Mason Rack gives a taste of Down Under

Every year during the summer, Mason Rack and his band of merry men fly up from Australia to tour Canada.

And Canadians have embraced this fiery singer/songwriter/musician, in large part because of his gusto for life and brassy showmanship.

Rack is a natural entertainer that sings with “broken glass” vocals and plays a mean slide guitar.

This year, Rack hit the clubs east of Alberta up to Thunder Bay, Ont., with his trusty companions: drummer Joel ‘Thunderfoot’ Purkess and Edmonton bassist Nathan Lee-Archer.

Part of his act that completely charms audiences is a percussion spectacular where he jumps into the crowd and plays tables, chairs, walls and the bar before returning to the stage to duel it out with Purkess and Lee-Archer.

The boys are hitting LB’s Pub this coming Friday and one choreographed act they haven’t been able to perform in Canada yet, but hope to at LB’s, is “The Reverse.”

“The room needs to be at full capacity before we can do it,” explains Rack. “In ‘The Reverse,’ we come on stage in our boxers and get dressed to choreographed movement. By the end of the song, we’re frozen in place. It takes a lot of guts to do it, but it’s hilarious.”

In some bars in Australia, they’ve stripped down naked at the show’s end, and strategically placed hats over their privates before very carefully shimmying off stage.

“It’s a crazy idea, but I put this all down to my dad. He was a musician and he came up with some crazy ideas,” laughs Rack.

The Aussie musician has a right to be in high spirits. He just released Limits of Grip, a new 10-track that blends blues, jazz, rock and roots. “The name came out of trying to keep your limits on sanity in this business — just trying to keep a hold of things.”

In his wilder days, alcohol and drugs consumed Rack’s life. But he’s been dry for 11 years. One of the album’s songs, A Hard Goodbye, pours out his regrets. “It says goodbye to somebody. I made some big mistakes back then.”

On a lighter note, his daughter Jade inspired the first line of Purple and Blue. And Mankind asks the listener to find balance in feeding the hungry and healing the sick.

“Finding that balance in the world feels like a dream. It feels so far away. But whenever I break a chicken bone or see a shooting star, that’s what I wish for.”

Rack already had one dream fulfilled — meeting Nicole Kidman and hubby Keith Urban at Australia’s East Coast Blues and Roots Festival. Next off, he’s angling for a berth at Edmonton’s Labatt Blues Festival.

“I wish all the fans a happy, long life.”