John Mayer
 

John Mayer is my biggest influence right now. I have a lot of respect for him as a guitarist, I think he is by far, the most talented pop artist as of now. He has continually developed his skills and songwriting, and I think he could become really great. I don't always like his lyrics, but I can connect with them on some levels, but sometimes the wording is a bit weak, but his sense of fretboard harmony is great, and he is starting to pull a lot from Hendrix and Vaughn. I read that he always was influenced by them, but you don't hear it much on records. "Any Given Thursday" was great. "Lenny/Man" on the Side, and "Covered in Rain" showcase his electric guitar skill. I prefer his acoustic side, however, but I like the fact he is quite proficient at both.

My favorite songs by him - "3x5", "Great Indoors", "Clarity", "Something's Missing", "Covered in Rain", and "Man on the Side"

Does anyone else like him? Or dislike him and can give a reason? Just interested.

I love John. Granted, I wasn't a large fan of Heavier Things the first time I listened to it, but it has since grown on me. I really enjoy listening to Clarity, and always attempt to hop in with some falsetto wailing come the end.

If you're into his acoustic stuff, I'd definitely recommend picking up his no record-label album Inside Wants Out. I believe a friend has told me that since his growing fame, it's been re-released by Columbia. Good luck on it.

My favs happen to be:
- from Inside Wants Out: My Stupid Mouth, Comfortable
- from Room For Squares: 3x5
- from Any Given Thursday: Why Georgia
- from Heavier Things: Clarity
- unreleased: Neon (12:47 AM)

He did an acoustic "Clarity" at Baileys. Incredible performace. I'm covering it at an open mic night soon. Love the song. Reworded the end of the first verse, from rock candy and diamonds to fog and clarity, just a little bit of revision.

I absolutely loved a song that he did called "Tori" but not many people seem to know it.

He is very talented...I am very jealous ;)

On the devil's advocate side: He is derivative of DMB.

I haven't really gotten into Heaver Things, but to be fair, I haven't given it a fair chance. I love Room for Squares.

I have a lot of respect for him for a number of reasons: one, I think he's extremely articulate - when I've heard him speak or when I've read interviews, he's always saying really wise, accurate things that extend well beyond his years.

Two, he's an unbelievable guitarist.

Three, he's not afraid to stray from the three-minute pop song (even though many of the people in his audience are really there for the radio-friendly songs) and just jam.

Four, he's well aware of his influences, and while he emulates them, he's highly respectful of them. Did anybody see the Austin City Limits where Double Trouble backed him and he performed with Buddy Guy? Astounding that he even had the guts to play with them - and yet he was aware and cognizant of their greatness.

Five, he's not afraid to get ugly - really fucking ugly - with his guitar faces. :)

Hahaha...yeah, he has some weird-ass jamming faces. As for the DMB...I play both and cover both. They aren't the same. I definetely see the influence, but most people just compare them because they're songwriters and they both play acoustic guitar. Their overall styles are completely different, and for the most part, John uses different chords, too. Actually a lot of the chords he uses are jazz extensions and he has a lot of chords I just call "Mayer" chords, because I never see them used anywhere else, and he reuses certain sets of them. He quotes his biggest influences as being Hendrix and Stevie Ray...he was a guitarist before he was a songwriter, but we don't see too much of his electric guitar on his albums.

I like JM a lot, but not as much as I like Jack Johnson.

Jack Johnson is awesome.

while I like Jack Johnson's lyrics, all of his songs sounds exactly the same.

John Mayer on the other hand has alot of diverse sounds to his albums. he is an excellent artist.

I'm not a big fan of Mayer, but there is one version of one song that I really, really like.

The bootleg acoustic version of "3x5".

And oddly enough, I hate the live album and studio album versions.

His cover of "Kid A" is pretty cool, too, which is odd because I hate the original version.

I LOVE him. We have his albums- you know who you might also like? We landed upon Jonny Lang concert on TV- omg, he is incredible.