John Mayer Trio (1 Viewer)

[nickGreenwood]

Anyone listened to them yet? They have two songs on iTunes: "Come When I Call" and "Who Did You Think I Was?"

Personally I don't think John's voice suits the blues he's trying to do. It's too soft. But the music itself behind the lyrics sounds great. Steve Jordan and Pino Palladino round out the rest of the Trio, Jordan's played with Springsteen and Palladino with the Who recently, they all sound good together.

It should be interesting to hear new music from these guys, and John himself as he's said he's "closed up shop on the acoustic stuff" he's known for.

 

[NickSo]

hmm, cant find this on iTunes canada, wanted to download them.

 

[nickGreenwood]

Weird.

Here's the links, maybe they'll help, probably not though, darn iTunes.

John Mayer Trio - Come When I Call - iTunes (U.S.)

John Mayer Trio - Who Did You Think I Was? - iTunes (U.S.)

Hopefully if they're not up in people's respective countries they'll be up soon, the band isn't so bad, I'm just not used to John's voice trying to sing the blues yet...

 

[NickSo]

damn, yeah its not available in canada (yet, hopefully)

 

[Kevin C Brown]

I don't know much about him, but I read a recent review where they said the trio clicked pretty good. And that the newest CD (Heavier Things or something?) was in a different direction than his older stuff, but preferred by the reviewer.

Can someone describe the music style? Thanks !

 

[nickGreenwood]

Some would say he sounds kind of like DMB, to some degreee, I know a lot of people would disagree with me. But John really has the guitar chops. He can sound just like Stevie Ray Vaughan, or do a mean cover of "Message In A Bottle" by the Police. I highly recommend "Any Given Thursday" it's a live disc by John, it shows his different styles and his abilities, he's better live than on cd. But "Room for Squares" his second album, but first major release is really good, it's far bettetr than "Heavier Things".

As for his stuff with the John Mayer Trio, it's really good, he knows what he's doing when it comes to playing blues, I mean Eric Clapton didn't ask him to play the Crossroads Guitar Festival for nothing last year. I'm slowly getting used to his voice on bluesy style songs.

John's really good, despite his popularity with the teenage girls, I recommend him to anyone personally.

Hope this helps.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Cool. I had another buddy recommend that Crossroads DVD too.

 

[Rachael B]

Does DMB stand for Dirty Mean Bastard or what...?

I saw John Meyer playin' with a vet on TV about 6 weeks ago. Seems like it was Buddy Guy...? It looked like a trio plus one. I'm intrested in his trio. I really hated his last album...heavier things, indeed!?!?!? The bleeder sounds like he listened to a bunch of label dweebs about how he should sound...? This trio seems like a good vehicle to get the express back on the track.

 

[AnthonyC]

Dave Matthews Band.

 

[Rachael B]

Thanks Anthony, my brain locked-up on that one!

"Auuuuuh, my brain hurts"!

 

[NickSo]

he's got a new CD comin out soon, entitled Continuum IIRC. read it in this month's esquire.

hope itll sound better than Heavier Things... yech

 

[nickGreenwood]

Heavier Things had two really good songs, "Come Back To Bed" the follow up basically to "Your Body is a Wonderland" and "Daughters" they were more like the songs off from Room for Squares. "Somethings Missing" is a good song, but was much better on the live album.

Continuum is supposed to be a departure from his usual stuff, during some pre-mature talk of this upcoming album he stated that he was leaving the acoustic stuff behind along with the lovey dovey stuff he'd been doing. I hope not, because he's one of the best acoustic guitar players around, I think he made it cool to play an acoustic again and his love songs are pretty good.

Crossroads is a really good dvd, a lot of blues legends and current guitarist/future legends play. John actually joined, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Jimmie Vaughan on a song or so, though if I remember correctly it's not on the DVD or only one song if that.

Buddy Guy and John Mayer recently did an episode of the PBS show, Soundstage. I've yet to see it but I hear it's good.

 

[Rachael B]

Nick, I saw the last 20 minutes or so of it. I turned on my TV and it was already in progress. I liked what I saw. It beat the hell out of that last album!

 

[Brian L]

A few comments:

1. KCB - Buy the crossroads DVD. I doubt you will regret it. Personally, I like the tracks on disc 2 better than 1. Steve Vai does the most over the top performance I have ever seen. Killer performances by Joe Walsh, Eric Johnson, Larry Carlton, too. Very good sound and video quality as well.

2. Agree 1,000% regarding Mayer's ability to play like Stevie Ray. Incredible chops, but he tends to keep things under wraps. I suppose he correctly has concluded that the world has heard enough guitar players that try to sound like SRV...some of 'em even do a pretty good job, but we have all heard it before.

3. The Soundstage show was way too poppy for me. And even my wife concluded that John has some weird-ass mannerisms when he performs. Looks a bit freaky, actually. The little girls in the front sure liked it, although I bet they backed up a step or two when Buddy Guy walked out!

