Brent Mason (born July 13, 1959) is an American studio session guitarist and occasional songwriter. He is known primarily for his work in the field of country music. In addition to releasing two instrumental studio albums, he holds several credits as a songwriter. He is a Grammy Award winner (2008) and a two-time winner of the CMA Award Musician of the Year. A line of "Brent Mason" guitar models has been marketed by two different guitar manufacturers. 　　Brent Mason was born on July 13, 1959, in Van Wert, Ohio. At the age of five years, he taught himself to play guitar by ear. After graduating from high school, he moved to Nashville to pursue a career in country music. Early Nashville gigs included a stint with the Don Kelly Band, a cover band who performed at a Murfreesboro Road Honky-tonk, The Stagecoach Lounge. Eventually, he was discovered by noted guitarist Chet Atkins, who invited him to play on his Stay Tuned album. From there, Mason has gone on to play on well over a thousand albums, including those of George Strait, Alan Jackson, Shania Twain, John Michael Montgomery, David Gates, Brooks & Dunn, Zac Brown Band, Scotty McCreary, Blake Shelton and Neil Diamond. Mason also co-wrote McBride & the Ride's "Hurry Sundown". 　　Mason signed to Mercury Records in 1997, releasing an instrumental album entitled Hot Wired the same year. This was his only major-label album. He made a decision to leave Mercury Records soon after to remain in Nashville and work in the recording studio as a session guitarist rather than spend most of his time on the road touring and away from his family. He and his brother Randy released a second album, entitled Smokin' Section, in 2006. At the 51st Grammy Awards, he and several other guitarists won the Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental, for the track "Cluster Pluck" from Brad Paisley's mostly-instrumental album Play. 　　Although Brent works mainly as a studio musician he has produced several albums to date for artists like Erin James, Tommy Dalton, Cindy Kvinlaug, Evi Tausen and coproduced an album with Byron Gallimore for Clay Walker. In November 2013, Mason collaborated with online education site JamPlay.com to put together a series of guitar lessons for aspiring guitarists and members of JamPlay.