Dave Mason - It’s Like You Never Left/Dave Mason

1973 and ’74 sets from ex- Traffic man

Running to 19 songs in all, the pair of albums here are, in fact, ordered the wrong way around, with the stronger, eponymous LP kicking things off. It begins brightly with the mid-tempo country-rock of Show Me Some Affection, replete with female backing vocals, slide and pedal steel guitars and flute. The brassy, Beatles-like Get Ahold On Love lapses into Minder-theme piano, and a couple of other numbers are make-weights. But a Santanaesque version of All Along The Watchtower works, as does Sam Cooke’s Bring It On to Me. Harmony & Melody is light rock of the Bachman-Turner Overdrive ilk, and the same can be said of Silent Partner, from It’s Like You Never Left. It also has Latino rock, such as opener Baby Please, but while the players include Graham Nash and Jim Keltner, there’s nothing that really grabs across the jazzy guitar, Traffic-like Misty Morning Stranger and even a guest turn from Stevie Wonder on harmonica on The Lonely One. The title track closer is proto-disco with funk guitar, and that’s not what Dave Mason is really about.

Acadia | ACA 8137

Reviewed by Tim Jones
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