Brian

 

[nickGreenwood]

Well the full album came out yesterday. I picked up two copies one from iTunes the other a physical copy.

The actual disc from the store is really neat, it comes in packaging much like old records came in, even using the Columbia logo on the inside sleeve.

And the iTunes version comes with a video that the regular store copy doesn't come with. I haven't watched it yet.

Anyway this album is amazing. If you like guitar, it's got a lot of really, really nice nasty, cruchy, low-down dirty guitar sounds, John really gets some great tones out. If you like bass, Pino's playing is amazing, his bass is there pretty prominetly in the mix, but never really over powering any of the other musicians. He also gets a great dirty, thumpy sound. And for those that like drums, Steve Jordan is great, he doesn't over step his bounds on the song, but he carries the band like drummers should. The sound would not be complete without Jordan.
When John, Pino and Steve start playing together, especially on the tracks that we haven't heard, which only "Who Did You Think I Was", "Somethings Missing" and the best version of "Daughters" are the songs we've heard from John before. They do a great cover of Jimi Hendrix "Wait Until Tomorrow" I think they do it better than Jimi. (Actually I'm not a huge Jimi fan so I think most people can do his songs better than he can, at least SRV and JM3)
If you like blues, seriously you need this album. If you like John Mayer, you should pick up this cd to see where he's going, who knows if this is just a pit stop or if he'll keep doing the JM3 stuff. I hope he does it's great.

Wouldn't mind hearing John's regular bassist David Labrayre (sp?) or DeLa play with Pino to see how that'd sound.

Also there's apparently a live DVD of the John Mayer Trio coming out soon, or it may already be out, so this just keeps getting better.

iTunes Link

 

[Ron Reda]

I really dig the packaging as well…it is reminiscent of the old Blue Note jazz/blues CDs. I just wish that they put the CD in a jewel case rather than having to dig it out of the mini-LP sleeve…ARGH!

I saw the JM3 twice here in Atlanta and they rocked both nights. I think that this CD is an excellent representation of the energy at those shows. While I hoped for a bit better quality than some of the peer-to-peer shows I’ve accumulated from this tour, the CD sounds pretty decent, if lacking a bit of top-end. If you enjoy great guitar playing, you’ll love this CD. John really stretched out playing-wise on this tour and it really shows. He plays very soulful one minute and rips it down the next. To me, he sounds like a combination of Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Albert King and B. B. King all jumbled up then filtered through his fingers. Put him together with the rhythm section of Pino Palladino and Steve Jordan and they sound tight. As Nick said, check out Pino’s playing on this CD…it’s not buried in the mix, so you can easily hear it. This guy has got chops. As far as the songs go, I think each of them shows a different facet of John’s ability and/or songwriting and each of them stands out in it’s own way. 2 out of the 10 new songs are covers (a killer version of Hendrix’s “Wait Until Tomorrow” and Ray Charles’ “I Got A Woman”), but John really makes them his own through his playing. While I feel that “Something’s Missing” could have easily been left out (this song just seems out of place with the overall feel of the album), John injects enough bluesiness into “Daughters” to make it fit into the context of the rest of the set. For any JM, blues or general music fan, this CD is a must have. See the review below at Allmusic.com (4.5 stars…not bad!):

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p...0:ngjeeat84x07

While John is already planning his follow up to “Heavier Things” (I believe it’s called “Infinium”?), I’m glad that he finally put out the blues album that we’ve all been waiting for containing the playing that he’s hinted at during previous tours. To confirm what Nick stated, there is in fact a DVD to follow.

 

[Rachael B]

Nick, I might have already seen the vdeo??? I saw the trio with Buddy Guy as a quest on TV, in high-def no less. I can't remember if it was on UHD or HD Net...?

As much as I'd like to have the album, I'll not be buying it anytime soon. If I buy it on CD, it'll surely show up on SA-CD in a few months. I think it saw it offered on vinyl...? I'm just gonna be patient and see how the fur-mat roulette wheels spins for awhile.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

I got mine at BB today. Looking forward to listening to it.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

1/2 way through the 2nd time. The solo at the end of track 3 is killer. Surprisingly good stuff, although I can hear the "pop music" in his background coming through in a couple of tracks.

I had never really heard of him before all of the recent press with this trio. So I asked my wife if she knew about him, and she did. (She's into Celine Dion, Andrea Bocelli, etc.) She mentioned the Jennifer Love Hewitt connection and the song he did for her and how he's supposed to be this good looking stud. I thought it was funny that she knew who he was and I really didn't!

So I guess the dude has really sort of ... branched out ... from what he's done in the past.

 

[Ron Reda]

Yeah, there's no denying that, but I feel that it appeals to a wider range of people, perhaps even people who normally wouldn't listen to a blues trio.