Dear Nate

Dear Nate,
                    I just finished the John Mayer DVD. He is a hot guitar player. He reminded me a lot of Stevie Ray Vaughn but I definitely heard Roxy Music overtones in there as well. He has a large library of music to draw from and does so. He is quite the showman. Reason enough to be wary of him as a polished entertainer. I mean—he just doesn’t make any mistakes. Every lead is a finished idea—no meandering.
     “I’m just a crazy guy caught in a crazy world” he said while bantering with the audience. If you are not careful you could miss his integrity completely. “I know a girl she puts the color inside of my world”. One really has to look at him through a Stevie Ray filter i.e. he really is as good as he is pretends to be. This MF can play the hell out of the guitar. And he can sing his a—off. He has a sweet sense of emotion that is always present. He can be playful with his own tunes. He sings like Stevie Ray and he has a lot of really good blues skills of his own. He writes a good lyric. I would never describe him as amazing but he is very original, very talented, and has some really good chops.
     He is a little unbelievable. His voice has that raspy quality that we all like, he writes in any style he wants to. He is handsome and personable. In short, he is a marketing dream. The funny part is that he seems to genuinely rebel against all of that. This is most evident in the song, “Who Did You Think I Was”, where he challenges his listeners to check their prejudgments of him and his music at the door. I hope I don’t presume to much when I say that the line from that song, “I got a brand new blues that I can’t explain”, belies a sense that he has that his work is greater than he is. And sometimes when I listen closely he seems to be channeling 3 or 4 different singers and guitarists at the same time. You know, like maybe some of the stuff comes out faster than he can write it down.

I dig him. See you tomorrow…..

bill