CoronaVinyl Day 272 (M): Alone Together by Dave Mason

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "M," and I have a couple Dave Mason albums, so we're going with his 1970 debut solo album, Alone Together.

Mason -- who just celebrated his 75th birthday last week -- was one of the founding members of Traffic, with whom he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.  In the late '60s, he kind of drifted in and out of Traffic, where he and Steve Winwood generally shared lead vocal duties.  Probably his best know song that he sung with Traffic was 1968's "Feelin' Alright?," which was famously covered by Joe Cocker a few years later.

He also did some backing work on some amazing albums -- including on The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Electric Ladyland, The Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet, and George Harrison's All Things Must Pass -- but then decided to pursue a solo career, culminating in Alone Together in 1970. My version of the album is one of approximately 30% that was pressed on marble vinyl, which was certainly unusual for the time.  The album cover/jacket itself is cool as well, folding out in three spots to show Mason among some rocky hills, with his large head at the top, and there's even a little pinhole near the top of his top hat, in case you wanted to hang it on your wall.

Musically, it's a combination of rock, folk rock, and psychedelic rock -- the kind of music you'd expect from a former member of Traffic.  All in all, it's a very solid album.  He gathered a pretty solid group of backing musicians, too, including former Traffic band mate Jim Capaldi, Derek and The Dominos' Jim Gordon, and session drummers John Barbata and Jim Keltner on drums, Leon Russell on keyboards, Flying Burrito Brother Chris Ethridge, Derek and The Dominos' Carl Radle, and Wrecking Crew member Larry Knecthel on bass, and Bonnie Bramlett and Rita Coolidge on backing vocals, among others.

Alone Together went to #22 on the Billboard album chart, his highest-charting solo album in the U.S.  It produced one charting song, the peppy "Only You Know and I Know," which went to #42 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1977, he had a Top 15 hit with what I always assumed was a Baby Boomer divorce anthem, "We Just Disagree."  He released albums steadily until 1987, then took a 20-year hiatus from releasing his own music (and he was briefly a member of Fleetwood Mac in the mid '90s), to return with four solo albums since 2008, including a reimagining of Alone Together released last year, called Alone Together, Again.

Favorite song on Side 1:  "Waitin' On You"
This one is a soulful, bar rocker, with some female backing vocals .

Favorite song on Side 2:  "Look At You Look At Me"
The last song on the album is a bluesy rocker that turns into an eight-minute jam.