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Double nominee Garrett Mason will be performing at the Maple Blues Awards gala on Monday, January 21 at the Mod Club
Garrett
Mason
Garrett Mason will be one of several very talented musical guests at this year’s Maple Blues Awards January 21st. Son of legendary Dutch, this young man (age 24) is well on his way to creating his own legend. Get ready for some superb guitar work, strong vocals and original songs and get ready to hear them played FAST and flawless. Don’t expect much chatter between songs – he likes to let his guitar do the talking.
Garrett
came out of nowhere hitting the Canadian blues scene with a bang in 2005 when he
won BOTH the Maple Blues Award for Best New Artist and the Juno for Best Blues
Album for his debut CD “I’m Just A Man”. Not bad for someone who hadn’t even
played a public gig until January 1st, 2000 when he first appeared on stage with
his dad in hometown Truro, NS. He’s been on a roll ever since performing as a
Trio with two very talented fellow Bluenosers - Mike Farrington on bass and
Damien Moynihan on drums - mainly in the Maritimes but with occasional forays
into the rest of Canada. Wherever he goes he gains major fans and critical
acclaim.
I was lucky enough to see him up close and personal for two consecutive nights recently when he came to Blues On The Rideau at The Cove in Westport ON in November. Wow! The depth, speed and precision of his guitar work is something to behold. He calls his unique no-pick, thumb down, finger picking style “funkabilly-blues-soul” and that’s as good a description as any I guess. I just know that it’s like nothing else I have heard before although you can certainly detect elements of Albert King, Canned Heat, Buddy Rich and Stevie Ray Vaughan in there – all early influences.
When I asked him how he got so good on the guitar at such a young age he just shrugged his shoulders and said “I just played man, I just played” – for hours and hours alone in his room. He’s entirely self-taught although he no doubt benefited from the Mason genes and living in a house that had a parade of great blues players around all the time (especially Rick Jeffreys whom he credits with really helping to mentor him).
Garrett is up for two MBAs this year – Electric Act of the Year and Guitarist of the Year and he just might win ‘em both but even if he doesn’t I’ll be happy just to see him play again! I’m hooked.
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