It's one thing to spend a lot of time reworking a song that everybody knows for a tribute album, but it takes another sort of love entirely to spend your time on a song that only a few people know--that takes a whole other sort of love and devotion. It takes a friend. Ray Mason, maybe the nicest guy you'll ever meet, has a lot of friends. A fixture on the fertile Northampton, Massachusetts, music scene for more than two decades, Mason--and his constant companion, a blue Silvertone guitar--has made a difference in most every musician in that town's life, directly or indirectly. On this tribute album, the scene pays him back, and what a scene it is: Cheri Knight gives a touching rendition of "Down in the Night," King Radio gives "Step Back Melody" a tinge of the Cars, and Boston stalwarts the Incredible Casuals rave up Mason's theme song, "Between Blue and OK." Charlie Chesterman, the ex-Scruffy the Cat leader, ran into the studio and cut "Big Hug" in no time flat to meet the album's deadline, and the Ass Ponys show their soft underbelly on "Missyouville." But it's roots rocker and producer Eric Ambel who hits the nail on the head with his cover of the title song; Mason's version is gently ironic, while Ambel's gruff version is tragic and bitter. Ambel reveals a side of Mason that he keeps locked up--ironically, in doing so, Ambel gives the song a kick that's never been heard before. --Randy Silver