Watch Mason Jennings Cover the Shins "Gone For Good," Plus "Blood of Man" Songs

Mason Jennings, a veteran RS Breaking artist around these parts and "one of the best acoustic-based singer-songwriters you've never heard," recently stopped by the Rolling Stone offices to showcase three tracks off his new album Blood of Man, which RS called the Minnesota native's "best album yet" in a four-star review. In addition to his Blood work, Jennings also performed a somber take on the Shins' Chutes Too Narrow track "Gone For Good," which Jennings was inspired to perform after a trip to Patagonia with Shins frontman James Mercer. Check out Mason's rendition of that song above.

From Blood of Man, Jennings also strums his way through his harrowing "The Field," which RS wrote "may be the most moving anti-war song ever written from a parent's perspective." Even without the feedback, fuzz and electric guitars that add a foreboding ambiance to Blood of Man, Jennings' ragged voice and acoustic guitar perfectly capture the dark tales of addiction, loss and madness on his new LP. Below, watch Jennings' perform "Lonely Road," "The Field" and "Tourist."

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Song Stories

“I'm Yours”

Jason Mraz | 2008

Jason Mraz re-emerged after his disappointing second album with this lead single, a Jack Johnson-esque ditty about giving yourself fully to someone else. The success of the reggae-tinged song (it earned two Grammy nods and a spot on the Billboard singles chart for well over a year) was something the folk-pop singer never predicted when he wrote it in 15 minutes at home. "I played a happy-hippie chord progression that would probably work without 50 different Bob Marley songs," he told Rolling Stone. "I thought, 'It's too novelty. This is a nursery rhyme,'" concluding that "you can never guess what's gonna be a hit."

More Song Stories entries »

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