{"id":744882,"date":"2026-04-22T07:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T07:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/744882\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T07:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T07:52:12","slug":"dave-mason-dead-traffic-co-founder-feelin-alright-singer-was-79","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/744882\/","title":{"rendered":"Dave Mason Dead: Traffic Co-Founder, ‘Feelin’ Alright’ Singer Was 79"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDave Mason<\/a>, solo artist, a founding member of the band Traffic<\/a>, writer of the classic rock songs \u201cFeelin\u2019 Alright\u201d and \u201cHole in My Shoe\u201d and sideman to the Rolling Stones, George Harrison and Jimi Hendrix, has died, according to an announcement from his publicist. No cause of death was announced, although ill health forced him to cancel a tour last year; he was 79.<\/p>\n

\n\tMason was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the other original members of Traffic in 2004. In the 1970s he enjoyed solo hits with \u201cOnly You Know and I Know\u201d and \u201cWe Just Disagree,\u201d and over the years he also performed or recorded with David Crosby, Graham Nash, Michael Jackson, Cass Elliot, Leon Russell and others. <\/p>\n

\n\tA fiery guitarist and strong songwriter and singer, Mason first rose to prominence as a member of Traffic, the psychedelic-era band fronted by Steve Winwood. While he wrote some of the band\u2019s biggest hits \u2014 notably \u201cHole in My Shoe\u201d (which reached No. 2 on the British singles charts and was later covered in a novelty version by the comedy troupe the Young Ones) and the song \u201cFeelin\u2019 Alright,\u201d later definitively covered by Joe Cocker \u2014 he had an on-off relationship with the band, although he contributed heavily to their first two albums, 1967\u2019s psychedelic classic \u201cMr. Fantasy,\u201d and the self-titled sophomore effort.<\/p>\n

\n\tBorn in 1946 in Worcester, England, Mason was a professional musician by his teens and released his first music as a member of the instrumental combo the Jaguars with the 1963 single \u201cOpus to Spring.\u201d In that band he first met future Traffic drummer Jim Capaldi, and the two later joined the Hellions, which released several singles. In early 1966, he became road manager for the Spencer Davis Group, which featured a teenaged and precociously talented Winwood and enjoyed hits with \u201cGimme Some Lovin\u2019\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m a Man.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tIn March of 1967, Winwood left the Spencer Davis Group and formed Traffic with Mason, Capaldi, and flautist Chris Wood. While Mason\u2019s relationship with the group was tenuous \u2014 he left and returned at least twice \u2014 Traffic was a major influence on multiple artists during the psychedelic era, and Mason contributed not only sparkling guitar playing and several of the group\u2019s best known songs but also sitar (on the band\u2019s classic debut single, \u201cPaper Sun\u201d) and other then-unconventional instruments. The flagship artist of late-1960s Island Records, Traffic were the first group among many to \u201cget it together in the country,\u201d workshopping their first album in a cottage in the hills of Berkshire in 1967. Traffic\u2019s version of \u201cFeelin\u2019 Alright\u201d was not a hit, but it was the rousing opening song of Joe Cocker\u2019s landmark 1969 debut, \u201cWith a Little Help From My Friends.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tMason left Traffic in 1968 and worked as a sort of hired gun to the stars, playing on the Rolling Stones\u2019 \u201cBeggars Banquet\u201d album (as that band coped with the dissolution of founding guitarist Brian Jones) and Hendrix\u2019s \u201cElectric Ladyland\u201d (that\u2019s him playing 12-string acoustic on \u201cAll Along the Watchtower\u201d and singing background on \u201cCrosstown Traffic\u201d). In late 1969 he joined the sprawling touring band of American duo Delaney & Bonnie\u2019s, which also saw Eric Clapton and George Harrison guesting on multiple U.K. and European dates. This association led to him contributing to several tracks on Harrison\u2019s classic \u201cAll Things Must Pass\u201d album, and in mid-1970 he was briefly a member of Eric Clapton\u2019s group Derek & the Dominos, but had left by the time the band recorded its epochal debut, \u201cLayla and Other Assorted Love Songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMason instead followed his own muse and released multiple solo albums, including one with former Mamas & the Papas singer Cass Elliot, into the 1970s and \u201980s. His 1974 self-titled album (although it was actually his fifth studio effort) went gold in the U.S.; he enjoyed his biggest solo hit, a cover of Jim Krueger\u2019s composition \u201cWe Just Disagree\u201d and the album \u201cLet It Flow\u201d in 1977, although further chart success did not follow.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe most curious turn in his career came in the 1990s when he briefly became a member of Fleetwood Mac, appearing on the 1995 album \u201cTime\u201d and on tour along with Bekka Bramlett \u2014 the daughter of his earlier collaborators Delaney & Bonnie \u2014 during a period when Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks had left the group. The revised lineup found disfavor among many Fleetwood Mac fans, and Buckingham and Nicks rejoined for a reunion of the \u201cclassic\u201d lineup two years later.<\/p>\n

\n\tMason\u2019s health issues<\/a> became known in 2024 when he canceled his tour for the following year, citing unspecified challenges.<\/p>\n

\n\tMason is survived by his wife, Winifred Wilson, and his daughter, Danielle. He was preceded in death by his son, True, and his sister, Valerie Leonard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dave Mason, solo artist, a founding member of the band Traffic, writer of the classic rock songs \u201cFeelin\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":744883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[9],"tags":[306905,171,314,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-744882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-dave-mason","tag-entertainment","tag-traffic","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116447277845880596","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=744882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}