By the start of 2005, John Mayer was fed up. Catapulted into the mainstream in 2001 with his best-selling debut Room for Squares, Mayer at the time was something of an anomaly. Whether he deliberately portrayed himself this way, marketed this way by his label, or the public projected the image onto him, Mayer was a clean-cut, sensitive guy playing acoustic pop, swimming against a tide of post-grunge, nu-metal, and emo.
Eager to show that he was so much more, Mayer tried to shake off the tag with his follow up with 2003’s Heavier Things. The album blended more nuanced songwriting with Mayer’s desire for more liberal use of the electric guitar. However, the record spawned the single “Daughters” earned him a Grammy and pretty much cemented the “sensitive songwriter guy” image and sound. Unhappy with this development, he was plotting his next move which would ultimately alter the trajectory of his career.
In early 2005, Mayer committed to a televised benefit concert special for the victims of the 2004 tsunami. To accompany him were studio ace drummer Steve Jordan and bass wizard Willie Weeks. Weeks backed out as the date approached. Under the suggestion of Jordan, Mayer recruited another bass wizard, Pino Palladino. When they realized there was soulful chemistry between them, Mayer got the green light for his change into becoming a blues guitarist. The John Mayer Trio consumed the majority of Mayer’s 2005. The live album Try! was birthed from this.
The record starts out strong with “Who Did You Think I Was?” which is not so tongue-in-cheek jab to his somewhat contrived public image. “Good Love Is on the Way” manages to keep spirits up, but the crowd response seems tepid. The Trio then wows the crowd with an electrifying twist on Jimi Hendrix’s “Wait Until Tomorrow.”
The second part of the album sets a different pace and mood with “Gravity” which follows through “Vultures.” The mood changes slightly with “Out of My Mind” which is an intense form of grandfather’s blues. It starts out slow and the tension builds with each snare hit from Jordan and Palladino patient basslines. Before you know it, the band is blazing. “Another Kind of Green” is a breezy original tune that doesn’t rush but doesn’t slow anything else down either.
The third act incorporates an up-tempo rendition of Ray Charles’ “I’ve Got a Woman” which the crowd has quite a bit of fun with. Then something interesting happens. Mayer plays “Something’s Missing,” and “Daughters”. Mayer slips back into the thing cemented him as “sensitive songwriter guy,” but he incorporates it into the Trio so well and so confidently that quietly the crowd is wondering about the other guy they thought they knew.
The live set ends with the title track “Try!” which is a funky, upbeat tune that heavily involves each band member. By the end of the record, I think the trio has won most of the crowd over.
No one really knew what to make of Mayer’s career move. At this time, he also grew his hair out, started clubbing more, and began smoking weed. If he had such a comfortable niche and public image that he could coast on, why change?
The fact of the matter is he nursed his musical instincts on blues and 80’s pop music and generally sought to marry the best aspects of both. The first phase of his career was almost exclusively a pop one. The pendulum had to swing far to the blues side for real change and growth to happen. The move would inform the rest of his career.
Mayer stated that Trio intended to write a full-length album, but came up short, but two of the songs written from the Trio sessions made it onto his third solo album, Continuum. Here you here the songs are on the cusp of ripening. In his live concert album Where the Light Is, Mayer summons the JM3 to revisit some of these songs again, but somehow they don’t create the same effect for the listener.
