The Mastersons with The Whitmore Sisters (Bonnie Whitmore) at the Hook

The Mastersons are singer-songwriters/multi-instrumentalists Chris Masterson and Eleanor Whitmore. When they’re not touring the world as valued longtime members of Steve Earle’s band the Dukes, the musical and marital twosome make inspired albums of their own emotionally vivid, deeply humanistic songs. The duo’s fourth set of original compositions is the appropriately titled No Time for Love Songs.

“I do think geography comes into play when making records, and I think this record does have a Southern California feel to it,” Chris adds. “I don’t know if that’s because we move a little slower than when we lived on the east coast, or if it’s just where we are in our lives. It also doesn’t hurt to live in a city where so many talented people live. We have an amazing community of friends and collaborators that helped shape this album.”

Those collaborators include Eleanor’s sister Bonnie Whitmore, a notable songwriter and recording artist in her own right, who sang and played bass on the No Time for Love Songs sessions, with bassist/keyboardist Tyler Chester (Andrew Bird, Sara Watkins, Madison Cunningham) and drummer Mark Stepro (Butch Walker, Ben Kweller, Jakob Dylan) rounding out the studio band. Longtime friend Aaron Lee Tasjan added background vocals on two songs.

“I think on our fourth record we’re pretty comfortable with who we are, and we tend to not sweat the little things so much,” observes Chris, adding, “We loved working with Shooter and the band. Basically we’d turn up to the studio, huddle around the piano and show everyone a song, then we’d track it. The whole process moved pretty quickly, resulting in a completed album in about three weeks. The quick turnaround was a bit stressful, but overall I think it makes for an honest documentation of these songs and a snapshot of a moment in time.”