River Songs
Brent Mason
Independent
1999
11 tracks
The closest comparison, I think, is television. Some make television like radio with pictures, telling the story with words and sounds while the pictures remain only a backdrop. Others tell their stories without quite realizing that essential relationship between the pictures and the words. Yet others achieve a synergy between all the elements, using each to enhance the story, making its telling a gripping, memorable experience. If Brent Mason were making television, he would be among this latter group. He takes the same approach with his music.
First look at the package leads one into Mason's world. On the front, Mason casual in blue jeans, sitting with his guitar and the panorama of the river spread out behind him. On the back, an antique photo of a river steamer named, like this release, River Songs. She flies the old Red Ensign, so there's no doubt this ship and the city on the opposite shore are Canadian. On the back of the booklet inside, the steamer Victoria and a two-masted ship, this time with a smaller town on the river shore. Inside the booklet are pictures of three men fishing from a rowboat and an old cable-drawn ferry bearing a horse and carriage across the river. The scene is set.
There's plenty of room here to print the lyrics. Instead, the inside copy begins with a prose poem of praise to the river and then, following the name of each song, stories of personal, Maritimes, and Canadian history. Where we might have found the bare words of the songs, we find instead the content, the backgound, the emotional content complementing the words we hear as we listen to the music. The effect is of an encompassing work of art. It might have been chaos, but Mason has done his research and told his stories in a sparse but detailed style that allows the elements to work well together.
It helps that Mason is an excellent storyteller with an honest feel for the nature and the history of his country. The respect he has for this land comes across in every song.
We've enjoyed a decade of very talented new Canadian singer-songwriters. Most, perhaps all, tend to draw their influences from American singers and songwriters of the past forty years. Beyond that, their influences appear to draw from each other and more often from something internal. There seems to be little rootedness in Canada and little knowledge of or interest in our musical or literary history. Not so Brent Mason.
It's refreshing to hear a Canadian songwriter who is literate and informed about his Canadian roots. What other songwriter pays tribute to Canadian poets Bliss Carman and Alden Knowlan or mentions Canadian legend Grey Owl in a song written (I think) before the recent movie was made. In the performance too, there are echoes of Leonard Cohen, Bruce Cockburn, and Gordon Lightfoot.
The music? It's definitely worth adding to your collection, especially if you're looking for some of the best new Canadian writing. Not all contemporary Canadian poets are publishing chapbooks. Some are making music across this land. Brent Mason is one of these.
If you want more information on Brent Mason, take a look at his web site.
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Review Written: April 5, 2000
Page Last modified:February 14, 2004
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