Regina born, Vancouver based “country/soul” singer Jojo Mason is all about the good vibes with a little bit of good luck and good timing.
Mason never even thought of being a singer. He wanted to be a professional hockey player and moved out to Victoria to play junior hockey until he injured himself. However a fortuitous meeting at a party with
producer Dan Schwimmer who was struggling with a line in a song about drinking moonshine out of a Mason’s jar, until he met Mason, who was doing just that.
They struck up a quick rapport and friendship and Schwimmer ended up taking Mason under his wing.
Now Mason has released his debut hit album “Both Sides of the Bar” and several hit singles including “It’s All Good,” “Good Kind of Love” and “Red Dress” and has begun a tour with country stars the James Barker band and Meghan Patrick, who stop by Average Joes, Feb. 3.
“It’s going great brother,” rumbled Mason from Halifax, where they just kicked off the cross Canada tour.
“The first show was sold out. It was crazy. I couldn’t have asked for a better start to the tour,” he enthused, noting he is excited to have 20 minutes to be opening for the rising stars.
“I’ve never played with them before. This is my first tour and they’ve been so generous,” Mason continued.
“I’m sharing a bus with Meghan and her band and we’re sharing a couple of band members. We’ve been laughing a lot,” he said.
Mason has been pleasantly surprised by the success of his debut CD, having carefully chosen which songs he wanted to record for it.
“Dan has a lot of songs to choose from,” Mason observed, adding it was easy to choose the ones that resonated the most with him.
“I met Dan at a party about three or four years ago. It’s nice to have someone like him to mentor me and have my back,” he said.
“He kind of took me under his wing. I had moved to Victoria to play hockey, but got a herniated disc and couldn’t play, so I was in a dark place. I went to the party. He was working on a song about drinking out of a Masons jar. And I was drinking moonshine out of a mason’s jar hat I bought at a liquor store and we started talking and struck up a fast friendship. Eventually asked me if I could sing and I said ‘shoot, I could try,’” he said.
While he didn’t take him seriously at first, Mason gave Schwimmer a call and they started working together.
“We’re both west coast musicians. We’ve become good friends.They’re really talented and really great people, really easygoing,” he said adding they were happy to oblige when he asked them to play with him in the video
“ I’d love to do a tour with them. That would be so much fun,” he said.
While he never aspired to be a singer, Mason always enjoyed country music and grew up in a household with a variety of different styles of music.
“I’ve always been a fan of Brad Paisley, and of course, my man Darius Rucker. But I grew up listening to things like Boys 2 Men, because that’s what my parents always listened to,” he said.
“I’ve always loved country music because it has always been about good songs and telling stories,” he said, noting he is drawn to the more pop and upbeat side of music.
“I’ve been through a lot of tough time, but things couldn’t be going better now. This is something a lot of people dream about doing, so I”m grateful to a lot of people for letting me do this,” he said
He is working on a new CD, which he describes as “country soul.”
“ The new music is a little bit more soul with some rock and pop. I’d like to call it soul country. But I have to wait until the time is right to release it. With Jojo Mason what you see is what you get,” he said, noting he won’t be playing any of the new songs during his opening set.
“Not yet. I’ve got 25 minutes to play, so I want to play songs people know,” he said.
“it’s fun. it’s a lot of fun and a lot of energy. There’s good vibes and good times. After the set, I like to hang out in the crowd and make new friends,” Mason said, noting he’d like to join Meghan Patrick and James barker on stage for a jam, but nothing has transpired so far on the tour.
“I hadn’t thought of that, but I’d love to do that,” he enthused.
The show begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are $31 in advance and $36 at the door.
