Mason Boys Swinging Saints
“The corn fields have turned to dust
the sugarcane fields are barren and dry
the old grey Massey has turned to dust
the outback spirit will never die” – This Land – Wade-Richards-Stubbs-Lynch-Cairns.
It was the final Saturday in spring as rain whetted the appetite outside St Andrews Hotel where Melbourne country rock band The Mason Boys were showcasing their second album Welcome To The Country.
Urban Cowboys and cowgirls braved the wet and windy roads from down south in the big smoke and diverse locales in the high country to reach this historic hotel and former post office operated by expatriate Scottish mother of 10 children, Eliza Smith, back in 1867.
The hotel remained in the family for 60 years and 98 years later is a musical mecca and magnet for lovers of country, folk and rock music.
It wasn’t hard to find the popular pub on a bustling country road where well fuelled footpath patrons saluted visitors as they parked their pick-up trucks, Utes and passenger vehicles on the grass and turf.
Guests had a wide choice of culinary cuisine as they awaited the quirky quintet to take the stage and punctuate tracks from their new CD and 2016 debut album Feels Like Home with choice country covers.
A bucolic bubble machine heralded the band’s apt entrée song Out In The Sticks from Welcome To The Country as divas, dames and dudes approached the dance floor.
They followed with the historic Hank Williams classic I Saw The Light and Brooks & Dunn’s hit Brand New Man.
Lead singer Clint Stubbs illustrated the Eric Church hit Drink In My Hand by imbibing the bottle in his hand while playing his guitar.
He heralded an offer of a free CD to the first patron on the dance floor – a blonde bombshell who led the posse with relish.
The band fired up their title track penned by all members of the band – one of 14 originals – before covering Van Diemen’s Land Wolfe Brothers song Throw Em Back.
They filled the dance floor with another Brooks & Dunn hit Boot Scooting Boogie.
The dancers rejoiced as the band fired up the 1973 Bob Dylan penned Wagon Wheel that was updated 25 years later by Old Crow Medicine Show singer Ketch Secor.
Equally evocative was the 1973 Dingoes hit Way Out West that was revived by James Blundell and James Reyne as a hit in 1992.
Other resurrections were Georgian gaucho Kip Moore’s 2012 hit Beer Money and fellow Georgian Billy Currington’s 2013 hit Hey Girl.
The band – featuring drummer vocalist Pete Wade, guitarist singers Stubbs and Shayne Lynch, Ruckus guest guitar man Roland Kretsher and bassist Bazza – reached way back for the late Johnny Cash’s 1955 hit Folsom Prison Blues.
Stubbs quipped they were not going to do any of North Carolina tourist Luke Combs songs before they ignited his Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma from the 2024 Twisters movie soundtrack.
Stubbs opened their second set by announcing there was a Land Rover parked outside with the lights left on.
It was just like the venue stage where the quintet powered up beneath the spotlights and bubbles.
They followed Until I See You Again with Garth Brooks hit Cowboy On A Wild Horse before their original This Land that was featured on The Drought short film soundtrack.
The band reignited Take That before singer Clint acknowledged presence of Nu Country TV show guests as they performed their apt Back In The Saddle original tune from debut album Feels Like Home.
They followed another original tune Tonight with Steve Earle’s epic hit Copperhead Road and the Dean Dillon-Linda Hargrove penned Tennessee Whiskey that was a 1981 hit for former convict outlaw star David Allan Coe and later recorded by recent tourist and Kentucky coalminer’s son Chris Stapleton.
The band slowed the tempo for another recent tourist Luke Combs hit Beautiful To Me before lead singer Stubbs asked the audience ‘do you want some rock?’
Fans responded with joy so the band ignited Shipwreck Coast born Goanna singer-songwriter Shane Howard’s huge hit Solid Rock.
The band, spectators at the recent Georgian Zac Brown Band Melbourne concert, honoured the tourists with their delicacy Chicken Fried.
They closed their set with Ice Cold Beer – Longnecks Never Broke My Heart by Luke Combs.
By now the moon was high in the St Andrew’s sky so we hit the road again like singer-songwriter actor Shotgun Willie Nelson, now 92, and returned down south to suburbia.
We enjoyed this joyous welcome to the country by a band that deserves national success as they head north to the annual Tamworth Country Music Festival in January where they deserve a Golden Guitar or two and avid audiences.
Review by David Dawson – Producer – Nu Country TV
Photo – Carol Taylor
