Much as I love the bluesy rock vibes of Wide Mouth Mason, one of my favourites of my favourite band is this slow, emotive, melancholic ballad that makes me want to have a warm drink and a satisfying book to read and relax on rainy days like today. The last few bars of vocals always gets to me.
Because when it’s already May and you still feel like you have a lot of week left, you need an anthemic rock song to power you through.
Sometimes, I wonder if kids today will look back at this era of music decades from now and still enjoy the artists of the day as much as kids in my day look back to the music and artists of the 80’s and 90’s. There are so many songs from that period that I either know the lyrics by heart or, at the very least, sing the chorus convincingly! I miss songs like “All I Want” by Toad the Wet Sprocket. And bands with interesting names!
Weird as it may seem, I’m a fan of music I can not only listen to but also physically own. There are variations to how I choose to own music, with my favourite of favourites often being artists I have music on multiple media. Wide Mouth Mason is one such artist. I love their entire catalogue as a longtime fan of their work, but this song, this song just seems to bring me the sun sonically on a rather dreary cold winter day. The music video’s vibe of laid back grooves match the repeating guitar chords that ties this song to my musical heart.
I remember the first moments of being aware of the Canadian rock band, Wide Mouth Mason. Back in the day when music channels actually played music videos and did music interviews (as opposed to the plethora of reality shows and dated March view typically airing on a music television channel near you), I recall a MuchMusic VJ doing a brief interview with the band before throwing to Wide Mouth Mason’s music video for the song “Midnight Rain”. That video struck a chord, but it wasn’t until an acquaintance started raving about Wide Mouth Mason, deeming the band amongst their favourites that my knowledge of the band got a bit deeper.
Although I regretfully couldn’t enjoy much of early Wide Mouth Mason performances live, my Wide Mouth Mason CD collection grew. I’ve enjoyed the musical permutations of the band Wide Mouth Mason proper, as well as the musical tangents members of Wide Mouth Mason became involved in as time passed. I mourned the departure of original bassist and co-founder Earl Pereira, yet also rejoiced in the bassists that helped Wide Mouth Mason maintain its live performance grit. When Gordie Johnson (Big Sugar frontman and past Wide Mouth Mason producer) opted to join Wide Mouth Mason as its permanent bassist, my favourite band ever became even better! To this day, being the completist collector I am, I have every single recording ever done by Wide Mouth Mason. And I love that their music always remains amazing to me, never boring.
