Other than the title track, all of the Ray Mason Band's songs clock in at a radio-friendly three minutes apiece. Too bad we'll never hear Mason on the radio. Maybe thirty or so years ago, when Mason first began churning out the tunes, we'd have been able to catch one of his finely-crafted songs drifting over the airwaves...but in the words of fellow oldtimer Bob Dylan, "Things have changed." The fact that Mason is around fifty years old makes it easy to place him with the likes of Dylan, Neil Young or David Bowie, but age aside, Mason does have a bit in common with those guys. With a bit of Bowie's knack for creating a song that goes exactly where you think it won't, Dylan's coolness and Young's honest vocal stylings, Mason turns out an album's worth of truly enjoyable listening.

Another aspect that brings those legendary musicians to mind is that they and Mason apparently share the desire to play what they want to play. Some people won't get it, and it might not be "popular", but who gives a crap! Mason seems rather aware of the sad fact that music's marketability has become more a driving factor than actual quality, at least as far as the decisions made by both radio and recording labels are concerned. On the rockabilly "Got it Right", Mason takes a jab at the big labels, singing "He must be deaf, and he must be blind. I'm a middle-aged man and I'm running out of time. Got it right. Don't need a big label sniffing 'round."

Mason's style drifts effortlessly from driving rock ("Wrong Side of Real") to soft acoustic tunes ("Cut Out of a Mirror of Lies"), showcasing his ability to meld a variety of genres into a single cohesive sound. A sampling of the many highlights on When the Clown's Work is Over includes the Son Volt-esque "I Should Know the Way By Now", the full-out rock n' roll of "Personal Last Call" and the title track, packed with swirling guitars and Young-like vocals. That artists like Mason go nearly unnoticed by mainstream radio is certainly not a surprise -- who can't think of a dozen bands that deserve some serious airplay but never get it? -- but it is a shame...and sadly, it's oh so typical.