Brent Mason lights up the room with Fireflies
““Mason’s own voice and his storytelling remain at the forefront of each track, leading his band and his audience through stories of love and life.””
With his latest release ‘Fireflies’, acclaimed Saint John songwriter and musician, Brent Mason continues into his third decade of penning songs that are inspired by the world he sees around him. Including his East Coast Music Award nominated love letter to the Wolastuq (St. John) River Songs, Brent’s 10 previous albums contain a poetic and unflinchingly honest catalogue of songs. Brent Staeben, Music Director of The Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival, calls Brent “the David Adams Richards of New Brunswick songwriters”
‘Fireflies’ is a 10 song collection that was written in a 3-month period in the World’s Smallest Studio: a re-modeled chicken-coop on Brent’s property.
On his new album ‘Fireflies’, Brent is takes risks, trying new approaches to vocal presentation, guitar playing and new genres. You’ll find sweet gentle folk tunes, country’n’ blues, some forays into heavy rock and even some swampy reggae-tinged rhythms around his words.
Critics are noting that Brent is reaching new heights with vocals, sounding more comfortable and smoother than ever before. Relaxed and confident in his role as a senior ambassador of the NB music scene, ‘Fireflies’ is the work of an old hand who is still willing to be brave enough to grow.
Produced by Grant Heckman and Tim Davidson, ‘Fireflies’ takes Brent Mason in bold new directions, incorporating horns, some heavier tunes, and some sweet folk, all with the great lyrical content we’re used to.
In a career spanning 2 handfuls of strong albums, with ‘Fireflies’, Brent Mason finds new heights!
Album Reviews: “Fire Flies”
The Guardian
March 31, 2022
By Doug Gallant
The COVID-19 pandemic placed a lot of artists in a holding pattern.
There were limited opportunities for live performances and even those that went ahead did so with much smaller audiences because of capacity restrictions implemented by public health officials.
The pandemic also forced some artists to pull back on plans for broad release of new work because they were unable to tour in support of those releases.
New Brunswick singer-songwriter Brent Mason had originally planned to release Fireflies early in 2020 with a whole series of live shows around the region, but the pandemic forced him to cancel all the release shows in the Maritimes.
He ultimately ended up doing a solo live release show from the chicken coop he converted into his studio space.
The album finally did get the release it deserved, and it is definitely a keeper.
Mason, who has multiple ECMA and Music New Brunswick Awards to his credit, is a first-class storyteller, and he has woven together several stories here that will hold your attention and keep you coming back for another go around. Whether he’s writing about the ups and downs of personal relationships or troubling events that impact our quality of life, he never misses the mark.
He wrote the songs on this record during what he described as a pretty intense period for him personally and in terms of what was going on in the world around us.
“But some of it still seems fresh and relevant — apocalyptic toe-tappers like Frogs (In A Pot), White Rats, Give Your Head A Shake. Even Monticello,” Mason said Monday during a brief exchange of messages.
Musically, Mason has taken some risks here, from the way he approaches the vocals and the guitar work on the album to the diversity of the material. While he’s still crafting material that embraces his deep folk roots, he also cranks out some material here that muscles its way through country blues, full-throttle country rock and, in the case of Frogs In The Pot, a hybrid of swamp rock, reggae and joyous New Orleans funeral march music.
Great Dark Wonder
By Douglas McLean
Brent Mason’s eleventh album, “Fireflies,” is full of twists and turns, delights and surprises. Plainspoken lyrics reminisce and ponder days long gone, loves long lost and what it means to move on, if that is even still possible. “Well you might think of what you need, is coming down the line / Show up at the station, the train’ll run on time / Do it right and living clean, follow all the rules / But there’s vultures on the wires and there’s pigeons on the stool / Give your head shake / Give your head shake / Shake, Shake, Shake,” Brent sings plaintively in “Give Your Head A Shake,”sounding momentarily like a weary Townes Van Zandt. He further hints that the state we find ourselves in is mostly mystifying, if not down right discouraging. “You can feed on all the news / Fill your head with shame / And all of the atrocities done in someone’s name / Thoughts and prayers fill the air like wishes and balloons / You might think it‘s coming / Coming real soon / Give your head shake / Give your head shake / Shake, Shake, Shake.” Of course the question that begs answering is what? What is coming real soon?
These songs shape into a reflection on what this “coming” might resemble, but like all wise men of a certain age and travelled distance know, sometimes the question is more important than the answer. The little things, like Mason’s reference to “Sugaree,” the 1972 Grateful Dead classic tale of being on the run, may be oblivious to some during “Give Your Head A Shake,” yet references to past cultural iconography and songwriting are a prevailing, intentionally recurring theme across this albums’ ten songs.
