When Mason Jennings hits the Majestic Theatre's stage, he will feel right at home. ""I started touring in 1999 and I think I've been playing there ever since,"" said the Minneapolis-based artist. ""The people have always been awesome, the Majestic is awesome … it just seems like a familiar feeling.""
Madison is set to be the first stop on Jennings' tour, kicking off this week in the familiar land of the Midwest. If you've never had a chance to catch Jennings' show in the past, you'll have the opportunity to do so this Thursday night, hot off the release of his most recent album Minnesota, which dropped Tuesday.
""After [completing the album] I was looking at the songs and I definitely saw the theme of home coming up a lot… That's probably why I called it Minnesota,"" Jennings said. ""A lot of the songs have the word heart in them… [Minnesota] is where my heart's at and where I create so it seemed like a good word to sum up the whole project.""
This album marks a significant change in Jenning's style that has fans buzzing—after the darker, electric album Blood of Man, this album returns to a lighter sound. That by no means implies that it is the same as his older albums; Jennings made a point to feature more collaborative work on this project, as well as a divergence from his traditional guitar-based style to include more piano instrumentals.
""Playing all the instruments has been a fun process so far… but it is also definitely a very isolating process,"" Jennings said. ""Even on this record I recorded a bunch of songs and then made sure I had a bunch of friends put some guitar in certain songs or keyboard, get the flavor of different people's input on the songs. It's a fun process.""
Jennings will definitely be surrounded by friends throughout this tour, as he will be accompanied by the opening band The Pines. ""I just really really liked their song writing and Benson and I have become really good friends,"" Jennings said. ""His song writing is really from the heart. Some of his songs really bring tears to my eyes, like ‘Heart and Bone' and ‘Shiny Shoes'.""
You'll want to stay for the end of the show, as a special on-stage collaborative performance between Jennings and the Pines is planned for the last four or five songs.
On his touring habits, Jennings is sure to bring back two things to every tour—Thai food and meditation. ""I started it because I was having panic attacks on the road, all the traveling and constantly being in a different city every night,"" he said. ""I was like ‘oh man, I don't want to go on medication' so I started looking for alternatives to that. Ever since I started doing meditation I haven't had any panic attacks, so that's really cool.""
Of course, in general Jennings really looks forward to the opportunity to be playing live. ""I like that [live performances] are always different, it's a chance to have something special happen that won't ever happen again,"" he said. ""Every night is its own event and art gets created.""
""I also like that it's a shared experience with the crowd. When I get to go out there and share the music with other people—and the crowd is so much to do with a great live show,"" said Jennings. ""It's a really collective experience that's a really fun thing to be part of.""
In attending the show, audiences can definitely count on a listener-focused experience. ""I hope that someone would come to the show or listen to the record and just feel inspired to do what they love with their lives,"" he said. ""I mean when I listen to great music that I love I always feel inspired and grateful for getting to do music.""
The Majestic Theatre is hosting Mason Jennings tonight, doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the show starts at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $20, and Opera Box seats are available for $45.
