Close to 100 Islanders of all ages, including entire families with children in pajamas, turned out for Willy Mason’s concert at the West Tisbury Public Library Monday night.

Singing and playing his Gretsch Electromatic guitar and keeping time with his right foot as he stood behind the microphone, Mr. Mason regaled the audience with 15 original songs, including new material he’s developing for an upcoming album.

“Guys, mind if I try a new, kind of rusty one?” he asked, about halfway through the evening.

Cries of “Go for it!” and “Yeah!” came from the seats as Mr. Mason launched into a protest song with the refrain “Oh, it’s a reservation.”

“Living with suspicion makes a mind uptight/Starts to get confused between wrong and right,” he sang, to urgently descending chords from his guitar.

The song’s topical lyrics also have Mr. Mason wondering “why there’s always two sides and a fence.”

Mr. Mason’s social consciousness has been clear in his music since his breakthrough song Oxygen back in 2004. Written while he was still a student at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, the song reached #23 on the British pop charts and landed him a recording deal. More than a decade and a half later, in the era of March for Our Lives and youth environmental activism, Mr. Mason’s optimistic anthem resonated anew Monday as he sang, “I know the future looks dark/But it’s there that the kids of today have to carry the light.”

Also from 2004 and timely as ever today, his song Hard Hand to Hold is a gentle, but firm plea for compassion in an polarized era: “It is tempting to fight when you know that you are right... You’re so busy fighting wars that you can’t look upon your lady as your friend.”

Pausing from time to time to sip water from a Bubbie’s pickle jar before carefully replacing the lid, Mr. Mason welcomed harmonica player Geordie Gude to join him.

Mr. Gude’s pensive free-reed accompaniment added depth and emotion to several songs including Restless Fugitive. With Mr. Mason’s spare, yet resonant guitar work, this tune recalled the country-influenced jazz of Bill Frisell and Charlie Haden.

Mr. Mason lured another ally from the seats when he pointedly observed, “There’s a pretty nice piano here, if anybody feels like jamming a couple.”

Pianist Jeremy Berlin rose to the call, joining Mr. Mason and Mr. Gude to wind up the evening with I’ve Got Gold and the rollicking Help That River Flow.