John Mayer - 3CD flac mp3 download

My point with this review is not to offend anyone, nor is it designed to take anything way from good musicianship, or anyone’s right to enjoy any musical style they wish. What I’m setting out here to do is to explain my stance, my thoughts, and the background of musical genres … in this case ‘the blues’, and John Mayer’s false relationship to this time honored genre.One can be a skilled musician, one can know the notes, the chords, the structures and the presentations, but that in itself is not enough … not by a long shot. The accepted blues scenario goes like this: The blues is a melancholic musical structure and song originally presented by black Americans, having a folk origin, typically with a twelve bar sequence. It developed and thrived in the souther United States at the end of the 19th century, and found a wider audience during the 1940’s when blacks moved north, with the urban blues giving rise to rhythm and blues, and then rock n’ roll. The essential aspect and nuance of the genre embraced and then celebrated feelings of melancholy, depression, or sadness. With that in mind, John Mayer once said of his idol Stevie Ray Vaughn, who had gotten clean and sober, “Stevie talked about his sobriety from the stage, talking about how substances had nearly ruined his life, and that’s why I’ve refused every drink or drug that was placed in front of me.” This is my point, William Borroughs could not have written “Naked Lunch” had his arm not had a hungry mouth, Steely Dan could not have written such sardonic lyrics without deeply immersing themselves in the counter culture of drugs and literature, nor could Jack Kerouac have written “On The Road” without going on the road. And as to the blues, BB King, Muddy Waters and countless others could not have written amazing blues standards without living through the pain and poverty of being black in America. The Blues is not a genre, it’s a lifestyle, and a white kid in America may play in the style of the blues, but unless someone has lost all, been to the dark side, been an outlaw of sorts, then they can not sing ‘the blues,’ because they essentially have nothing to sing about.Alight, I’m hearing you, and I also know that Eric Clapton loves John Mayer, but remember, Eric Clapton was not a true bluesman in the beginning, he was just emulating a style he loved, and yes later, he slid into his darker side, luckily emerged, but the point is, he then not only found the nature of the blues for the first time, but discovered himself within that context. I also know that BB King had John Mayer play at his 70th, but Mayer was only going through the motions, he has not suffered … what he’s doing is paraphrasing, imaging, and as Bruce Springsteen said, “It’s tough to write songs of being down and out while wearing a rich man’s shirt.”What Mayer and many others are doing is demeaning the blues, bastardizing it, making it something it’s not, and in so doing are presenting this to mainstream white kids who don’t know any better, and think that they have something to complain about just because they don’t have the latest version of iPhone.So … if you dig the music, the continuity of Mayer’s flawless presentation, his male model looks and fashionable dress, then by all means, enjoy your heart out, but please, do not for one minute suggest that what’s being presented here has anything to do with truth … because if you believe that, then you don’t know reality.Review by Jenell Kesler