If Houstonians of all races, creeds, colors, political beliefs, Spotify playlists and Wordle skill levels can agree on one thing, it’s that traffic jams suck. Unless of course, the “Traffic Jam” is the umbrella title of a tour by Classic Rock singer/guitarist Dave Mason, wordplay on the name of his former band.

He—along with co-founding members of Traffic—Steve Winwood (vocals/keyboards/guitar), Jim Capaldi (drums) and Chris Wood (sax/flute/keyboards) were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame in 2004.

But according to Mason, a disagreement with Winwood’s team over which instrument Mason would play scuttled a chance for the surviving three members to share the stage one more time (Wood died in 1983) on their epic tribute to radio DJs, “Dear Mr. Fantasy.”

But Mason did get to lead the All-Star Jam at the end of the ceremony with “Feelin’ Alright,” a tune he wrote at the age of 19 which has since gone on to become a Classic Rock standard It’s been covered by everyone from Joe Cocker, Three Dog Night and Grand Funk Railroad to the Fifth Dimension and the Jackson 5.

Mason himself went in and out of the band over the years but has added more Traffic songs to his current setlist due to popular demand. Dave Mason’s Traffic Jam will stop at the Height Theater this spring on April 12.

“There’s just more interest in Traffic period whether it’s my period or Steve’s. A lot of it still stands up—and some of it doesn’t!” Mason says over the phone. “A lot of the earlier stuff I wrote sounds time-dated now, but I was just learning how to write songs. I tried to make themes more timeless as I went on. I mean, ‘Feelin’ Alright,’ someone just played it at Bonnaroo. Every bar band has played that song at some point or another!” [Note: That would be My Morning Jacket at the 2023 event].

With this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees just coming out, we ask Mason who he thinks is not in there that should be.

“Me!” he says without hesitation. “As a solo artist. Damn right!”

Dave Mason’s regular setlist is a mixture of Traffic tunes from across the group’s discography, solo hits (“Only You Know and I Know,” “Look at You Look at Me,” “World in Changes,” “Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave”), covers (“All Along the Watchtower”) and newer songs (“Good 2 U”).

Another new(ish) song is his most recent release, a collaboration with blues singer/guitarist Jon Bonamassa on a different arrangement of “Dear Mr. Fantasy.” It will appear on Mason’s new record featuring material from over the years and available at his live shows, Shady Blues. Bonamassa also appears on a second track.

“I had that one for 18 years just sitting on my computer and Joe came up to the house and finished the song with me,” he offers. “And some tracks were on other projects, but I’ve remixed and redone them. There’s also a blues version of [Traffic’s] ‘The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys.’”

The UK-born Mason will also play some dates this summer with the Mike Love-led version of the Beach Boys, with whom he’s shared stages with dating back on the ‘70s.

Mason’s fellow countryman, Who drummer Keith Moon, was famously obsessed with the Beach Boys growing up, as they represented a lifestyle of sun, surf, beaches and bikini-clad girls that must have seemed like another planet to the boy of London and Wembley.

Asked if he felt the same way, Mason says his interest in the band came with their more mature material.

“The music was…I was more into things like ‘God Only Knows’ and ‘Good Vibrations’ than the earlier stuff. And Brian Wilson was just an amazing writer. I know it will be interesting!” he says.

“But for me personally, it’s just another show, and that’s the way I treat it. I’ve done shows with so many different acts over the years! But it will be fun. And I get to go on early and get off stage and get on the bus. Me, [Mason’s wife] Winnie, and the dog!”

One closer friend of Mason’s is Fleetwood Mac co-founder/drummer Mick Fleetwood. They’ve known each other for decades, and Mason even had a short stint playing and recording with the Mac in the mid-1990s.

Fleetwood—a more or less permanent resident of Hawaii—had the restaurant that bears his name burn to the ground in the August 2023 Lahaina wildfires. Mason has a house in Wailea, but it is on the other side of the island of Maui from Lahaina.

Behind the keyboards on the Traffic Jam tour will be a familiar face and mop of hair to Classic Rock diehards: Mark Stein, singer/keyboardist for Vanilla Fudge. He and Mason also go back decades, and Stein was a musical and songwriting contributor to Mason’s 1980 album Old Crest on a New Wave. It featured a superstar guest vocalist in none other than Michael Jackson on “Save Me.”

Stein told me in 2020 that he and Mason were recording in the same studio as the Jacksons, when he found Michael in the hallway by the soda machine and talked him into appearing on the song.

“My old keyboard player didn’t want to go on the road anymore, so we got Mark. He’s great and still sings his ass off!” Mason laughs. “And of course, we do Vanilla Fudge’s ‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On.’ We have to! It’s a classic record, and his arrangement is so great to do live.”

The band will be rounded out by Mason’s longtime guitarist/vocalist Johnne Sambataro, percussionist Marty Fera, and bassist/vocalist Ray Cardwell.

Another former collaborator—albeit distantly—was Jim Gordon. The insanely talented but actual schizophrenic drummer, who spent decades in prison for murdering his mother and who died there last year, is the subject of a recent biography.

“He was on my solo record Alone Together and they he’s played with Delaney and Bonnie. Jim Keltner and Jim Gordon were the two big session guys around L.A.,” Mason remembers.

“And I played with Delaney and Bonnie for a while, as did Jim. They had a big hit with [Mason’s song] ‘Only You Know and I Know.’ I never really knew Jim, but he was a great drummer. Probably one of the best I ever played with.”

Gordon and Mason were also together in Traffic very briefly, both appearing on 1971’s live album Welcome to the Canteen.

Finally, in addition to Shady Blues, Mason hopes to have his autobiography, Only You Know and I Know, for sale at the merchandise booth. Written with music journalist Chris Epting, it’s been delayed for quite a while, and Mason is now self-publishing it after he says the original publisher, BMG, decided to get out of the book business.

And he’ll have something else to compete for your sheckels.

“I have vinyl! It’s making a comeback!” he laughs. “They’re desperately trying to move the world into these codes of zeros and ones and non-fungible items. A world that doesn’t exist. You need something that’s tangible you can look at and touch. And there seems to be an interest in vinyl again.”

This interview originally appeared at HoustonPress.com

For more on Dave Mason, visit DaveMasonMusic.com