Mason Williams

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Mason Douglas Williams (born August 24, 1938) is an American classical guitarist, composer, writer, comedian, and poet best known for his 1968 experimental "Classical Gas" and his appearance on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, and Saturday Night Live.

Early life

Williams was born in Abilene, Texas, the son of Jackson Eugene (a tile setter) and Kathlyn (née Nations) Williams.

Williams grew up dividing his time between his father and his mother in Oakridge, Oregon. In 1956, he graduated from Northwest Classen High School in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He began his lifelong friendship with artist Edward Ruscha in Oklahoma.

He attended Oklahoma City University (1957–60) and North Texas State University for one semester, and served in the United States Navy from 1961 to 1963.

Personal life

Williams and Sheila Ann Massey married on April 22, 1961; they had one child, Kathryn Michelle, before divorcing.

In February 1994, he married Katherine Elizabeth Kahn; the couple divorced after ten years.

He and his Canadian-born wife, Karen, an attorney, reside in Eugene, Oregon.

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Career

Williams received three Grammy Awards for his guitar player "Classical Gas" in 1968. In 1968, 200 "Classical Gas" was released as a single by The Mason Williams Phonograph Record. "Best Instrumental (theme) Composition," "Best Instrumental (theme) Composition), and "Best Instrumental Orchestra Arrangement" were two Grammy Awards for "Best Instrumental (theme) Composition" and "Best Instrumental Orchestra Arrangement" in 2003, according to Mike Post, arranger. It has sold over a million copies and has been given a gold disc. He also wrote songs for The Kingston Trio. Mason received two more Grammy Awards for his work on "Best Album Cover Design" with Nancy Ames, a 1968 hit for Esther and Abi Ofarim in the United Kingdom.

Williams appeared on television, Just Friends, a variety show that reunited regulars of The Smothers Brothers Comedian. Billy Cheatwood and a prop designer for ABC used a special playable classical plexiglass guitar for his performance. Williams flooded the guitar with water and added a few goldfish to the show. He then used the plexiglass guitar to finger-sync his hit version of "Classical Gas."

Williams has released more than a dozen albums, five on Warner Bros. (The Mason Williams Phonograph Record, The Mason Williams Ear Show, Music, Handmade, and Sharepickers). Pop artist Edward Ruscha painted the 1968 Music album on LP. "Sorry, Cover by Edward Ruscha," the credit reads.

Williams performed benefit concerts for the Pala Indian Reservation Cultural Center, which was hosted by Clairemont High School in December 1970. Williams, sponsored by the nonprofit American Future and Tradition, ran two shows with the support of Ken Kragen and Friends. The event raised enough funds to pay for the block walls' construction.

He collaborated with Mannheim Steamroller in 1987 to debut a new album on the American Gramaphone label. Classical Gas was a compilation that included a recreation of the 1968 composition. "Country Idyll," a 1988 nominee for a Grammy in the country music category, was named "Best Instrumental Performance by a Soloist, Group, or Orchestra." In 1991, the album reached its peak. On the front of the album, Williams' plexiglass guitar appears. On the Real Music label, he released A Gift of Song, an acoustic instrumental album of Christmas and holiday music, with arrangements of traditional carols and original compositions.

Vanguard's 1993-1991, a compilation of tracks from his five Warner Bros. albums from the late 1960s to early 1970s, was released. When compiling the album, Williams says, "Where's Ed Ruscha's painting for the old [Music] cover?" It had been dismissed, according to the bank; a possible loss of 3–5 million dollars.

Williams also added a "Holiday Concert Program" to his set list, incorporating songs from the album as well as other traditional music of the season. In 1994, he appeared in six sold-out concerts with the Oregon Symphony in Portland, Oregon. He appeared with the Eugene Symphony with colleague Ken Kesey in the 1990s.

Williams later concentrated on a variety of concert appearances. The concert "Concert For Bluegrass Band And Orchestra," also known as "Symphonic Bluegrass," has been performed by over 40 orchestras, including the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra, Louisville Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

Williams' 1984 album Of Time & Rivers Flowing on his own Skookum label, which featured 14 of the approximately 35 songs performed in the show. The title cut from the album was used as the background for a ninety-second public service announcement (PSA) by the American Rivers Council on the home video release of A River Runs Through It in 1993. The PSA was also on the 1995 home video release of The River Wild. Williams was invited to participate in Oregon governor John Kitzhaber's inauguration in 1995, and in 1996, Williams was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music from his alma mater, Oklahoma City University.

