He’s going to be on Austin City Limits this Saturday night (11/15, 11pm - check your local listings) performing with Stevie Ray Vaughn’s rhythm section Double Trouble and blues legend Buddy Guy. My bet is that most of you are unaware of what an incredible guitar talent John is due to his two highly overproduced pop albums, and hopefully he’ll win some of you over with this performance. The fact that these other great musicians have agreed to share the stage with him should be enough of an endorsement to pique your curiosity.
I urge the guitar lovers on the board to reply to this thread after the show with their opinions of John’s playing, and how he held up with the other musicians on stage. I have not seen the show yet, but I’m willing to bet that John will impress some of you.
Ah, I’ve learned to play a few of his songs. They’re fun and a little bit different. People tell me how great he is, I’m not buying into it yet. I think, though, it’d be a great show, and my sister will confirm that thought.
Let’s be clear about this: From what I’ve seen of his acoustic picking work and his Strat-ified blues playing he is a fantastic guitarist. However, his music is mediocre at best and his aspirations to be Mr. Square Guy are underwhelming.
I would be interested in checking out the ACL show, though, thanks for the heads up. The boy does have chops; just wish he aimed higher…
I will be looking forward to this show also. I kinda like what I’ve heard of his music. I’m a big fan of Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon, too, but have to admit that since the death of Stevie Ray, they will play with anyone and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were thankful to be playing with Mayer rather than the other way around.
If I ever get to be reincarnated, I want it to be as a John Mayer/Dave Matthews-esque guitar player. That way I can still be a dork, but then I’ll be a musician and can get all the girls.
I don’t hate John Mayer; I just can’t understand why anyone cares about him to begin with. His music is to good songwriting what the Federal Register is to literature.
John Mayer with DOUBLE TROUBLE AND BUDDY GUY!?!?!?!?! That is a crime against humanity.
John Mayer, the great white hope of the blues.:rolleyes:
:smack:
Buddy Guy is John Mayer’s mentor, and has been playing with him for several years. I saw an interview with Mayer on CBS’s Sunday Morning and he more than held his own.
…you are most likely too prejudicial to have an informed, objective opinion. I assure you he hit more right notes than wrong ones during the above referenced acoustic performance. If you don’t like his music…most likely all the notes are wrong.
This thread doesn’t attempt to address the dislike for his over-produced music. This thread is specifically aimed at those who say Mayer can’t play (obviously no one here has seen a live performance of Neon or heard the acoustic rendition from Inside Wants Out). For the hypercritical of you that postpone your adjudication until you watch this show, you will be pleasantly surprised. SRV and Buddy Guy are where it’s at for Johnny. His chops are undeniable however criticism is warranted (ala WordMan) that he hasn’t carried the best of his stuff into the studio to cut onto his CDs.
He did do a version of SRV’s “Lenny” on a CD-Single shortly after Room For Squares was released. That provided a small morsel for those of us who have been an active witness of Mayer’s ascension from playing in front of 30 patrons at Eddie’s Attic to 80,000+ in Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta. There are also some worthwhile moments from Any Given Thursday.
If you don’t like his music, you are certainly entitled to your tastes (I’m not all that crazy about his stuff anymore)…but to say the guy can’t play is a material mistake in fact.
I concur with ya, DeepDownTraumaHound, I’ve got a live version of Neon and the tab songbook for Room For Squares and that’s a pretty advanced song to play. No Such Thing has some interesting and seemingly fresh chord voicings and I got stuck on playing that one for a while.
The thing is, I haven’t heard him play blues but he does seem a bit, well, there’s no good way to say “soulless” without offending so I’ll just leave it at that. I could see him doing modern jazz but blues? I guess I’ll be tuning in to find out for myself.
I’m thrilled to hear that John Mayer can play. It confirms what I’ve always said: how well you can play don’t mean shit, it’s what you do with your ability (or lack thereof).
I tried to watch ACL but the guy bores me to tears, he comes across as a whiny, soulless hack who really wishes that he was Dave Mathews, I saw (rare) moments of very good guitar playing but even the good stuff had no “soul”.
