I’m not an expert – I don’t own any M. Ward albums yet. But I’ve heard him played on my local college radio station, and I just heard a bit of a growly voice, introspective lyrics, and instrumentation and song structure that reminded me of the Americana that Waits mines for material so often. I didn’t mean to imply anything inaccurate, but the little bit I’ve heard just brought the comparison to mind at the time.
The first time I heard of him was for the Curious George soundtrack.
Don’t know anything else he’s done though.
I thought that was Marc Cohn?
I like Johnson (and have seen him perform live at Tangier once) but I have to agree that his albums all kind of run together after a while. It’s nice, lazy evening background music but too much would definitely have a negative impact on the hypothalamus.
How about a little Eleni Mandell[sup]*[/sup] instead?
Stranger
[sup]*[/sup]Shameless plug for my current favorite up-and-coming talent.
I only heard that Curious George song but my first thought was that somewhere Dave Matthews and John Mayer were wondering who stole their Mojo.
Jack Johnson is an ex-professional surfer turned musician. He’s pretty good, but his music is extremely laid back and mellow, and I agree it can start to sound alike after a while.
I really liked his first album, Brushfire Fairytales](http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE47917DB4CAE7F20C093314CC8BA60FD07FE50F28F096E4954C0A2054D9A0E23E748E9DBD2B3FF6AB679AFF962A6500DD7C0ED52ECBC1B&sql=10:6bknu320anxk). He mixes some clever rhythms and wordplay in with sort or a caribbean feel, with his buddy Ben Harper playing some pretty good backing music.
It’s the kind of music that’s pretty good to listen to on a summer evening while you’re sitting outside having a beer and just chilling out.
But I’ve never felt the need to listen to much of his other stuff. A little bit goes a long way. But I’d recommend Brushfire Fairytales as the ‘essential’ Jack Johnson, if there is such a thing.
As far as the comparison goes with John Mayer - John Mayer is a vastly superior musician, but Johnson is a much better songwriter.
John Mayer’s a strange one. I’ve seen live performances of his where occasionally he can just tear the roof off with his guitar. I think if he decided to go down a harder blues-rock route like Stevie Ray Vaughan or Clapton, he’d get a lot more credibility. He really is very good on the guitar. But he always aims his sights on bland MOR junk. I have no idea why.
Interestingly, I just looked him up on Allmusic out of curiousity, and it looks like he may be going in that direction. Check out the review for Try!. Apparently, he’s been playing with Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, BB King, and others, and it’s rubbing off.
Hmm. Comparisons to Matthews and Mayer are valid, but I think Johnson’s more immediate precursors are guys like Josh Rouse, Mountain Goats, and–especially and most explicitly–Will Oldham/Palace/Bonnie Prince Billy. He’s like a horribly emasculated, denatured Will Oldham. That “bland, unoffensive, vanilla white-man soft rock” thing you hear, BBVL? Subtract that aspect and you have a relatively passable parody of Will Oldham, times (lame).