Dave Mason, the English singer, songwriter and guitarist who wrote mainstays of the classic-rock canon like “Feelin’ Alright?” and “Only You Know and I Know,” and who was a founding member of the seminal band Traffic before starting a successful solo career, died on Sunday at his home in Gardnerville, Nev. He was 79.
His death was confirmed by his publicist, Melissa Dragich. She did not provide a cause of death.
Mr. Mason’s version of “Feelin’ Alright?”, originally recorded with Traffic in 1968, was not an immediate hit. But the song became a staple of classic-rock radio and was covered by more than two dozen stars, including Joe Cocker, the Jackson 5, Gladys Knight & the Pips and Grand Funk Railroad. In 2004, Mr. Mason was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for his work with Traffic.
As a solo artist, Mr. Mason racked up three gold albums, including his solo debut in 1970, “Alone Together,” which contained some of his most highly regarded songs. He also scored one platinum set, “Let It Flow.” It was boosted by his top charting single, “We Just Disagree,” which reached No. 12 in Billboard in 1977.
Mr. Mason’s solo track, “Only You Know and I Know,” became ahit when it was covered by the rock-soul group Delaney and Bonnie in 1971.
His lead guitar work, marked by fine fingerings, fiery solos and soulful phrasings, was a consistent feature of his solo career. “I approach the instrument like it’s a voice,” he told Guitar Player Magazine in 1975. “That’s why I took guitar up in the first place — to have a way of expressing myself.”
Mr. Mason also worked as a session musician with prominent stars. To the Rolling Stones’ “Street Fighting Man,” he added the wails of the shehnai, an Indian reed instrument. On Jimi Hendrix’s version of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower,” he played a 12-string acoustic guitar.
He joined an early version of Derek and the Dominos, a band formed by Eric Clapton and the Memphis-born keyboardist Bobby Whitlock. And he played guitar on “All Things Must Pass,” a 1970 album by George Harrison, and on “Listen to What the Man Said,” a 1975 single by Paul McCartney’s band Wings.
His career was marked by several bracing lows, including unfavorable recording deals, two bankruptcies and a host of lawsuits. In the 1970s, he battled his former label, Blue Thumb, in court over the ownership of his master recordings. In 2011, he joined other artists to sue Universal Music Group over digital music royalties.
Mr. Mason’s time with Traffic was equally fraught.
While he wrote and sang “Hole in My Shoe,” the biggest hit from the British version of Traffic’s 1967 debut album, “Mr. Fantasy,”, he felt overwhelmed by the spotlight and chose to leave the group after it was released. The band’s record company later erased his face from the cover of the record’s U.S. version.
He rejoined the group halfway through its second album, a self-titled work for which he wrote or co-wrote several songs. But even though it became a hit in Britain and the United States, he was fired shortly after its release.
In his 2024 memoir, “Only You Know & I Know,” Mr. Mason recalled another co-founder, Steve Winwood, bluntly telling him, “I don’t like the way you write, I don’t like the way you sing. I don’t like the way you play and … we don’t want you in the band anymore.”
“I was in shock,” Mr. Mason told The Guardian newspaper in 2024. “For me, that was the ultimate band.”
Mr. Mason had other brushes with Traffic over the years, including a six-date tour of Britain in 1971 that resulted in the spirited live album “Welcome to the Canteen.” But he was not asked to stay on, and his efforts over the years to get the original band back together were unsuccessful.
Though he remained a solo artist, he told Goldmine Magazine in 1996 that he had never intended to take that route.
“I had to keep a career going, somehow,” he said. “I did the solo album, but I wasn’t looking to be a solo artist.”
David Thomas Mason was born on May 10, 1946, in Worcester, England. His parents, Edward Mason and Nora (Wilson), ran a candy store. In the Goldmine interview, he described his childhood in a rural area of the Midlands as a “Tom Sawyer existence, running around fields and building rafts and tree houses but never talking too much.”
Though his parents were not musical, he became obsessed with the sounds of guitar players he heard on the radio, including Hank Marvin of the English rock band the Shadows, he told Guitar Player.
As a teenager, he begged his father to buy him a guitar, and taught himself to play by mimicking licks he heard on the radio from blues players like Elmore James and Buddy Guy, as well as the jazz artist George Benson. After forming his own band as a teenager, he became friendly with Jim Capaldi, a future member of Traffic, and joined him in a new group called the Hellions in 1964.
When Mr. Capaldi moved on to another band, Mr. Mason worked as a roadie for the Spencer Davis Group, whose star was a teenage Steve Winwood. When Mr. Winwood decided to form a more adventurous band, he tapped players he had been jamming with, including Mr. Capaldi, woodwind player Chris Wood and Mr. Mason.
Calling themselves Traffic, the quartet searched for their sound by isolating themselves in the countryside. “We created a whole lifestyle for ourselves, out of which came the music,” Mr. Mason told Goldmine.
Traffic’s debut produced two British hits, “Paper Sun” and “Hole in My Shoe,” but the other band members disliked the pop direction of Mr. Mason’s song, as well as his tendency to write on his own while they collaborated. Mr. Mason often said he believed that the enmity was a function of jealousy.
After his split from Traffic, he produced a well-regarded debut album by the British art-rock group Family and later moved to the United States. That is where he met Delaney and Bonnie, a duo whose soulful music transfixed some of the brightest stars in British rock. Two of them, Mr. Clapton and Mr. Harrison, joined the duo for a 1969 tour that also featured Mr. Mason.
One tour date yielded the gold-selling concert album “On Tour with Eric Clapton.” During the tour, Mr. Mason showed Mr. Harrison some lyrical slide guitar moves. He later joined Mr. Clapton’s nascent band, Derek and the Dominoes, but left when the sessions stalled a few weeks later.
Following the success of “Alone Together,” his solo debut, Mr. Mason recorded an adventurous album with his friend Cass Elliott, formerly of the Mamas & the Papas. Mr. Mason tried to renegotiate his contract with his label, Blue Thumb, but when talks broke down, he seized the tapes he had been working on. In retaliation, the company released “Headkeeper,” a collection of half-recorded songs that Mr. Mason disavowed.
The bad blood inspired Mr. Mason to seek a new contract with Columbia Records. The result was a successful 1973 album “It’s Like You Never Left.” He later sued Columbia to end his contract.
In 1994, Mr. Mason joined Fleetwood Mac for one unsuccessful album, “Time.”
His final solo album, “A Shade of Blues,” was released in 2023. He later stopped touring because of poor health.
Mr. Mason is survived by his wife, Winifred Wilson, and by a daughter from a previous marriage, Danielle Mason. A son, True, from a previous marriage, died in 2006.
Mr. Mason told Goldmine that successfully navigating the peaks and valleys of his career was a point of pride.
“I’ve been through four earthquakes, three marriages, two bankruptcies, one major hurricane and I’ve survived the music business,” he said. “That’s a pretty good record.”
Francesca Regalado contributed reporting.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/22/arts/music/mason-dave-dead.html
