Mason Colby was born and raised in the musically rich Gulf Coast, splitting time between Lafayette, Louisiana and Houston, Texas. But it was in Kentucky that he picked up a banjo and started making music in earnest. A founding member of traditional stringband The Jarflies, Mason has been part of the old-time music scene in Kentucky for over a decade and is now writing songs that blend his love of Acadiana, the Bluegrass, and Texas songwriters like Guy Clark, Jolie Holland, Lyle Lovett, and banjo hero Danny Barnes.
For his first two EPs of original work, he collaborated with Lexington producer and multi-instrumentalist J. Tom Hnatow (Horse Feathers, These United States, Vandaveer), a natural fit in terms of sound and vision. Other important contributors include Don Rogers (Mason’s mentor as part of a Kentucky Arts Council Traditional Arts Apprenticeship grant), Robby Cosenza (Horse Feathers), Montana Hobbs (The Local Honeys), Zach Martin (Lylak), Abby Hamilton, Art Mize (KY Partisans, The Jarflies), and Cecilia Wright (Bear Medicine, Senora May).