Tuesday Tune: "All Come Down" by Steve Mason

"All Come Down" hooked me from the first three notes of Steve Mason's tenor cutting through my car stereo speakers. It was the first time I heard (or heard of) this Scottish singer, but you can bet it won't be the last listen I give him.  There is an earnest, plaintive quality in Mason's voice--especially in "All Come Down"--that insists you pause in what you're doing and give your all to this man for four minutes.

In its review of Mason's Boys Outside album, The Guardian wrote:

[I]n this stripped-back setting, in which Mason's muted guitar and piano melodies are given a subtle electronic frosting by producer Richard X, his meditations on depression and heartbreak are devastatingly direct. "I lost my way when I jumped in the river"; "I cannot find myself to hide": the melancholy is almost suffocating. And the lovelier the music – in the swooshing, soaring chorus of "The Letter," or the shimmering "All Come Down" – the more achingly fragile Mason sounds.

Well, I guess I'm a fan of suffocating melancholy because "All Come Down" really speaks to me: pure, direct, haunting.  While I prefer the album version, you can also see and hear Mason deliver the song in this acoustic performance:



To purchase "All Come Down" on Amazon, CLICK HERE.