I was attracted to the effortless narrative of its lyrics and soon bought "Room for Squares," the album Mayer is promoting during his current tour. The unique writing I bought it for is there; however it's suffocated by blankets of studio additives. It's not a bad album; it's only disappointing because there is a clear contrast between what it is and what it could be without such excesses. My instinctive aversion to overproduction tells me not to like him, but this guy is really too talented to discard.
John Mayer is an up-and-coming singer/songwriter with distinctive lyrics and novel guitar-playing style. Beyond that, it's awfully hard to define him. I refuse to make use of Dave Matthews only because he's the only omnipresent point of comparison and, besides, there is much more to John Mayer than his flawless vocal range. He infuses elements of percussion into his guitar style unlike any artist I've heard and the marriage of the guitar work to his vocal artistry makes quite a handsome couple.
In 1998 Mayer left Boston's Berklee College of Music to hit the vibrant music community in Atlanta, Georgia and his talents were quickly appreciated and gobbled up by Columbia Records. I can really respect Mayer's decision to abandon the textbooks of precision and virtuosity to allow his already-present talents to take a shape of their own.
"There's this really distracting glory in wanting to be the best guitar player," Mayer said. That can be true in any area of art; aesthetics oftentimes are more worthy than rules. Sonata form has nothing on jamming and writing poetry in rhyming meter can really strain expression.
There's no doubt that Mayer is a legitimate musician. But admittedly, even legitimate musicians must wade through a certain depth of capitalist sewage in order to be successful at all. The question remains if John Mayer will keep his Wellingtons strapped tightly and protect his musical integrity.
We talked by phone before he played in Northampton on Wednesday night and touched upon the idea of coming fame. I was surprised to hear that Mayer would like a spot on MTV's Total Request Live (TRL), the all-too-well-known cesspool of industry-fabricated, orgiastic and glossy pop stars. But he fiercely defended his aspiration in the name of bringing decent music to the masses.
"If you were an artist in the sixties you would want to do American Bandstand. TRL is nothing but a new American Bandstand where the popular music artists are playing," he said.
"If I were ever invited on Total Request Live I would bring my guitar, I would sit down, and I would play 'No Such Thing.' And I would play it my way, exactly how I want it ... I would hope my audience would support me."
Mayer continued quickly, indicating that the idea of pop stardom was not new. "TRL is only good or as cheesy as the songs are. If I were on the show I would be reaching so many people who don't know that music exists on any higher level than, you know, Limp Bizkit," he said. "I think it would be kind of close-minded for me to say I'm above doing a TV show that would reach millions and millions of kids. I would love to open their minds up."
This is the kind of logic that I'm afraid can transform a very musically valid young talent into an action figure. I would be glad, I guess, if the John Mayer I saw Wednesday night played a sweet acoustic set on TRL, but is that possible? Isn't artistic manipulation an intrinsic element of that program?
At the concert I noticed some warning signs for a musician threatening to become a poster boy. Mayer's new shoes and the way in which his stage antics catered to girls in the crowd are much more characteristic of a pop star than a folk singer. In between songs last Wednesday night he mentioned my chastisement of TRL and, as my attention was raised in hopes of a new insight, he only used the reference as an opportunity to shake his perfect ass in a mock televised performance. The girls (and some wistful young men) in the crowd squealed with joy. Did they squeal as loudly for the praiseworthy jam? You have to be careful who your fans are, because nowadays instead of a revolutionary musican influencing the masses, the very bleak opposite is true.
All negativity aside, Mayer put on a wonderfully enjoyable show on Wednesday. I wasn't at all annoyed by his recent pop-iness because it's so much less apparent when he plays live. Mayer was reasonably loyal to his gorgeous Martin acoustic and played a great bluegrass-style "3 x 5." The work of Mayer's bassist impeccably complemented the characteristically layered rhythms of the lead guitar.
Mayer opened the show with "Why Georgia," one of the most popular tracks from "Room for Squares." He continued to play the the majority of the album and mixed things up a few times by jamming from his own material into Sting's "Message in a Bottle."
A pleasant surprise that I hadn't previously noticed on his studio albums or live recordings was Mayer's tendency to fall into a bluesy vibe. His versatility among genres is another indication of valid musicianship. Mayer plunged into a Guns 'n' Roses cover so spontaneously that his bandmates needed to take a few moments to pick up his progression and they seemed much more impressed than annoyed at being left behind.
John Mayer has enough powerful talent to gradually become an influential musican if he continues to dedicate his time to the music. Or he could work on appealing to the general public and become a rock star within a few years. It all depends on how he plays it.