by Danny Colman originally published on Rock On! This Week’s Sound Bites…10/16/2025
“I’ve been in show business for about 400 years, playing guitar since a teen in bands and toured a lot, pretty much all of my life. So, I’ve always taken photos on trips and it has gotten a little more serious on these past few tours over the years; it’s like my diary in a way. It helps me remember what I’ve seen and there is always a story behind one of them, it’s just my little snapshots of weird things I come across.”
OK, maybe “400 years” is a bit of an exaggeration but James Mastro is spot on when he says he has “Toured a lot” and has done so with some very recognizable names. Over the course of his career, he has lent his talents to the likes of Robert Plant, Judy Collins, Ian Hunter, Garland Jeffreys and Alejandro Escovedo to name a few and when one spends as much time on the road as he does, one can’t help but document one’s experiences.
Some travelers journal, others use audio recordings but Mastro has chosen to document his journeys through pictures and on October 16, he will debut an exhibit titled, “The Passenger” at 503 Social Club located at 503 3rd Street in Hoboken, NJ with a 5 p.m. reception that runs through November 23.
“I probably wouldn’t have done this but I had quite a few people egging me on saying, “You know, these are really good, you should do a show” and so, I am finally doing it and I have to admit, I’ve probably got more anxiety about this than getting on stage in front of 5,000 people,” he began with a hardy laugh. “I not only solo tour but I also sit in and play with other people, I play with Alejandro Escovedo a lot. So, these photos are mostly from the past two years, either when I was out solo or with Alejandro or doing a one-off here or there. There are thousands of them so, picking through and trying to keep some kind of theme, I zeroed in on the past two years.”
Being on the road for some is an exhilarating experience, for others, not so much but for James, this undertaking is only a beneficial adventure.
“Some are taken from car windows, some are in between soundcheck and showtime; you’ve always got time to kill so I always like walking around a town and exploring. So, a lot of them are of that, just different towns; it’s a good little travel log of places I’ve been, not only across the country but overseas too. It also gives you a bit of a reference point with the people in the crowd and even though I’m taking photos and not keeping a journal as much on the road, when I get home, I can look at these photos and it triggers song lyrics or a memory that I can write down. So, they are almost like Cliff Notes for me and having a digital camera, it’s much more immediate. You don’t have to send your photos off to Fotomat and wait a week for them to come back, it’s a quick process and one where you can point and shoot and then go through them later and either discard or work on.”
When asked if he was always a photography buff, he hesitated a bit and said, “Photography has never been a serious hobby of mine until the past few years. In a weird roundabout way, working on videos for songs off of my last record; which I did and helped with the storyboard, it just got me more interested in photography again. Making a video, you’re zooming in on something or zooming out and it can totally change the perspective of how you look at something and after video shoots, I kind of applied that to photography again and it just got me excited again about taking photos.”
Perspective truly is everything but this is nothing new to Mastro who views art itself and his photography with plenty of just that; sometimes seeing deeper into his subject’s “Background.”
“I’ve always been attracted to art, be it visual, music or literature and it helps me in the real world. It helps me see things maybe a little differently or another side of something. I think the whole point of art is just to broaden not only your appreciation of art but of the world or of life and if you are looking at a painting or hear a song and there is something in it that ticks with you, then you’ve related to the person that created that and I think it’s just about being more aware of what’s around you and for me that’s always been appealing.”
“With this, I’m putting something under a magnifying glass and it’s funny, you’ll see something and maybe I’ll be attracted to taking the picture because of a color, a line or the way a shadow falls on something and then you take the picture and then I might see something in the background of that photo that I didn’t notice at first glance. So, to me, that’s like winning the lottery and it’s a subject that I didn’t see that has pulled me in even more. Again, it’s just about kind of walking, not totally with your eyes closed.”
With a seemingly lifetime of photo material, how did he decide and how many to use for the exhibit?
“503 Social Club is a gallery and performance space, it’s not a huge space and that kind of helps dictate how many photos and even though the exhibit begins soon, I’m still kind of weaning and picking out what looks best; it’s almost like putting lyrics together. You’re looking at the images saying, well, this one is good on its own but next to this one it doesn’t work. So, you start moving them around and play with them and I narrowed it down to about 30 photos. Most of the photos are 17″ x 20″ and I’m doing a few larger ones that are like 20″ x 28″ and after taking the photos, I’ll kind of mess with the filtering a bit and kind of colorize them more or play with it. So, it’s a fun process and once doing that, then I say, well this I may be able to make it look a little more vibrant or this should be a little more muted and going back to digital, it’s much easier to have fun with it that way.”
Mastro will be present at the event and highly visible as well but with a hint of foreshadowing he alluded to some possible surprises.
“Uh, there will be some guitars laying around (Laughs), we’ll see what happens. I’m sure some of my friends will show up so there may be an impromptu hoedown (Laughs). “We’ll have some snacks and beverages there and people always want to know; what inspired it or where was this? So, I won’t be speaking like a lecture but I’ll certainly be there to answer any questions people have and the work will be available for sale also. People can see the exhibit any time they go to the venue for an event or most Sunday afternoons from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. or they can reach out and schedule an appointment to view it.”
To discover more about “The Passenger” and/or James Mastro, please visit https://www.jamesmastro.net/