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For those of you that have met me, this may come as a surprise that I happen to own a couple John Mayer albums. Honestly, most of his music is too mainstream for me which is why it came to me as a surpise when I heard him say Stevie Ray Vaughan was one of his biggest influences. I didn’t buy it for a second… that is until I heard TRY! - John Mayer Trio Live In Concert (2005).
It took me a long time to come around to seriously listening to John Mayer. This was mostly due to my first impression from Room For Squares (2001) and a character judgment on John Mayer himself. Obviously I don’t know him personally, but I just got the feeling he was a bit self-absorbed and arrogant. In my defense, this was later confirmed by a few Berklee kids I’ve met that knew him from school. Anyways, that’s not the point I’m trying to drive. It turns out John Mayer is not only a relatively good guitarist (not among my favorites, but good nonetheless), but he also managed to find a solid drummer (Steve Jordan) and bassist (Pino Palladino) for this live trio album. Better still, John’s Stevie Ray Vaughan influence really comes out with TRY! It might just be that the sound of the guitar in this recording sounds very similar to Vaughan’s, but I hear a slight difference in John’s stylistic choices as well. Song’s such as Another Kind of Green really exemplify this stylistic difference I hear between TRY! and songs from Room For Squares, for example. I suppose I could do some research to find out why there is such a distinction between TRY! and his early works. But honestly, I don’t really care. I just know that TRY! is a really solid album, and whatever change occurred seemed to stick because I actually really enjoyed Continuum (2006) as well.
I realize TRY! came out some time ago, but I’m sure there are some music advocates as obnoxious as me that have chosen to continue ignoring John Mayer based on (in my opinion) a poor first impression. I’m sure I’ll hear from a couple friends defending even his earlier stuff. I won’t concede with that. However, I will fully endorse TRY! and Continuum. Both are great albums. Even better, TRY! is a live album. There really aren’t enough live recordings officially released in general. I say officially because there are of course tons of boot legs out there, but you really need access to the mixing board to get a quality recording. Anyways, I’ve selected Another Kind of Green and Vultures from TRY! for an audio clip.
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