Brent Mason

Brent Mason (born July 13, 1959) is one of the most recorded guitarists in history. He is an American session guitarist and occasional songwriter. He is known primarily for his work in the field of country music. In addition to releasing two instrumental studio albums, he holds several credits as a songwriter. He is a 12 time winner of the Academy of Country Music Guitarist of the Year Award and a two time winner of the CMA Award Musician of the Year. Biography edit: Brent Mason was born on July 13, 1959, in Van Wert, Ohio. At five years old, he taught himself to play guitar by ear. He moved to Nashville, Tennessee after graduating from high school, in order to pursue a career in country music. Eventually, he was discovered by country guitarist Chet Atkins, who invited him to play on his Stay Tuned album. From there, Mason went on to play on several other artists' albums, including those of George Strait, Alan Jackson, Shania Twain, David Gates, Zac Brown Band, Scotty McCreary, Blake Shelton and Neil Diamond. Mason also co-wrote singles for Clinton Gregory ("Play, Ruby, Play") and McBride & the Ride ("Hurry Sundown"). His discography on allmusic.com shows his vast list of credits over his 25 year career in the studio. Mason signed to Mercury Records in 1997, releasing an instrumental album entitled Hot Wired that year. This was his only major-label album. He made a decision to break his contract with Mercury records soon after to remain in Nashville and work in the recording studio as an A-List session guitarist rather than spend most of his time on the road touring and away from his family. He and his brother Randy released a second album, entitled Smokin' Section, in 2006. Although Brent works mainly as a studio musician he has produced several albums to date for artists like Erin James, Tommy Dalton, Cindy Kvinlaug, Evi Tausen and coproduced an album with Byron Gallimore for Clay Walker. Other contributions edit: At the 51st Grammy Awards, he and several other guitarists won the Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental, for the track "Cluster Pluck" from Brad Paisley's mostly-instrumental album Play.