Ray Mason and his band are some of the hardest-working musicians in the business, touring often (100+ shows a year) and putting out Idiot Wisdom just a year after their last album. On Wisdom, the band's seventh full-length, Mason doesn't deviate much from his formula of accessible songs with straightforward, often wry lyrics. He's no spring chicken, and in the disc's title track, where he describes a man whose every word the "young kids" hang on, "Repeatin' what he's sayin' just like some bird", he could easily be talking about himself. If only that respect were universally given to experienced, if graying, musicians as well as young sexy ones. The Ray Mason Band have built up quite a bit of cred, opening for a long list of artists including Yo La Tengo, They Might Be Giants and Warren Zevon, but despite that and the three-minute-long catchiness of their songs, they know they'll never be rock stars, and they couldn't care less. They just continue to kick out the jams.

These are as comfortable as your favorite jeans. The band writes songs about everyday things and ordinary people's concerns, mostly of the relationship variety. "Ring-A-Ling" starts the record with a paean to the positive side of a long-distance relationship -- the anticipation of seeing a loved one again soon, rather than the pain of being separated. Mason's vocal delivery is unvarnished but genially smooth, and both his guitar playing and Tom Shea's shine. The one thing missing is the emotional urgency that underlies the work of some of Mason's contemporaries (Dylan, Young). Idiot Wisdom often has the effect of lightening up life's troubles, even as it's complaining about them, as in "Life is Full of Missing". This isn't necessarily a bad thing; music that lets you put your problems in perspective without being escapist is pretty valuable.

Idiot Wisdom's highlights include the rollicking "When the Ceiling Shakes Hands with the Floor" and the roadhouse anthem "Water Off a Duck". Mason and his band may be at their best when playing foot-stomping blues, but they're proficient with the ballads as well, covering The Lovin' Spoonful's "Didn't Want to Have to Do It" with taste and talent.

The Ray Mason Band are obviously committed to music for music's sake -- it certainly isn't because of the money or fame it's brought them, because there doesn't seem to have been much of either. Nevertheless, their gentle Americana has deservedly found its own niche.