Press
Ben Mastwyk’s ‘Let Me At The Night’
An Interstellar Honky-Tonk Voyage
By Christian Lamitschka for Country Music News International Magazine
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"... a vibrant, imaginative landscape where honky-tonk tradition meets boundless experimentation."
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Australian cosmic cowboy and interstellar troubadour Ben Mastwyk is poised for liftoff with the release of his fourth album, Let Me At The Night. With each preceding record, Mastwyk has steadily built a reputation for pushing the boundaries of country music, and this latest offering promises to propel his distinctive sound further into the stratosphere. Far from simply another collection of songs, Let Me At The Night is presented as a “fantasy record,” a vibrant, imaginative landscape where honky-tonk tradition meets boundless experimentation.
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The album’s title track and latest single, “Let Me At The Night,” serves as a potent preview of the journey to come. It’s a heartfelt country power ballad, brimming with the restless spirit of someone yearning to escape isolation and dive back into the vibrant nocturnal life they once cherished. At its core, the song resonates with a fundamental human need: the craving for genuine connection, for self-expression, and for the freedom to pursue the experiences that ignite the soul. Mastwyk explains that “night” in this context transcends mere evening hours; it’s a rich metaphor for dreams, unbridled freedom, and the life the narrator desperately wishes to reclaim. Specifically, it embodies the electrifying energy and deep connections found within Melbourne’s country music scene and the broader, immersive world of honky-tonk culture. The plea to be “let at the night” transforms into a rallying cry for permission to chase one’s deepest aspirations and to dismantle the invisible barriers that hold us back. It is, as Mastwyk perfectly puts it, “both a love letter and a battle cry!”
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"Filtered through both heartache and the liberating joy of the dance floor, it is a truly mind-expanding and irresistible collection of songs, showcasing an artist firing on all creative cylinders."
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Within the song, the listener follows a protagonist trapped in quiet solitude, their mind vividly replaying the halcyon days of boisterous barroom dancing and joyous late-night revelry. The verses, artfully draped in the warm embrace of acoustic guitar and the weeping sigh of pedal steel, paint intimate, almost cinematic portraits of a tight-knit community: the dancers who came alive when George Jones’s tunes filled the air, the smokers huddled together in the crisp night, the comforting sight of familiar faces in every beloved local haunt. These poignant memories stand in stark contrast to the protagonist’s present reality—sitting alone, perhaps with only a guitar for solace and a sleeping dog for company. This sense of longing and vivid recollection sets the emotional stage for the entire album.
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Let Me At The Night marks a significant creative stride for Mastwyk and his band, The Millions. Having truly discovered their collective DNA over their previous records, this time, the band collectively aimed to push their sonic limits. Fortuitously, Mastwyk secured a Creative Victoria Creative Works grant, a crucial boost that allowed him the freedom to fully immerse himself in the project, recording precisely the album he envisioned without any creative compromises.
"... a dazzling, kaleidoscopic ode to the limitless possibilities of country music."
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Working alongside producer Michael Hubbard at The Shrimp Shack studio in Melbourne, Mastwyk initially embarked on a mission to craft a ’90s country-inspired record. And while elements of that era certainly permeate the album, the process evolved, drawing Mastwyk back to the genre-bending, experimental approach he first explored with his original band in the actual ’90s. Despite the adventurous sonic palette, Mastwyk firmly asserts, “It’s still a country record in my eyes: narrative-based songs that explore the themes I’ve been circling in my writing for years.” The difference, he notes, is a conscious decision to “really dial up the experimentalism—pushed our sonic palette further than we ever have before!” This commitment translates into songs that are more anthemic, designed not just to kick off a party but to sustain that unbridled energy from the first note to the last. This new material has already proven its mettle, having been road-tested successfully across three huge nights at the Tamworth Country Music Festival, where it was met with “big party energy” and a crowd “ready to rumble.”​
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Mastwyk’s intentionality behind each album is clear. His debut, Mornin’ Evenin’, was conceived for intimate spaces and quiet Sunday mornings. Subsequent records targeted the bustling barrooms of Melbourne, venues he adored at the time. This album, however, was written with a grander vision: festivals and much larger crowds. This shift in intended audience is palpable in the music’s expansive feel and energetic drive. The album also boasts a thematic arc, picking up from where previous records left off in the barroom, then steadily blasting off “further and further into space.” Mastwyk vividly visualizes this album as a “spaceship,” with the core challenge being “to see if I can get it to lift off and hit warp speed.”
