r/JohnMayer

Idk why I've always thought and felt like it was a follow up side project to Continuum not something that came before it.

I guess because the Try! album features songs from Continuum before they were officially released. Ive been listening for years and just never processed it.

Does anyone know how John achieved the tone in his second solo in the live in LA version of belief? One of the most beautiful tones I’ve ever heard

I’m curious if John will choose to honor Bob Weir in one of his new songs on the album. Not necessarily a dead cover, but some sort of lyric or song that ties back to him.

Also side note but very related obv. I’ve been wanting to get into John Mayer i was introduced to him by the cars movie what album should I start with? (I’d like to mention I love the chats that I’m getting but I really want that file please!!!!)

Been checking my emails like crazy, does anyone know when the winners are announced?

Admins please don't move this to that other thread- no one will get a push notification that it's new :-)

I just called 1-844-CALL2JM an embarrassing # of times. Mostly busy, but enough rings every 5 or 6 times to give me hope. Anyone else with me?

Steve Jordan said in a podcast that there’s an unreleased John Mayer Trio album that was recorded when John couldn’t sing. It’s in a progressive style. Hopefully it’ll come out soon 😊

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcJOLTYACOq/?igsh=NHJzaDNtNWgxYmN2

Hi everyone! Not sure if we’re getting a new setlist tonight or not, but I figured I’d set up a thread either way. 

Where’s your favorite place to experience a Dead show? Are you riding the rail, spinning, sitting in the stands, couch surfing, or somewhere else? 

John: It’s been an interesting couple of weeks celebrating Jerry Garcia’s life. We celebrated being together a year ago in Golden Gate Park and we mourned that that would be the last time we were all together in that way. 
He was moved by the response to his Instagram post where he shared insight on how brave Bobby was in those last shows. It linked us all up again to read all those comments and be communicating about Dead stuff and Dead & Co stuff again. He sends his very heartfelt “thank you” for helping him feel connected again. That’s what this show is all about, so we’re going to start with The Music Never Stopped because if he’s going to put it somewhere in the show, he’s going to start with it since this is a funky, jammy version. 

The Music Never Stopped - 4/24/78 - Normal, IL

John: That’s what love will make you do. . . [plays a little of the song]. This is a Little Milton song. This is the vastness of the GD catalog. He’s going to reference this song many times both for the musicality and the recording. It’s recorded so purely and gently. It’ll take 5 seconds to hear it and go, “oh, where can I get this?” Fortunately, you don’t have to go looking for it because it’s right here.

That's What Love Will Make You Do - 5/21/76- JGB w/ Merle Saunders

John: 
We’re going to stay in JGB land if we may, not only because the last week was celebrating his life and passing, but because it’s such an interesting sound. A lot of JGB songs were covers and that’s true of this next track. Pay attention to how the beginning of this song shares a genetic similarity to Sugaree. He’s not saying there is any link, but the fingerprint is there. Jerry’s at least thinking about it when he’s playing. 

Shining Star - 8/24/91 - Jerry Garcia Band

John: As he begins to look back at videos and pics, the image of him and Bobby on stage is getting gilded, visually dipped in gold. “Well that is beautiful.” He was doing the thing, he was contributing to the thing, figuring out how to make the next thing better. And the images of the band playing are, in realtime, every day, just for him, becoming iconic. Iconic for him and his life’s story to the visual and the image and the memory. Who would he be if he had not been doing that? It’s like a hot iron getting quenched in the fire. 

Fire on the Mountain - 7/2/23 - Boulder, CO - WHERE THEY LET MICKEY RAP!!!!!

John: This next thing he’s going to try to explain is going to be strange, just relax and try your best to understand. 

You ever have a fruit that tastes like another fruit? 
You ever have a banana taste like guava? 

This is a Peggy-O with a little Althea. He loves when a song tips into a little bit of the groove of another song. 

Peggy-O - 5/8/81 - Uniondale, NY

John: We’re doing another song reference in another song again. There’s about a year’s span of time where They Love Each Other had an uptempo TLEO in the style of China Cat Sunflower. 
In Dead & Co they would ask are we gonna do the ‘73 version? Whoever was the most emphatic about it got their way.
This is a relaxed version of that uptempo thing. 

They Love Each Other - 2/22/74 - San Francisco, CA

John: He’s reaching into Jerry Garcia recording archives. This is a cover of a Bob Dylan song. It was produced by Phil Ramone. John had dinner with Phil one time. He challenged John to write all 50 states down on a piece of paper in a certain time frame and John couldn’t do it. [John meanders a bit here where I couldn’t keep up and then called me/us out telling me/us that we liked the way this show and the music meanders]. 

If there’s a friend on the fence, this is the song that will show Jerry Garcia was a phenomenal singer. 

Simple Twist of Fate - 2/19/78 - Jerry Garcia Band

John: He’s rippin packs and playing tracks with a holographic Bertha. What if he did that [paper rustling and ripping noises]. “Oh we got a Bertha. . .” 

Bertha - 10/29/77 - DeKalb, IL

John: Every time he was up to bat to play Bertha, he thought about how Jerry played it. Jerry played it slowly. John could never do it and he’d listen to Jerry recordings where the crowd was so pumped and the band was chugging along and Jerry would just be so relaxed into it. 

