John Mayer

Two days ago I pulled out an old mix I had made of a bunch of live and demo stuff by John Mayer--shortly before he release Room For Squares, around the time that Napster was still up in its original form. Wow, I had forgotten how good he really was.

Ok, I'm guilty of ripping on him a bit for what I had at one time termed "selling out." But upon closer consideration, he never really "sold out." That would mean that he's making crappy pop music for the sole purpose of selling albums. No, indeed that is not the case. He's still writing great songs and still puts on a good live show. Granted, much of the audience at his concerts are teenage girls with home-made "I *heart* John" t-shirts, but Mayer can't be faulted for drawing a crowd. I mean, look at old episodes of the British "Ready, Steady, Go" when the Beatles were on! ...continued

So why my sudden re-interest in John Mayer? Well, a few things. I picked up my guitar a few weeks back to learn how to play "My Stupid Mouth." I had my reasons. That song was exactly what I had to say. And other songs speak my feelings verbatim in different situations. I had thought about writing this post since I put the disc in the spinner two days back, but was finally prompted to sit and type when "Come Back to Bed" came on the radio--another great match.

• My favorite song on Heavier Things: Daughters
• My favorite song on Room For Squares: 3 by 5
• My favorite "unreleased" song: Sucker
• Song most likely to make me cry: Comfortable (Tory is a close second)
• First John Mayer song I heard: Neon
• First song I heard on the radio: No Such Thing (I remember distinctly, I was on the way home from summer school, listening to WXRT's New Noise at Nine when it came on.)
• Number of times I've seen Mayer play: Four
  1. House of Blues, Chicago, summer of 2001. Matt Nathanson and Howie Day opened.
  2. Fox Theater, Saint Louis, winter of 2002. Martin Sexton and Guster opened.
  3. Fox Theater, Saint Louis, winter of 2003. Opened for Counting Crows.
  4. Tweeter Center, Chicago, summer of 2003. Counting Crows opened.