Wide Mouth Mason
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Wide Mouth Mason is a
Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
-based
rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band, consisting of Shaun Verreault (Lead Vocals, Guitar) and Safwan Javed (Percussion, Backing Vocals). Former bassist Earl Pereira was also co-founder of Wide Mouth Mason. The band hails from
Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...
,
Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...
and has been active since 1995.


Career

Wide Mouth Mason took its name from the jar of the same name, and independently released its first album, ''The Nazarene'' in 1996. Although only 2,500 copies were pressed, it still drew interest from the major labels. The band would re-record much of ''The Nazarene'' at
Greenhouse Studios Greenhouse Studios is a Canadian music recording studio founded by Bruce Levens in 1987 where over 1000 albums have been recorded in the last 25 years. Incorporated as Lions Gate Studios, it subsequently changed its name to Vancouver Studios befor ...
. The re-recorded tracks and new material attracted the attention of
Warner Music Canada Warner Music Canada is the Canadian division of Warner Music Group. The label previously operated as WEA Music of Canada, Ltd. (French: ''WEA Musique du Canada, Ltée''), often shortened to WEA Canada, the Canadian subsidiary of WEA Internationa ...
, who signed the band to a record deal. The new album would be the band's eponymous major-label debut; it was released in 1997 in Canada and the U.S., and a year later in Japan. It established the group's fusion of pop/rock/blues, and yielded the hit singles "Midnight Rain", "My Old Self", and "This Mourning". The album went
Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
in Canada,
and the band was nominated for Best New Group at the 1998
Juno Awards The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...
.Juno Awards, past nominations
Wide Mouth Mason released a new album in 1999 with ''
Where I Started ''Where I Started'' is the third studio album by Canadian rock band Wide Mouth Mason. The album produced four successful singles, "Why", "Companion (Lay Me Down)", "Sugarcane", and "Half A Chance". The album won the award for "Outstanding Rock ...
'', a continuance of its prior sound, but adding elements of jazz and world music. The band returned to Greenhouse Studios to record and mix the album. The band performed at the Rivoli in Toronto in March that year to publicize the release of the album. The album, like its predecessor, attained Gold status in Canada. Its lead single, "Why", backed with scratches and cuts from childhood friend and DJ Muchi Mambo, was a hit in Canada, and was followed by two other hits, "Companion (Lay Me Down)" and "Sugarcane". In 2000, the band quickly followed up with the album ''Stew''. It was more pop-oriented than the band's previous efforts, but also eclectic, hence the title of the album. The single "Smile" charted well in Canada, the follow-up "Change" was popular on MuchMusic, and the album was nominated for Best Rock Album at the 2001 Junos. From March to May 2001, Wide Mouth Mason opened for
AC/DC AC/DC (stylised as ACϟDC) are an Australian Rock music, rock band formed in Sydney in 1973 by Scottish-born brothers Malcolm Young, Malcolm and Angus Young. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock, and Heavy metal ...
on their
Stiff Upper Lip World Tour The Stiff Upper Lip World Tour was a concert tour by the Australian hard rock band AC/DC in support of their fourteenth studio album, ''Stiff Upper Lip'', which was released in 28 February 2000. This tour had 6 legs around the world lasting 1 ...
. Wide Mouth Mason returned in 2002 with two albums. The first, ''Rained Out Parade'', featured a heavier emphasis on the blues, a deliberate lo-fi production style, and the featured title track. It received a 2003 Juno nomination for Rock Album of the Year. The second album, ''Greatest Hits'', was released exclusively in China. When its contract with Warner expired, the band signed a license agreement with Curve Music in 2004. The following year, the band would again release two albums, this time on the same day. One was ''The Essentials'', a greatest-hits album, and the other was ''Shot Down Satellites'', a new studio release featuring a
hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...
-centred style and the single "I Love Not Loving You". The disc was produced by the band and their former co-manager, Ross Damude. In 2006, Shaun Verreault released his solo debut, ''The Daggerlip Sketches'', focusing on acoustic-guitar-based material. It featured new songs and stripped-down versions of familiar material from his band. In early 2008, the Wide Mouth Mason's official website announced that Verreault was releasing a second solo album, titled ''Two Steel Strings'', and that the full band was writing new material for a future release Since then, Earl Pereira left the band to concentrate on his own band, The Steadies (formerly Mobadass), which he has fronted since 2005. In 2010, Wide Mouth Mason supported
ZZ Top ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. For 51 years, they comprised vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard and vocalist-bassist Dusty Hill, until Hill's death in 2021. ZZ Top developed a signature sound ...
with Grady/
Big Sugar The sugar industry subsumes the production, processing and marketing of sugars (mostly sucrose and fructose). Globally, most sugar is extracted from sugar cane (~80% predominantly in the tropics) and sugar beet (~ 20%, mostly in temperate climate ...
front-man
Gordie Johnson Gordie Johnson (born 22 May 1964) is a Canadian musician, best known as the front man for the blues/reggae rock band Big Sugar, Austin-based blues/gospel band Sit Down Servant, and southern rock band Grady. Johnson is a Grammy nominated pr ...
on bass. In March 2011, the band announced that Johnson would be joining the band full-time. Wide Mouth Mason recorded their first album in five years in late 2010 with
Gordie Johnson Gordie Johnson (born 22 May 1964) is a Canadian musician, best known as the front man for the blues/reggae rock band Big Sugar, Austin-based blues/gospel band Sit Down Servant, and southern rock band Grady. Johnson is a Grammy nominated pr ...
producing. The band has been playing many of these unrecorded songs live over the last year. The album entitled "No Bad Days" was released on July 12, 2011. In 2019, the group released the heavily blues-influenced album "I Wanna Go With You". The record prominently features Verreault's "Tri-Slide" technique, using three slides on his fretting hand and playing more lap-steel and dobro-style instruments.


Discography

* ''The Nazarene'' (1996) * ''
Wide Mouth Mason Wide Mouth Mason is a Canadian blues-based rock band, consisting of Shaun Verreault (Lead Vocals, Guitar) and Safwan Javed (Percussion, Backing Vocals). Former bassist Earl Pereira was also co-founder of Wide Mouth Mason. The band hails from S ...
'' (1997) * ''
Where I Started ''Where I Started'' is the third studio album by Canadian rock band Wide Mouth Mason. The album produced four successful singles, "Why", "Companion (Lay Me Down)", "Sugarcane", and "Half A Chance". The album won the award for "Outstanding Rock ...
'' (1999) * ''Stew'' (2000) * ''Rained Out Parade'' (2002) * ''Shot Down Satellites'' (2005) * ''No Bad Days'' (2011) * ''I Wanna Go With You'' (2019)


See also

*
Music of British Columbia Popular music in British Columbia is strongly associated with the city of Vancouver. As Canada's third largest city, Vancouver has one of the most influential rock and pop scenes in the country. It is also, like Toronto, a common destination for m ...
*
Music of Saskatchewan Music in the Canadian province Saskatchewan, one of the Prairie Provinces, includes a variety of genres including Indigenous music, folk, country, jazz, and classical traditions. History In the early days of settlement, the musical landscape of ...


References


External links


Wide Mouth Mason
Official website

CanadianBands.com bio {{Authority control Musical groups established in 1995 Musical groups from Saskatoon Canadian blues rock musical groups 1995 establishments in Saskatchewan