Willy Mason

I’m not sure why reviewing Willy Mason is proving to be so difficult, and yet for some reason I just cannot get started. It’s been almost two weeks now, and the page remains blank.

Perhaps my main problem is facing up the fact Willy's performance was really very good. So why, Why, WHY is it so tricky to express this, without coming across like a naïve, pseudo-hippy’s cock?

Well let’s see. Here we have a fairly conventional singer-songwriter with a soothing if uninspiring voice. And, of course, he is also lying in the gutter but staring at the stars, like 35 years of various Dylan-provoked predecessors.

BUT! But. Not everyone can be called Dananananaykroyd, and not everyone comes out with an astonishing new sound (see Battles). And after all, not everybody needs or wants to be quite so damn innovative. In order for these overly creative acts to thrive, a base is required, a standard frame of reference. It’s left to the Willys of the world (LOL) to ply this less glamorous, well-travelled road.

And just because a thing be well-worn, it does not prevent it from being enjoyable and good. And tonight, Willy and his band are both consistently enjoyable and good. Boring you say? Bore you. While ‘Oxygen’ may induce retching from indie obscurists, it is a tune and a half whether you admit it or not. So why not give cynicism a rest?

The highlight of the evening, however, arrives when Willy is off fixing his guitar. Dreadlocked violinist Nina Violet briefly takes centre stage, swapping violin for guitar. The one song she has time to perform is unexpected, and completely gorgeous.

A bit like Scout Niblett, but more sane and in tune, Nina Violet causes a united hushed silence (well, I’d like to remember it that way), providing three precious minutes of folk perfection. What should have been a lull in the show in fact turned out to be its highlight.

Fortunately for Willy, he was at this point yet to pull out his own Big Willy, ‘Oxygen’. But an anthem of our times or a rank sick-summoner? Perhaps it’s both. I still can’t decide.