Showing posts with label Mason Ruffner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mason Ruffner. Show all posts

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Mason Ruffner - You Can't Win

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 52:04
Size: 119.2 MB
Styles: Memphis blues
Year: 1999
Art: Front

[4:13] 1. Love Don't Love No Body
[4:13] 2. Ruler Of The World
[4:41] 3. Mama's Girl
[2:57] 4. Can't Stop Lovin' You
[3:49] 5. Let Me Down Easy
[4:21] 6. Back In The Alley
[5:04] 7. Dee Blues
[3:48] 8. Keep Your Light On For Me
[4:26] 9. Highway Blues
[3:58] 10. You Got My Number
[3:10] 11. Break Out
[3:50] 12. Loaded Dice
[3:28] 13. Keep On Holdin' On

There are 13 new songs on this disc and they range from some slow blues to his characteristic hard-driven Texas blues that he learned growing up in the Fort Worth. His main influences that you can hear are Jimmy Reed, Anson Funderburgh, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, though much of his vocal phrasing probably comes from the time he spent playing in Robert Ealey's band. His guitar playing is his strong point and he displays it well. From the tasteful slide work on "Mama's Girl" to the loping lines he uses on "Can't Stop Lovin' You," to the chuk chuk guitar of Back in the Alley" to the the hard-driving "Dee Blues." On this latter cut he lets his guitar soar and pound away at the restraints of the speakers, and spends his time really bending the wires to stretch any limits that remain. He makes excellent use of his horn players here, using them to augment his sound and make it fill up the room. A nod must be given at this point to Keith Sykes who co-produced the disc with Mason Ruffner for his contribution on that end. Its good to hear that rasp voice rubbing over the lyrics, but it is even better to hear the guitar-driven Texas blues of this man again. A dynamite performer if you get a chance to see him. ~Bob Gottlieb

You Can't Win mc
You Can't Win zippy

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Mason Ruffner - So Far...

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 57:41
Size: 132.1 MB
Styles: Rockin blues
Year: 2008
Art: Front

[3:40] 1. Angel Love
[4:41] 2. Distant Thunder
[8:30] 3. Gypsy Blood
[3:57] 4. Gamblin' Fever
[3:32] 5. Baby, I Don't Care No More
[4:20] 6. Runnin'
[3:48] 7. Let Me Down Easy
[7:28] 8. Red Hot Lover
[3:57] 9. Kings Highway
[4:07] 10. Let The Spirit Go
[4:41] 11. Midnight Dancer
[4:54] 12. Farewell

This is a "best of" collection from Ruffner's four studio recordings. If you are new to Mason's Music and want his best then this is the disc for you. This CD also includes a never before released gem called "Midnight Dancer"!

Here is a quote from Bob Dylan: "Ft. Worth guitarist and singer Mason Ruffner played in Bourbon Street clubs like the Old Absinthe Bar. He was a regional star, had a high pompadour, a gold tooth smile with a tiny guitar inlaid. He had a few records out and some explosive licks with funky edges, rockabilly tremolo-influenced, wrote songs, too, said that he'd hung around libraries reading Rimbaud and Baudelaire to get his language down. He also told me that as a teenager he had played with Memphis Slim. I thought I had something in common with him there. I'd played with Big Joe Williams when I was coming up. Mason had some fine songs. One of them had the line, "You do good things for people and it just makes them bad". I would have thought about recording it if I didn't have my own originals." ~Bob Dylan (From the book "Chronicles Volume 1" by Bob Dylan).

So Far...