Upon first listen, Eddie 9V’s Saratoga (the album) sounds like a throwback to the early 1970s when Gamble and Huff’s Philly soul blanketed the airwaves with lush horns draped over a kind of bass-heavy funk that Prince would re-revolutionize a decade later. But then—surprise!—a bit of reggae and rock tangle on the single “Tides” while the twin of Al Green takes over “Love Moves Slow.”
The dozen songs that comprise Eddie 9V’s latest release feels like a time-and-genre-bending road trip from Brooklyn to Memphis to the Okefenokee that ends up in an all-night jam session at the fabled Maple Leaf in New Orleans. Those songs and more from his two previous albums under the Ruf Records label plus a decade of playing clubs and honky tonks across the U.S. will take center stage at District Live at Plant Riverside at 8 p.m., May 17.
“My favorite type of music is obviously American roots, where that comes from folk all the way from blues to soul to funk to everything,” said Eddie, née Brooks Mason, from his home recording studio in Marrietta, Georgia.
For years, he said, he was told that his records had to “sound consistent,” but he did not listen. “It’s way easier to put you in a genre—put you in a box and all that, but I’ve always like records, you know, like J.J. Cale and stuff, where he does jazz, he does blues, he does folk, funk and everything. I really like the album to take on its own story.”
Mason picked up his first guitar at age 6, and by age 13 or 14, he was losing himself down rabbit holes on YouTube, listening to and watching videos of concerts live from Fillmore East and Fillmore West.
“I would put on my headphones on a little Dell Inspiron family laptop we had, and I would just listen…until my mom would finally come and say, ‘Look, you gotta go to bed. It’s three o’clock.’”
Around that time, he and his brother Lane Mason, his frequent songwriting collaborator and bass player, turned one of their bedrooms into a music and recording studio. By age 17, Mason started playing in clubs around Atlanta and touring.
When Mason was recording his first album with Ruf Records, Little Black Flies, in 2021, his alter ego, Eddie 9-Volt, was born.
“They really wanted me to be the Brooks Mason Blues Band. I was about to pull the trigger on that, and I’m so glad I didn’t, because at the last moment I thought that I don’t really want to be called a blues band because that’s going to cut off 75% of my artistic ambition.”
He liked the nostalgic way “Eddie” sounded and the stickiness of “9-Volt.” And the same way Beyoncé has her Sasha Fierce, Prince had his symbol, and Sturgill Simpson has morphed into Johnny Blue Skies, Eddie liked the transformation the new name generated.
“I can kind of play the character if I need to on stage. I can be that guy and all that. But I kind of like, you know, coming back home and just being Brooks Mason, just my wife and my dog and stuff.”
Released in November 2024, Saratoga represents another transformation for Eddie 9V. On his previous recording sessions, he played most of the instruments. This time, he invited a lot of musician-friends into his home studio to collaborate, layering in lots of horns and percussion on the tracks.
Another collaborator, of sorts, joined the mix as well: a Daptone console he purchased in 2023 from the legendary Brooklyn-based recording studio where Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings recorded most of her albums. It is also the console producer Mark Ronson used to get Amy Winehouse’s analog sound on the Back to Black album.
“It’s just such a better vibe when you have people bouncing off in the studio and laughing. I love making music in the studio with as many as people as we can fit in here.”
Songs from Saratoga are popping up on SiriusXM and the album is receiving critical praise. Eddie 9V is handling the “overnight success” with the grace of the veteran that he is. “Being that I’m 28 now, that’s about 10 years on the road. They say it takes about 10 years to pay your dues ‘til you start getting a little bit of success.”
But that success just reminds him he still has a lot more to learn and a lot more to look forward to.
What: Eddie 9V
When: 8 p.m. (doors open at 7 p.m.), May 17
Where: District Live at Plant Riverside, 400 W. River Drive, downtown Savannah
Tickets: $25
Info: plantriverside.com/event/eddie-9v
Amy Paige Condon is a content coach, editor and reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach her at ACondon@gannett.com.