I Witnessed A Living Legend...

...on Saturday night. For the first time in my life, I saw Dave Mason play live in concert. Amazing. Great, soulful voice, and DAMN can he play guitar!!!

His band (2nd guitarist, keyboardist, bassist, drummer) was tight as heck. The setlist included Traffic classics "40,000 Headmen," "Dear Mr. Fantasy"* and "Feelin' Alright." They also did a KILLER "All Along the Watchtower" (as you might know, Dave Mason played on the studio recording of the Hendrix version). A couple of Dave's solo hits I recognized were "Only You Know and I Know" and "We Just Disagree."

Mr. Mason introduced a couple songs as "new": a pretty cool sounding country-rocker called "Are Your Legs Tired 'Cause You've Been Running Through My Mind" (a cliche even my beloved Neil might snicker at--good song though), and a southern-fried rocker called "Let Me Go"...DAMN! I wish I were a taper, because that 90-minute set kicked major buttocks!

* NOTE: Interestingly, for the only time all night, Dave let his 2nd guitarist play the HUGE guitar solo in the middle of "Dear Mr. Fantasy," and the guy was great, too! I think that might be further indication that Winwood played the amazing album version solo, although it was INFINITELY CLEAR to me that Mason could've played it--or just about any other damn thing I've ever heard (blistering/stinging guitar, great wah wah effects, etc.).