Mason Proffit – Wanted

I discovered the 1970’s country-rock outfit Mason Proffit on one of my many record-shopping trips. I found a copy of the 1973 release Bare Back Rider, for $1.99 and immediately locked onto their blend of Byrds-meet-Buffalo Springfield arrangements. After that I tracked down copies of every LP from the band: Movin’ Toward Happiness, Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream, Wanted, Come And Gone and Rockfish Crossing.

You can’t go wrong with any of the band’s albums. If you’re into The Flying Burrito Brothers, Poco, early Eagles, Manassas, or bands cut from that cloth, then I strongly recommend you check out Mason Proffit. Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream has a reputation a lost country-rock classic – and it is. I gravitate toward the beautifully atmospheric Wanted, with its sparkling harmonies and the cautionary centerpiece “Two Hangmen,” where the old tale of trying to right two wrongs with another wrong results in two hangmen hanging from a tree.