The title of cabaret diva and Broadway veteran Karen Mason's new CD can be interpreted in several ways. The disc, titled It's About Time, is available on March 3. It's Mason's first CD in nine years. But the CD's moniker holds a deeper and more meaningful resonance for the singer. The title tune, co-written by Mason's husband Paul Rolnick, is a celebration of marriage equality.
"I was asked to sing at a wedding after marriage equality was passed in New York State," Mason tells the Bay Area Reporter. "I asked my husband Paul to write a song for Perry and Peter [the couple] as a wedding gift."
The song "It's About Time" was the result. "The song is a beautiful representation of what marriage equality should be about," Mason said. "It's a song about people loving each other." She added that she was particularly fond of the song's bridge: "It's about love, it's about life, it's about time."
"I would love for the song to be sung at every wedding from this moment on," she said.
Mason also pays tribute to gay icon Judy Garland on It's About Time. Garland is one of Mason's musical influences.
"So much has been written about who she was," Mason said. "What she did so brilliantly was make you feel like she was talking to you. Her voice walked that fine line between passion, heart and conversation. She was telling you her story through her music, and that's pretty special. She lets you into her heart without letting you know what she's thinking."
Mason's own heartfelt song stylings put her own unique spin on Garland standards such as "Over the Rainbow," "The Man that Got Away" and "Zing Went the Strings of My Heart." "Judy still speaks to people," she said.
Mason admits that there are challenges for jazz/standard singers in marketing themselves. "It doesn't dictate the songs I do," she said. "I have to do songs that mean something to me. I'm not going to be the singer who has the career of Adele, but the people who do listen to me pass the music along."
She notes that CD Baby, an Amazon-style website that exclusively sells music, doesn't offer Broadway as a category. The Great White Way has been a big part of Mason's career. "So where do you put yourself?" she wonders. "You just keep trying. I'm fine where I am now."
When asked what her future goals were, Mason harkened back to It's About Time's title track. "My dream is to have 'It's About Time' heard in a movie," she said. "I would love to have the song heard that way."