell, and once she begins to rely more fully on original songwriting, her talent will be formidable. Even now, she impresses, and her background in musical theater and church choirs shows that she already brings many fruitful years of singing experience to bear. More and more often, she plays gigs at Valley music spots like Luthier’s in Easthampton and The Fort in Springfield, so catch her now in order to say “I knew her when…”
Merrill Shepard plays the Great Horse Country Club in Hampden on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
LOVE VIOLENT E.P. A Tangled Web Self-produced
Tanner Watson’s garage-pop group A Tangled Web injects plenty of electric grit and hot-blooded emotion into its new five-song E.P., available on Bandcamp. Watson, of Westfield, says he and his bandmates have been playing the Valley for 12 years, but the band officially started in 2014 after he overcame an opiate addiction that had driven his previous band into the ground. “Our big thing is sending a message of hope to anyone struggling with addiction,” he tells the Advocate, and the lyrics on the E.P. dive headlong into those stories, effectively parsing sticky social issues, personal trials, and tormented relationships. The high-energy group is currently at work recording a follow-up, called The Heart and its Compendium. Let’s hope it’s just as heartfelt.
A Tangled Web plays Luthier’s Co-op in Easthampton on Friday at 8 p.m.
— Hunter Styles, hstyles@valleyadvocate.com
