Mason Williams

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Mason Williams (1969)

Mason Douglas Williams (born August 24, 1938 in Abilene , Texas ) is an American guitarist and composer.

Mason Williams only learned to play guitar while studying music at the University of Oklahoma City. He decided to stick with music and became a member of the folk band The Wayfarers . During his time in the army there was no more time for band tours, but for club appearances and composing. After his military service he also earned his living composing. His customers included stars like the Kingston Trio, Gale Garnett and Petula Clark. He was also co-author of the world hit Cinderella Rockefella by Esther & Abi Ofarim .

When the comedian duo Tom and Dick Smothers got a regular TV show in 1967, he got involved as a writer for music and comedy. The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was a success and got an Emmy for the script . Williams was the lead author of a second Emmy in 1969.

There were musical guests during the show and that's how we got in touch with Warner Bros. Records. Mason Williams got a recording deal and the first record was produced by Mike Post . The first single was the self-composed instrumental Classical Gas . In the unusual piece, a mixture of country, rock and classical music, the guitar theme by Williams is accompanied by four cellos, violins, two horns, two trombones, two pianos, three guitars, drums and bass. The song reached number two in the US and number nine in the UK, and at the 1969 Grammy Awards it won three awards for best instrumental performance in pop , best instrumental theme and best instrumental arrangement (for Mike Post). Classical Gas has become an instrumental classic that is often used and played a lot.

Mason Williams' versatile talents are not limited to music. He wrote various non-fiction books and is the creator of the bus book: This is the picture of a greyhound bus in its original size (3.4 m × 11 m), folded to the size of a book. It was accepted into the Museum of Modern Art in New York. A second work of art was Sunflower : An airplane painted a stem and two leaves in the sky in such a way that, with the sun as the flower head, a sunflower emerged for about 40 seconds before it was blown away by the wind.

In the 1970s and 1980s Williams continued to work in two ways as a comedy writer, repeatedly for the Smothers Brothers, but also for others, including Saturday Night Live . And he kept releasing records, so in 1987 he teamed up with Mannheim Steamroller for the album Classical Gas , which contains a joint new recording of the instrumental hit and was awarded gold . The song Country Idyll was also nominated for a Grammy for best instrumental.

In the 1990s, he mainly focused on concerts and appearances. He also discovered film music for himself and contributed with his compositions to several film soundtracks. Of his other albums, Music for the Epicurean Harkener received a short album (EP) with six instrumental titles , another Grammy nomination (2003), the album Electrical Gas , a collaboration with British guitarist Zoe McCulloch, was on the list of suggestions (2005) .

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personal data
SURNAME Williams, Mason
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Williams, Mason Douglas (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American musician and comedy writer
DATE OF BIRTH August 24, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Abilene , Texas , United States