An Evening with Mason Jennings
*The Parkway Theater requires Proof of COVID-19 Vaccination or Negative Test Result for entry to all events. This policy is detailed here.*
Friday, September 17, 2021
7 pm Doors // 8 pm Music
All Ages
$79 VIP
$59 Preferred Reserved
$39 Advance General Admission // $49 At The Door
Ticket Purchases are Final and Non-Refundable
An intimate appearance by one of Minnesota's most beloved troubadours.
What makes [him] one of the best acoustic-based singer-songwriters you've never heard of, is his ragged, intimate voice and simple ruminations on God, war, hope, and gratitude — Rolling Stone
Mason Jennings was born on the island of Hawaii, but at an early age his family moved to the opposite of tropical: Pittsburgh, PA. At 13, he started playing guitar and writing songs. Mason later dropped out of high school and decided to move to Minneapolis to pursue his musical career. He made this decision after a friend of his father's send him cassette tapes of the Replacements, Jayhawks, and Prince. After non-stop listening he felt like it would be a great home for his music.
At a time in his career where a lot of musicians burn out, Mason has new energy and drive. "I'm just happy to have found true love and to be healing from [a] dark time. I was struggling to find hope and it found me. Music just burst out of me this year. It's always been a life-line but this is the most open I've felt."
When Mason Jennings started writing songs for his new record, Songs From When We Met, he was in a setting he had never written in before. "I was living out at a farm for a month and walking through some old woods on the property every day. There was a river. And each day an owl would come find me, and then perch above me, day or night. I saw lots of snakes. Songs just came to me there. They were coming in so fast they just about took my head off. It was unlike anything I've experienced before," he recalls. "In Native American animal medicine, snakes symbolize rebirth, owls symbolize seeing what others cannot and turning darkness into light. Both are themes throughout the album and the music has a clear hopeful feeling."
Songs From When We Met features Mason on guitar, piano, bass and drums. He is also accompanied by one of his favorite bands, The Pines. "They are magic. They got inside these songs and really brought them to life. I produced an EP for them last year and it reminded me how good we worked together. It is always a pleasure working with them. They are great humans."
The Mason Jennings History
Mason produced his self-titled debut album in 1997 on a Tascam analog four-track in the living room of a rented home, playing all the instruments himself. In October 1998, he began a weekly gig at Minneapolis' 400 Bar. The two-week gig ended up lasting four months.
Birds Flying Away, Mason's second record, revealed his penchant for singing first-person narratives of imaginary rustic characters. In 2002, Mason released a studio album, Century Spring, and a "fans only" collection of acoustic songs, Simple Life.
In 2004, Mason released Use Your Voice, which included the songs Keepin' It Real, ostensibly written at the request of Shrek 2 producers (but not ultimately used in the film), and The Ballad of Paul and Sheila, an acoustic dirge for late Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone and his wife. Later that year came a DVD entitled, Use Your Van, which chronicled the recording of Use Your Voice and the promotional tour that followed.
In June of 2005, Mason signed with Glacial Pace, a subsidiary of Sony's Epic Records headed by Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock. The Star Tribune credited Brock with convincing Mason to sign after he opened for several Modest Mouse shows in 2004. Mason had long avoided the major labels, citing desires to maintain creative control and dodge big-label politics.
Mason recorded his sixth album, Boneclouds, at Pachyderm Studio in Cannon Falls with producer Noah Georgeson. Mason recorded two Bob Dylan songs, The Times They Are A-Changin' and The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll, which actor Christian Bale lip-synced in the film I"m Not There.
In early 2008, Mason signed with Jack Johnson's record label, Brushfire Records, and released In The Ever in May 2008. The album title was inspired by his son referring tot where he was born as "in the ever." Blood of Man soon followed and received a coveted 4-star review in Rolling Stone.
In 2020, LIve at First Ave, his first live album, was released. Later that same year, Mason released The Flood, an album made up of songs he had recorded in the 1990s on a cassette tape he had lost. A friend sent a copy of the tape to Mason and after rediscovering the songs, he decided to re-record them in a stripped down fashion to stay true to their intent.
In 2011, he released Minnesota, his first new album of original songs since 2009's Blood of Man. In 2013 came Always Been, followed by 2016's Wild Dark Metal.
Mason got divorced and after taking some time off to focus on painting and to recover from a bout with depression and to heal from agoraphobia, he began touring again. He got remarried in 2018 and released the album of love songs inspired by his new relationship, Songs From When We Met, available now.