Just when I was starting to worry about when Willy Mason’s follow-up to his 2007 sophomore effort, If the Ocean Gets Rough, might arrive, good news from the young folkie once championed by the likes of Conor Oberst, Radiohead, Death Cab, and others has been posted to his site: “Getting ready to go into the studio with Dan Carey and make a new record,” Mason wrote. (That bit about working with Carey caught my eye, as the London producer’s résumé features mostly non-acoustic-based acts, such as the Kills, La Roux, Franz Ferdinand, and Hot Chip.)
If you haven’t heard the two new tracks he previewed last summer, they’re quite promising and can be heard here. Also, Mason turned in a few excellent duets with Isobel Campbell recently, including this take on Townes Van Zandt. And finally, while we wait for LP3, Mason uploaded a demo of new song “Shadows in the Dark,” as well as a few cuts off last year’s So Long Baby Shoes EP, now streaming below:
“Shadows in the Dark” (Demo)
“I Wish I Knew How to Say Goodbye” (So Long Baby Shoes EP)
“Restless Fugitive” (So Long Baby Shoes EP)