Who's your guitar daddy now?

I first saw John Mayer being interviewed on some TV special about music, or another musician, or something a while ago and I thought he was funny and sounded surprisingly thoughtful. Then I saw him on the Dave Chappelle Show, and the two of them cracked me up - but I still thought he was just basically a bubble gum pop singer.

Then I saw him on the 2004 Crossroads Guitar Festival DVD and I was completely blown away - not so much with his technical prowess, but by the fact that this shinny white kid seemed to be channeling the spirits of several dead ax men at once. Nobody on the entire Festival DVD got under my skin the way his playing did. You can watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sPmTgPvx28

I also really enjoyed Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, John McLaughlin and Joe Walsh on the disk, and most of the other players really - but I keep coming back to Mayer and thinking he's onto something.

I have seen a lot of great electric guitar players live including Page, Beck, Barre, Howe, Gilmore, McLaughlin, Di meola, Morse, Winter, Garcia, Buckingham, Hooker, Belew, Hidalgo, Zappa, Vai and that guy that plays with Van Morrison too, just to name the ones I can think of off the top. So is Mayer Derivative? Sure. But a surprising amount of soul comes out of the amps driven by this unlikely source. Maybe the main reason I like his playing so much is that the player he is borrowing most heavily from is Jimi Hendrix - and you can't beat that with an ax or a stick...

Funny someone should mention audiophiles at all in this thread, because John Mayer's studio albums are not the best produced by a long shot. The sound is often over saturated and a bit fuzzy - take the sonic peaks on Axis Bold as Love on the "Continuum" disk - not good. I sold my copy of "Heavier Things" because it just didn't sound very good on my system and I don't think the material is as strong as his other releases. For somebody who cares about music as much as he appears to - the lack of finesse in the studio is surprising to me. I still think he plays the guitar like ringing a bell, but most of his stuff is not produced for audiophiles, its more for teenage girls' with iPods...

Eddaytona,

Yes, he is at least the favorite uncle if not the outright father of modern rock guitar. Maybe somebody will make a movie someday about the relationship between a famous English talk show host and an American cultural icon. They can call it "LuLu/Hendrix".

So Sharon Isbin would actually be your "guitar momma"... I just bought one of her CDs based on these recommendations - very nice work.

Whoa Wwwrecords,

Great dynamic range and feel for the music - shreads like Buckethead or Al D. but also seems to understand how much can be said with one note - like Brian May or David Gilmour. Clearly he understands composition given that he also plays drums and rhythm guitar too. Does he also run the bass lines? Huge upside - also huge personal risks having so much talent so early. I wish him the best!

For a treat - check out "Performing This Week: Live at Ronnie Scott's" in Blu-ray format. You will start to appreciate the capabilities of that format along with Beck's prodigious and continually evolving guitar prowess.

Mine right now: J Mascis.