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... by Joanne Corsano ... joanne@picturelake.com

Band Personnel: Jim Armenti, lead vocals, lead guitar; Ray Mason, bass, lead vocals; Scott Hall, keyboards; Keith Levreault, drums; Tom Shea, drums, guitar, mandolin, harmonica, backing vocals; Andy Goulet, pedal steel.

See last photo in the album (link below).

Scroll to below videos for a review of the show.

Early In the Spring

Red House

Shape I'm In

I hadn't seen the Lonesome Brothers for a couple of years, so I wanted very much to be here at this show when this band were celebrating their 35th anniversary in the music business. I was there at the Iron Horse when they celebrated their 25th anniversary and it seemed like a fun idea to help them celebrate another ten years. This band claims that they play hick rock (smells like diesel) but I'd just call it straight ahead, well written, superbly performed rock with a tinge of country. It also made for a nice two-show weekend in western Mass., having seen the Slambovian Circus of Dreams last night.

Jim Armenti and Ray Mason, the two leaders of the band, opened the show by performing, just the two of them, a half dozen semi-acoustic songs. This was to revisit the format when these two friends were just starting out all those years ago. Then four more musicians joined them, including Tom Shea, the guitarist for the Ray Mason Band, who played guitar, mandolin, harmonica, and drums. The others were Keith Levreault, who often plays in the three-person version of the Lonesomes, who played drums exclusively, Scott Hall, keyboards, and Andy Goulet, pedal steel. Both Jim and Ray are excellent songwriters, and they're both really talented musicians. Jim plays a straight ahead lead guitar that could find its way into all sorts of alt-country and rock bands, and Ray is so good at playing bass he hardly ever looks at the instrument. The rest of the band were topnotch, too.

The music was very entertaining, as the band revived songs from most of the albums they've released over their third of a century in the music business, and worked in a cover or two. Both Jim and Ray were feeling up to their usual standards of engaging the crowd, and they both had the sold out and very appreciative audience in stitches much of the time. Ray has a very droll sense of humor, where Jim is a little more upbeat, and these two old friends have a great rapport both musically and in terms of showmanship.

Here is a page with a handy list of links to all pages on this website with content relating to Ray Mason and the bands he is in.

Click for 2020 Concert Page with links to all 2020 concerts ... Click for Main Concert Page with links to all years