In “Deja Blues,” a strong rocker surely meant for a car radio on full blast, Mason calls out to Hank Williams’ cheating heart, but it’s now a “Rebel without a clue…a Cadillac stalled on the county line.” These clues point us somewhere in imagination that is clouded with demarcations covered up in blue. Simple strummed guitar outlines a lyric of winter love and old goodbyes during “Cold Love,” which is perhaps the most personal of the songs on this collection. “I followed footprints in the snow / They lead me far from what I know / Got covered by four strong and lonely winds / I walk beneath the winter sky / Aurora Borealis eye / I know that you’re not coming back again,” Mason recites, perhaps referring to days gone by as to a loved one. Deceptive in its portrayal of longing and loss, “Cold Love” simmers with a heartbeat that filters through the remaining songs, like a coda.
“Frogs In A Pot,” with its New Orleans street march beat and slow crawl horns, is funny and infectious. Aptly titled, the song brings to the mind the old joke that if a frog is put suddenly into boiling water, it will jump out, but if the frog is put in tepid water which is then brought to a boil slowly, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. Mason uses the metaphor to his advantage in this tune, admonishing: “Goodbye Norma Jean, so long Jimmy Dean, the party’s over / Lemmings on the ledge, with bets that we can’t hedge, or even cover / Hollywood and Vine, never saw the signs, in time / Frogs in a pot, believe it or not / Frogs in a pot, and the water’s getting hot / Hot, hot, hot.” Directly quoting the old Calypso, conga dance by Arrow, “Hot, Hot Hot,” Mason and his merry band of singers dance out the final phrases as the band turns up the heat.
The album has a stunning trio of country rockers: “Running Out Of Road,” “Saddles In The Sand,” and “White Rats” – the latter offering the most scathing of Mason’s observations. Clearly, the songwriter is filled with perplexed dread for a world lost in its own confusion, unaware of the road ahead. With its powerful guitar stanzas and pounding drum, Mason sings passionately and purposefully: “Fluorescent lights that make you numb / Resentment flavours every crumb / Conspiracies of deaf and dumb and blind / On and on and on / White Rats.”
Brent Mason is a well known songwriter from Saint John, NB, where, to summarize from his artist profile, his Wednesday nights, hosting O’Leary’s Open Mic Night are legend. Twenty-five years at this regular gig has earned him the moniker “Godfather of the Saint John Music Scene.” He’s co-written several recorded songs with award winning artist, Jessica Rhaye, and conducts songwriting workshops in schools throughout the province. Brent is also a published writer and filmmaker whose conceptual mini-series, “Grave Concerns,” was picked up by CBC and broadcast nationally. These artistic “crop rotation” techniques into other genres finds Brent working on stories and word craft that informs his writing across the board.
There are treasures of many rarities to be found on this album, with its sharp social commentary and personal meditations, but the title song “Fireflies,” reveals the delicate emotions that stir, still, within the veteran’s songwriting soul: “I was living the stranger’s life / I let the light close its eyes / I forgot about the reasons why / I forgot about the fireflies.” Surrounded by lush echoing pedal steel, swelling organ pads and electric guitar reverb, Brent sings: “In the dead of night I still hold you tight / That you don’t even know / How could I forget / Let you go and yet, I still see the glow / Blink, blink, blink, don’t go out / Blink, blink, blink, don’t go out.” Sing this refrain then, quietly to yourself, in moments of doubt and consternation, and you will recognize why this album, “Fireflies,” is so precious.
Fast facts
Brent Mason is the recipient of multiple East Coast Music Awards and Music New Brunswick Awards.
He is the youngest recipient of the Stompin’ Tom Award for his contributions to Atlantic Canadian music traditions.
Mason has hosted a regular open mic night at O’Leary’s in Saint John for more than 25 years.
He’s also a published writer and a filmmaker.
The new record, produced by Grant Heckman and Tim Davidson, will catch some of his older fans by surprise, especially when he cranks it up on more muscular tracks like Running Out of Road or Deja Blues or brings in the horn section on Frogs In A Pot.
But those who have a soft spot for Mason’s softer, the folky side will still find plenty here to wrap their head around on tracks like Cold Love, Fireflies and Monticello.
This is an easy record to get attached to. The songs are solid, Mason’s vocals have seldom, if ever, sounded better and Mason and the players behind him flex some serious musical muscle when they shift into overdrive. Love the guitar work here by Mason, Grant Heckman and Aaron Gunn.
Rating: 4 out of 5