Roger Mason

Born on March 24, 1944 in Maryland (USA), American guitarist and singer Roger Mason developed a passion for the folk music of Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie in his teens. The son of a U.S. Army officer, he traveled from an early age to Japan, Germany, Switzerland and the USSR, before settling in France in August 1964. After taking piano, violin, trumpet and guitar lessons as a child, he took organ lessons with André Isoir and worked at the American College, then at the American Embassy in Paris. At the same time, Roger Mason played and taught guitar picking at the "hootenanny" created by Lionel Rocheman at the American Center. In 1968, he joined the group Dilettantes, which performed at La Vieille Grille, where he met Steve Waring, with whom he recorded the album Guitare Américaine (1972) and the children's story La Baleine Bleue (1973). In 1971, his debut album Le Blues de la Poisse did not go unnoticed, and the guitarist sang the title track on TV, adapted from Lonnie Glossom's "Hard Luck Blues", after opening for Pete Seeger and Robert Charlebois at the Olympia in Paris. His second album for Le Chant du Modne, Le Temps Qu'Il Fait (1973), was followed by Guitare Cajun (1976) and Roger Mason et les Touristes (1977), then La Vie en Vidéo (1980), Le Professeur Dorémi (1983) and La Lune Qui Rit (1983). After teaching music at the Marymount International School in Neuilly-sur-Seine and producing the 1994 album Guitar Picking with Steve Waring, Roger Mason returned to the U.S. in 1996 to complete his doctorate at the University of Miami (Florida), working in music education. In 2005, he released the instrumental album French Blues. Now retired from music teaching, the musician directs two children's choirs at the University of Miami School of Music.