Dark Star was a song Dead & Co probably played more than the original Dead. They’d, as Bobby used to say, take those songs out for a walk.
Dark Stars were always the most exploratory version of the thing (either song or jammy). 
He’s starting to go back and not see the latest as the greatest. He used to think about it as building on the next and making it better the next time through. Now, time is a flat circle when it comes to listening to Dead & Co songs so he’s appreciating what was.

Dark Star - 7/12/22 - Burgettstown, PA

John: Dark Star was not played very often and neither was St. Stephen, which we’re about to hear. It’s heard more in early Dead sets, which makes sense. It’s a barrelhouse, pigpen in the band playing a vox continental organ like you’d hear in The Doors or Smash Mouth. 
To prove that you don’t really need to play the right notes, listen to the beginning, Jerry’s playing one note off and instead of it being bad, it’s intriguing. 

St. Stephen - 2/2/70 - St. Louis, MO

John: One More Saturday Night was most likely to be missed by John’s friends who’d have to hightail it out during this song to leave with him after the show. So, for John’s friends, here’s what that song sounds like. 

It’s expected play can take a little out, but this is a very Chuck Berry-type but faithful rendition.
Every time they did it in Dead & Co, it was very smoke-em-if-you-got-em and he’d look over at Bobby and see him giving it all he’s got. If Bobby has his way, this isn’t the last OMSN, and it will go on. He doesn’t know who will sing it. They’ve probably been born, but he doesn’t know if he knows them for sure. It’s a good way to leave off. 

One More Saturday Night - 6/23/74 - Miami, FL

Just been through a breakup of a 2 year relationship.

Would love a Mayer playlist of some of the most heart wrenching, painful songs to cry my eyes out to. Hit me!

A friend recommended the Bear drama series. So good! Excellent sound track. End of episode 6 season 1 is Last Train Home!

I’m 24, and one thing I constantly struggle with is feeling like I started guitar too late.

I only really discovered the instrument in 2024, and sometimes that genuinely bothers me. I’ll watch John Mayer play and part of me wishes I could somehow wake up tomorrow with that skill set.
Sometimes I genuinely think, man, I would give almost anything to be able to play like that.

But recently I had a perspective shift.

John Mayer is approaching 50. He has achieved things musically that I can barely comprehend right now. He’s wealthy, famous, respected by everyone, and has spent most of his life becoming unbelievably good at something I’m only beginning to understand.

But when I hear him talk about his life these days, he often talks about wanting marriage and family. He has spoken about wanting children and about finding the right person.

While I’m looking at his life thinking, I wish I had what he has, there may be parts of my life that someone in his position would deeply want too.

I’m 24. I’m married to the love of my life. I have kids. I have a family of my own, and I hopefully still have decades ahead of me to become a much better guitarist.

And that made me realize how strange comparison is.
We rarely compare entire lives.

I compare my guitar playing to John Mayer’s guitar playing.
I don’t compare being 24 to being nearly 50. A 26-year difference.

I don’t compare having decades ahead of me to having decades behind me.

I don’t compare relationships, family, health, opportunities, regrets, timing, or any of the other thousands of things that make up a human life.

We isolate the one thing another person has that we desperately want and temporarily convince ourselves that they have “everything.”

They probably don’t.

Almost everyone is standing on something that somebody else would consider a miracle. That doesn’t mean I’m going to stop wanting to become an incredible guitarist. Quite the opposite. I’m going to practice as hard as I can.

But maybe I don’t need to mourn starting late so much.

I can spend the next 10, 20, 30 years becoming the guitarist I want to become while also appreciating the life I’m already living.

I think that’s one of the beautiful things about life:
You almost always have something that somebody else would give anything to have.

Sometimes you’re so busy looking at what’s missing that you forget you’re already living inside someone else’s dream.

EDIT: Some of the comments made me realize I framed this badly.
The point I was trying to make wasn’t “John Mayer probably envies my life because I’m married with kids.” Reading it back, that does sound self-serving and turns comparison into another kind of scoreboard.
The better realization for me is much simpler: I was comparing one underdeveloped area of my life — guitar — to one of the most developed areas of somebody else’s life.
I started later than I wish I had. John has decades of experience I simply don’t have. That’s fine.
Life also isn’t linear, and two people at completely different ages and stages can’t really be meaningfully compared as whole lives anyway.
So I think the healthier takeaway is just: admire people, learn from them, and let their skill inspire you but compare your progress mostly to who you were yesterday.
Still glad I posted this because some of the pushback actually helped me stress-test the thought.

Veers left at the last second for sure

Steve Jordan in an interview with Ed Struijlaart: “I’ve played on six things a couple of weeks ago. Really stellar material, really top drawer as they say!”

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcBqkP7FGzQ/?igsh=MWN0MHkzbDFrZTE5bg==

I feel like John is someone who is very in tune with time and its passage and his place in it all. 83, Changing, Born and Raised, Who Says, Wheel, Stop this Train, etc. What other tracks am I missing??

I have to think he’s thinking about his next album as the last one of his 40s and as a result I know he’s going to tell a story. Set a tone for the coming decade. I’m so excited.