Area fiddle player wins National Contest

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After being on hiatus from the National Oldtime Fiddlers Contest for over three decades,  Hockinson resident James Mason took first place this year in the first-ever Swing division at the event.

“They came up with this new division of Swing fiddle and it was really fun and everyone enjoyed it,” Mason said. “It’s just really a whole different sound and I think it’s good entertainment for people coming to watch the contest. It adds so much variety and flavor for the contest so I was anxious to come and take part in that.”

Growing up in a musically-rich family, Mason would’ve been hard-pressed not to play an instrument of some kind.

• His father, Mel Mason, played mandolin and taught him his first major scale and violin tunes and James went around the house singing old Western and Cowboy songs.

• His mother, Betty Barner was the first person to take him to Weiser, Idaho where the fiddling competition has been held since 1953.

• His uncle Reynold Mason, at the age of 91, still plays the fiddle for his fellow residents at Mallard Landing in Battle Ground.

• Both of his sisters, Molly and Sally, took piano lessons from Mrs. Clark in Battle Ground. Sally went on to play banjo and Molly still plays professional folk and Americana guitar.

So, it was that at the age of 10 that James picked up a fiddle before briefly being interrupted by a year of violin lessons. He then won a Battle Ground Harvest Days talent contest and started playing in square dancing bands in Woodland.



Between the ages of 13-17, Mason learned Texas contest fiddling tunes from Benny Thomasson, a three-time World Champion fiddler. Out of high school, Mason joined a bluegrass band, moved to Minneapolis for a short time and even played with his sister, Molly, in the Powdermilk Biscuit Band, which is a fictitious sponsor of A Prairie Home Companion. Mason then received a call from someone in Boulder, CO and joined a western swing band called Dusty Drapes and the Dusters.

After all this bouncing, Mason finally settled in the Hockinson area, married his wife Dusty and has been working for nearly 30 years at the David Kerr Violin Shop, where he specializes in bow repair and restoration. In his spare time, he makes bows and has been sure to pass the musical torch on to his two sons. Justin, plays guitar, sings and writes songs. Brian, a 2003 Prairie High School graduate, plays saxophone and won some solo awards while in the school jazz band.

Mason doesn’t fall into the traditional Texas-style of fiddling. He’s been playing Swing and Jazz fiddle since he was a teenager because he genuinely enjoys the genres, but also because Texas-style “doesn’t lend itself well to doing gigs,” as he puts it. 

Since his sons have grown, Mason‘s been performing more frequently. He plays Western swing and honky-tonk regularly at the Secret Society Ballroom in Portland with a group called Pete Krebs and His Portland Playboys. He also performs at a variety of Portland clubs with another group called Everything’s Jake, which is 1930s slang for “everything’s cool.’’ Everything’s Jake focuses on gypsy jazz in the vein of Django Reinhardt.

Soon, Mason will be flying to Montana to play with a western swing band from L.A. and he’s in talks with Joey McKenzie of McKenzie’s Fiddle Studio in Burleson TX to put out a jazz CD. Fifteen years ago, Mason cut his first CD, which was a collection of jazz standards.

“It’s kind of odd that I was interested in fiddle music and jazz violin as a child in the 70s and none of my friends were but that’s what I liked,” Mason said.

Mason will be teaching a Swing Fiddle workshop followed by a concert and jam session at the Skamania County Fairgrounds in Stevenson on Wed, July 23. For more information, go to www.twinfiddleproductions.com.

To see Pete Krebs and His Portland Playboys at the Secret Society Ballroom, check out their events page at www.secretsociety.net. To find out where Everything’s Jake is playing, go to www.everythingsjakeband.com.