Williams was awarded a Special Citation of Achievement in 1998, in recognition of the widespread national and international success of "Classical Gas." The song performed over six million broadcast appearances by 2008, becoming BMI's most popular instrumental piece for air play.

Williams appeared at the Kitzhaber's second inauguration in 1999. In February, Williams' "Bus" art work was included in the Norton Simon Museum's "Radical Past" exhibition in Pasadena, California. Williams and his band performed his Of Time and Rivers Flowing concert with the Oregon Children's Choral Festival in the spring, a two-day festival that featured 3,000 elementary school students performing water and rivers songs with Williams and his band. In recognition of his contribution to the arts in Oregon, Williams received the University of Oregon Distinguished Service Award. He and the Bluegrass Band appeared at Byron Berline's Oklahoma International Bluegrass Festival in Guthrie, Oklahoma, with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic in late 1999.

Williams' music has appeared in several films, including The Story of Us, Cheaper by the Dozen, The Dish, The Heidi Chronicles, and Heartbreakers. On the television show The Sopranos, his compositions have also been performed.

Williams' EP, Music for the Epicurean Harkener, was released in 2003, and he was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2004 for best instrumental album. On the album Electrical Gas, he collaborated with UK guitarist Zoe McCulloch in 2005.

Williams attended his 50th high school reunion at Northwest Classen High School in Oklahoma City in June 2006. At concerts in Eugene and Springfield (Oregon), as 'Mason Williams and Friends,' and at the Richard E. Wildish Community Theater in Springfield, he performed with other singers as 'Mason Williams and Friends.'

He was reunited with longtime associate and artist Edward Ruscha in January 2007, performing at the Getty Center in Los Angeles.

He was inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame in October 2007. And co-headlined a concert featuring Everclear and Paul Revere and the Raiders.

In 2022, BGO Records announced the release of a 2-cd set of five of his early albums.

Williams was also a stand-up comedian, as many writers and performers said. He devoted the majority of his comedic ideas to music and performed or recited the parodydies in lyric style with guitar accompaniment. Them Poems, a record album on which Williams entertains a live audience with "them poems about them," "Them Sand Pickers," and "Them Surf Serfs," were released in 1964 by Vee-Jay Records. "Them Banjo Pickers" opens the "Them poem" which starts with "Them banjo pickers!" In a good way, it's in a fun way.

Same damn song for three or four days!"

Several other "them" poems, as well as many ditties, song lyrics, bizarre and amusing photographs from around the country, and other bits of physical and verbal silliness have been collected in The Mason Williams Reading Matter (Doubleday, 1969), and The Mason Williams Listening Matter (Doubleday, 1969).

Williams has written more than 175 hours of music and comedies for television broadcasting, and he has appeared as a central creative force on CBS' tense Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. His involvement with folk music gave him the basis for several of Tom and Dick Smothers' comedy routines, as well as co-writer Nancy Ames' musical theme.

He created and maintained the 1968 "Pat Paulsen for President" campaign, which was an elaborate political parody, according to Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Williams also contributed to the success of entertainer Steve Martin. Martin was hired by Williams as a writer on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, for which his contributions were initially paid out of Williams' own pocket. He received an Emmy Award in 1968 for his work as a comedy writer on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

Andy Williams, Glen Campbell, Dinah Shore, Roger Miller, Roger Miller, and Petula Clark are among the television stars he has written for. Williams appeared on NBC's Saturday Night Live for a brief period of time in 1980, but he was forced to leave after arguing with producer Jean Doumanian. Williams earned his third Emmy Award as a comedy writer for his appearance on CBS's The Smothers Brothers 20th Reunion Special.

Williams appeared in the United States in February 2000. In Aspen, Colorado, the Comedy Arts Festival is held. The Smothers Brothers Comedian Hour and its contribution to television were honored at the sixth annual festival. Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short, Andrea Martin, Steve Martin, Robin Williams, and Marc Shaiman appeared at a concert with Tom and Dick Smothers and then again on a late night show with performers including Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short, Andrea Martin, Stuart Martin, Robin Williams, and Marc Shaiman.

In the 1960s, Williams, a photographer, published a life-size photo print of a Greyhound bus.

On the back of his first album, The Mason Williams Phonograph Record, he appeared on the paper.

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