Dave Mason Dreams Fleetwood : Pop music: Out of Traffic but still stalling, the artist is hoping for a Mac attack to jump-start his career.

File Dave Mason under “What Ever Happened to . . . ?”

Mason epitomizes the artist who just never seemed to find his niche. A founding member of the legendary Traffic, and for a brief time a top-selling solo act, Mason has been more or less off the scene ever since punk exploded rock foundations in the late ‘70s. Few actually did seem to wonder where he disappeared to.

“Nobody’s really been interested in Dave Mason,” chuckled the artist himself in a recent phone interview from a friend’s home in Newport Beach. “Yesterday’s news. What have you done for me today?”

It’s been 15 years since Mason’s last solo album was released. Even back in 1980, his playfully titled “Old Crest on a New Wave” album spoke to his image as a rock ‘n’ roll geezer. The following year, he was singing beer commercials.

But truth be told, Mason, who performs Saturday night at the Galaxy Concert Theatre in Santa Ana, was a gifted guitarist and song craftsman with an excellent pop sense who deserved better.

His solo albums “Alone Together” and “Headkeeper” were staples of their era. In his spare time, Mason also toured and played sessions with friends such as Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones. Certainly his contributions to the early Traffic albums helped earn them their status as rock classics, and many fans were appalled when Mason wasn’t invited to participate in the group’s much-publicized reunion last year.

“I really didn’t care either way about it,” he said. “Personally, for them I think it was a mistake not to do the reunion with as many members who were originally in the band as possible. That’s my own opinion. Whatever--it’s a moot point.”

The first time around, Mason was in and out of the group several times. While he seems to harbor at least a little residual resentment, he also has his fond memories.

“We did some good stuff,” he said. “We were young kids. The first song I wrote was their first big hit in England (‘Hole in My Shoe’). But I was only 19 years old and couldn’t handle all the fame, really. It was just too much.

“I left the first time, and they didn’t have enough songs for a second album, and I had five or six, one of them being ‘Feelin’ Alright?’ So they said, ‘Why don’t you come back?’ Then I found out that Steve (Winwood) didn’t really care for my stuff. . . .

“From my point of view, I think (our) differences made something better,” Mason said. “But it just pulled too much I suppose, and they couldn’t work it. I was more or less forced into having to leave.”

Mason couldn’t have done the Traffic reunion tour in any case, because early last year he committed to becoming a full-time member of the re-forming Fleetwood Mac. The group, which includes Mason, founding members Mick Fleetwood and John McVie as well as Billy Burnette and Bekka Bramlett (daughter of Delaney and Bonnie), has been working on a comeback album for a summer release.

*

The results of that album should help determine whether Mason’s career gets back on the commercial track. Whatever the result, Mason is brimming with enthusiasm for the project.

“There’s some pretty familiar stuff on the album in the sense that Christine McVie is doing the album with the band, although she won’t be touring, and I don’t think she’ll be doing any more albums,” he said.

“The rest has some songs I’ve written that Bekka will be singing, and there’s three others I’ve written that I’ll be doing. I certainly hope there’s some hits in there. There’s some really good stuff; I know that. I’m really excited about it. John McVie says this is the best version of the Mac he’s ever played in, and God knows they’ve gone through enough incarnations.

“I think it’s a good marriage, me with Fleetwood Mac. People wonder how it will work: It will work because we’re oriented to the same thing--Fleetwood Mac is about songs, and so am I. So I’m really enthusiastic about this. I’m hoping this will work out the way I would have liked Traffic to work out.”

* Dave Mason, Lunatic Zoo and Lovely Little Gods appear Saturday at the Galaxy Theatre, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana. 8 p.m. $18.50. (714) 957-0600.