The result is a dazzling, kaleidoscopic ode to the limitless possibilities of country music. Let Me At The Night journeys through hot-wired boogie, rhinestone pop, honky-tonk electronic disco, and soaring country space-ballads. Influences range from the iconic crossover appeal of Shania Twain to the maverick spirit of Dwight Yoakam, the timeless narratives of George Jones to the contemporary mystique of Orville Peck. Filtered through both heartache and the liberating joy of the dance floor, it is a truly mind-expanding and irresistible collection of songs, showcasing an artist firing on all creative cylinders.
Melbournite Ben Mastwyk’s second outing explodes the delicate poise of excellent debut Mornin, Evenin with lashings of cosmic American pedal steel and psych-guitar glitz. Backed by hot band the MILLION$, Mastwyk plunges headlong into Seventies country-soul glam with opener ‘This Country’, with its sensuous saxophone and J.J Cale slink. Inspired by Hank Snow’s take on Geoff Mack classic ‘I’ve Been Everywhere’, album highlight ‘MIA LA’ is an instant, locomotive classic, and finds Mastwyk projecting the maniacal grin of Dub Dickerson. Elsewhere, Mastwyk plays a heartsick hangdog waiting beside so many telephones (‘Ring Ring Baby’), whooping his high-lonesome hankering with classic country aplomb. With its shades of mid-century exotica, ‘Quit Your Comin’ Round’ reads like a Tiki bar house band signing off for the night, while ‘Not Up for Makin’ Up’ recalls ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’. For fans of Flying Burrito Bros, Daniel Romano and their ilk, Winning Streak will be a hard album to top in 2018.
COUNTRY UPDATE
Travel is inspiring. Everyone from Jack Kerouac to Saint Paul will tell you so. For Melbourne country musician Ben Mastwyk, travelling through the south of the USA inspired him to record and release his first solo album, Mornin, Evenin. Mastwyk is a familiar figure in the Melbourne country scene, as part of Jemma & The Clifton Hillbillies, the Sweet By & By, and collaborator with The Shotgun Wedding.
In 2013, Mastwyk started the transition from side- to centre-stage by recording Mornin at Temper Trap studios. All the songs on the album were written on the move. Many were written in the USA – littered with place names and Americana like badges of honour – while others were written rambling around Melbourne’s Merri Creek trail.
Mornin is eleven songs of straight-up country from the Hank Williams school via Townes van Zandt and Willie Nelson, and Mastwyk’s voice has a rich imperfection reminiscent of Gram Parsons. brought gently to life by local country royalty like Ben Franz (pedal steel), Sean McMahon (electric guitar), and singer from The Shotgun Wedding (Brooke Russell, Loni Thompson, Amarina Waters, and Ayleen O’Hanlon), and a whole bunch of others.
The songs cover all the country staples. There’s lost love, strained relationships, Chevrolets and Fords, a dive bar, a cheap motel, and a swimming pool shaped like a guitar. This isn’t a bad thing at all, particularly since Mastwyk is a skilled lyricist, and finds elegant ways to express timeless themes.
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On ‘The Song’ heartbreak is explored through the idea of a song written by a former lover that you now can’t sing. It is, Mastwyk sings, “as if the song itself won’t even let me in.”
Another highlight is single ‘Sing Her Back Home’, a lazy 3am waltz with a melody that occasionally tries to rise but always falls back down to an unnerving, almost sinister low note. Again, the power of song is acknowledged, as Mastwyk asks a lover estranged from a troubled man “Will you let him sing you back home, let him sing ‘til you cry?”
The album isn’t all heartbreak, although it never quite lets itself get truly rollicking. ‘Down Along the Tracks’ could definitely get a civilised barn dance cookin’ with its sing-a-long chorus and musical inventory of the junk and treasure of a railroad track where its protagonist “threw that diamond ring”.
‘I Found Jesus’ feels like an instant classic. An irreverent country hymn about a decorative Jesus pinned to a crucifix by some tiny tacks. The refrain “I thought just for a moment about the grace of God and all, and the miracle of finding him though he was very small” is a beautiful little wink from new wave country to its pious roots.
‘Isn’t it Time’ is by far the most emotionally raw song on the album, the pleas of someone in reaching out to a friend who needs to break a bad cycle – drugs, alcohol, or some other vice. The song walks a fine line between tenderness and brutality as it delivers its home truths and bats away excuses – “How can she help when you won’t help yourself?” – all washed over in Franz’s hazy pedal steel and Hugh Stuckey’s low, mournful fiddle work. The song is packed with great lines like “You’re tempting death though you’re so scared of dying, you let him in though you’re shaking and crying”, and the kick-in-the-guts “You’re praying to god but you’re living in hell; I can’t even tell why I bother at all.”
This is a solid album, and a treat for those craving some real old-time country sounds. It’s also a joy to hear so many great Melbourne musicians coming together on one record.
UNPAVED