James Mastro
James Mastro – guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, producer and singer-songwriter extraordinaire – has toured the world dozens of times over as a supportive musician with some of the biggest and most critically acclaimed rock and pop artists ever to grace a stage including Patti Smith, Ian Hunter, Judy Collins, John Cale, The Jayhawks, Alejandro Escovedo, Garland Jeffreys, Jesse Malin, and with Robert Plant as his musical director for a benefit concert for an artist they both admired immensely, Love’s Arthur Lee. From The Beacon Theater to the Shepherd’s Bush Empire (UK), Mastro has roused crowds with brilliant performances channeling the sonic inventiveness of David Bowie and the tastefulness of Mick Ronson. At the age of 16, Mastro was already playing at CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City during the height of the NYC punk scene. By the time he was 17, he had been asked by Television’s Richard Lloyd to join his new band, which included playing on Lloyd’s highly acclaimed Alchemy album on Elektra. Moving to Hoboken, NJ, in 1980, Mastro added his guitar and songwriting skills to The Bongos – helping launch the music scene based around the legendary rock club Maxwell’s. The Bongos went on to tour non-stop for five years supporting Drums Along the Hudson (Jem Records), and RCA releases Numbers With Wings and Beat Hotel. In the early ‘90’s, he formed the Health & Happiness Show, which quickly became alt-country darlings, of whom Request Magazine wrote, “Mastro is one of America’s best songwriters.” With two albums Tonic and Instant Living, on Bar None Records, and Sad & Sexy on the artists co-op label, Cropduster, H&H Show toured non-stop with the likes of Wilco, Golden Smog, and Texas troubadour Butch Hancock, to name a few, up until their final show in 2001. Mastro has been anything but idle since the H&HS’s retirement. That same year he added his guitar-playing skills to legendary Mott the Hoople frontman Ian Hunter’s triumphant return to stage and studio, and he’s been his left-hand man ever since, appearing on his past seven albums and as a member of the Mott the Hoople reunion tour in 2018-19 (in which he taught himself how to play saxophone for the show!). His production and session credits include Jill Sobule, Steve Wynn, Phoebe Snow, and Rachael Sage.