Product Description

Debut album from Massachusetts-born singer songwriter WillyMason. Following the release of two EP's to critical acclaim, the acoustically melodic Mason returns with his first full length album. The singles 'Hard Hand To Hold' and 'Oxygen'are included.

Track Listing

1. Gotta Keep Movin
2. All You Can Do
3. Still A Fly
4. Where The Humans Eat
5. Fear No Pain
6. Hard Hand To Hold
7. Letter #1
8. Sold My Soul
9. Our Town
10. So Long
11. Oxygen
12. 21st Century Boy

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12004 in Music
• Released on: 2004-10-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced

Amazon.co.uk Review
In the near-constant deluge of singer-songwriters to emerge in recent years, Willy Mason towers above the rest through sheer quality. Listening to the 12 tracks on his debut album Where the Humans Eat, you'd be forgiven for mistaking this 20-year-old native of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts for someone much older and more experienced. His off-kilter delivery--a bit off-key, a bit off-time--is just part of his charm. But Mason's real talent is as a songwriter, and he is almost without peer amongst his contemporaries. "It's a hard hand to hold / that is looking for control" he sings on "Hard Hand to Hold", a song about homelessness and disaffection that never preaches or judges. His keen observations and deft lyrics place him in an American tradition that includes Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie and Hank Williams. Like the best protest singers, Mason is not motivated by anger at the way the world is, but hope in what the world can be. As a result, Where the Humans Eat is sweet, simple and altogether excellent. --Robert Burrow

Album Description
Where the Humans Eat, the debut full-length album from this Martha's Vineyard native, is a sweet and soulful testament to youth's subtle, inherent brilliance. This is no ordinary teenager; he's a charming, graceful troubadour who's just as comfortable opening for The Grateful Dead as he is Death Cab for Cutie, delivering music easily cherished by all crowds and cross sections.

Customer Reviews

MODERN BLUES
This release somehow slipped passed the BM! Radar in 2005 and what a miss! If the music wasn't familiar to me, the name was and enough so to make parting with my money less of a tear. A wonderful example of how the Blues can, and really should, sound for the "today"...steeped in the traditions yet moving on with individuality. Most white 20-somethings (yes, he really is only in his early 20's although his weathered/"lived" vocals will surely have you checking this isn't some 60-year old undiscovered Blues master) playing the Blues today are either obsessed with pretentious solo's or have chosen to fuse the genre with Punk in order to create the impression of "new" - where Willy stands out is through lack of a needed disguise or gimmick; like all the greats who've gone before him it's about "the song" and "the song" rightly comes before anything else (to be fair if you've got a great song you don't need to spend 10 minutes making love to your strat, do you?). Through the lyric comparisons with the likes of Dylan are understandable - keenly observing the current world and expressing these observations dexterously (covering war, deprivation, poverty...), what any Blues artist should do, right? A quality songster who can bring cultural awareness, brutality and pain right into your living room but will leave you feeling charmed and invigorated upon leaving. Truly remarkable.
©Blues Matters!

awesome
i absolutely love it we had the pure good luck of seeing him live at the social in notts and even though he was ill with sore throat his singing was still great.
i like the way it can de-stress you with his soothing kinda bluesy voice but then if you listen to it while your in a good mood it picks you up and you find yourself singing along! and personally i think that is what makes a singer/songwriter.
willy mason has pure talent and you find you can relate to his songs my fav has to be oxygen that was the one that sold the album to me.
so buy this album (i would give it more stars if i could!!) or better yet if you get the chance see him live, he even stops after to speak to you and sign autographs!! not many bands will do that
so believe the hype willy mason really is all that!!!

One more for the Alt Country playlist
I came across this album whilst reading one of my girlfriends magazines! They were discussing the new wave of singer/songwriters and had put Willy in a list that included Daniel Powter and James Blunt. Some people just don't get it do they? Anyway I still bought Willy's record, and i'm glad i did because it's a beauty. Sure, Willy Evokes Maggies Farm era Bob Dylan, but there's also some Tom Waits and maybe even some Elliot Smith in there too. He's not a a particularly gifted singer, but I would happilly trade one man earnestly singing his own songs, for a thousand boneheads like Blunt and Powter. Take Oxygen:

"I wanna see through all the lies of society
To the reality, happiness is at stake
I wanna hold up my head with dignity
Proud of a life where to give means more than to take"

Now there are people in the music industry today that could sit with a guitar on their lap for the next twenty years and never write a song as good as that. Nice work Willy.