NOISEMAKERS MASON WATERS

NOISEMAKERS

MASON WATERS

WORDS BY LARRY HOBBS PHOTO BY DERRICK DAVIS

MMusic Row in Nashville is strewn with the shattered dreams of worthy artists, their life’s aspirations smashed by a pitiless and fickle industry. Then again, some musicians simply shrug it off, return home and become bankers. But many years after just missing his shot at the big time due to bad timing and a record label’s arbitrary whims, St. Simons Island’s Mason Waters has no regrets. And do not let his sharp suit, all-biz haircut and financial acumen fool you. When the nights are right for it and the crowd is gathered, Mason still loves to strap on that bass guitar and find his thing a little extra for the Ludacrismas shows.” Music runs in Mason’s blood, quite literally. The son of regional music legend Vic Waters, he and brother Shad grew up strumming and picking and thumping out tunes from an early age up in McIntosh County. Shad loved the drums. Mason played a little guitar, but he eventually gravitated to the bass guitar and that instrument’s never-ceasing search for a good beat. By the time some of us inherited our dad’s chore of mowing the grass, Vic’s two sons were playing in his backup band at local venues. “Dad bred himself a little rhythm secmusical groove. He has become quite well known and in demand over the years, and not necessarily for being a regional president at United Community Bank. tion,” says Mason, 50, a graduate of McIntosh Academy. “I was performing live shows at 11. We played Emmeline and Hessie, and Spanky’s back when it used to be over at the Marina. I’ve been in the music business just shy of 40 years.”

Waters’ Groove Allstars band has been a popular crowd-pleaser for years in the Golden Isles, a staple in the talented pool of local musicians and live entertainment. And from Wise Men jamming in a manger to the “Def Shepherds” heating up the stage to biblical proportions, nothing rocks the holidays around here quite like the Groove Allstars’ new-traditional Ludacrismas extravaganza.

“I started the Groove Allstars in 2008 and we are still playing dates,” Mason says of the band, which lays down classic rock and funk favorites. “We like to temper a few corporate gigs these days with a few well-placed public appearances throughout the year. But there’s still nothing like a good night at Tipsy McSway’s (in Brunswick). A gig like that cleanses the palate. And we always do someHis father was not Mason’s only homegrown musical influence. His teenage peers back in the day included folks like picker Crawford Perkins, owner of So-Glo Guitar Gallery in Brunswick, and saxophonist/crooner extraordinaire Michael Huelett. These two and a core of other budding troubadours honed their skills together everywhere from the local music store to group jams at a dad’s friend’s warehouse.

“This was a great place to cut your chops,” Mason says. “The Golden Isles had an inordinate number of good musicians. All of these guys are still part of a very vibrant scene that has always existed on the coast.”

Music paid the bills as Mason worked his way through a degree in financing at the University of Georgia. From an endless string of frat party gigs around Athens, Mason struck out for Nashville after graduating from UGA. There he set his sights on the big time.

Mason threw his lot in with some guitar slingers in a band called Without Ruth. Their band’s power rock sound made a splash in Nashville and surrounding environs.

“We put out a solid album and had decent rotation on local radio,” Mason says. “Driving around Nashville and hearing yourself on the radio may be one of the coolest things you can experience as a musician.”

But in the late ‘90s, as Mason recalled, the music industry’s money and attention were more focused on choreographing saccharine sounds to the dance moves of “the bad boy,” “the sensitive boy” and “the heart throb.”

The album that was to place Without Ruth in the national spotlight ultimately ended up shelved by timid record execs.

“The timing was wrong for Without Ruth,” Mason says. “The fad at the time was still bubble gum pop acts and boy bands. We were guitar-driven power pop and that was still a few years off from being mainstream again.”

Mason held on to the notion that a nationally touring country act out of Nashville might need a bass player to hit the road with them. But then, in ‘99, Mason married the former Jodi Miller of Brunswick. Mason and the love of his life welcomed firstborn son Eli to the world in 2002. Still living in the heart of Nashville, with a day job in finance, Mason’s family trio decided to make a homecoming.