John Mayer Trio - Try! Live in Concert
By: Mark Runyon | Category: Album Reviews | 11/29/05 | 12:30 AM
 |  |  Grade: A- | Genre: Blues/Soul/Rock
Summary: While Try! isn't the perfect disk, it is one juiced with daring, flinging the doors of possibility open for John and his fellow troubadours.
Its really nice to see a talented musician reach the point where he can bust out of the chains the music machine has wrapped him in to become what he was truly meant to be. It's not easy to give your carefully buffed, Grammy winning, multi-platinum image the finger to begin charting a new destination. That is effectively what John Mayer has done in forming the John Mayer Trio. He's letting his inner soul brother hog the mic. He's feelin' the blues right through to the tips of his hair. Anyone who has seen him in concert could sense the winds of change were coming. There are those defining moments where he just trails off in a song like "Neon" and, with the audience about to rip the roof off the auditorium, he shares this quiet space with his guitar where everything else is simply the static of life. That's John at his purest and for the first time, with Try!, I think we are afforded an unfiltered look into the musician's soul. It's not the slick pop tart Mayer we've come to know, but the man at his most honest. |
I think John is following a similar career projectory as George Michael. Like Michael, Mayer happily downplayed his more raw sound, that slips through in his live act and in his pre-explosion disk Inside Wants Out, to cultivate radio crack-laced hooks to be lapped up by the masses. Sooner or later, the artist starts to grow restless, being lumped in with the boy bands and suffering that massive sugar high packaged in these tunes. Next thing you know, George Michael is having sensuous supermodels singing "Freedom," serving as an emancipation of the musician from the image. That song for John is the deep-fried single "Who Did You Think I Was." It still has the finely textured hook, but it's grittier and releases itself to the freedom in the groove. John's mojo is staying out late and partying like it was 1999 while the teenie bopper heartthrob is at home suffering from writer's block. It's a great song to introduce us to the man we thought we knew so well.
John doesn't mess around when scouring the earth for grade 'A' talent, supporting his quest to be Eric Clapton. Now we're not talking about sissy "Tears in Heaven" Clapton, but stealing George Harrison's woman, 70s Derek and the Dominos Clapton. Unlike Ben Folds Five, the name does denote that there are three musicians freeing these notes from their funk cocoons. Steve Jordan slaps the drums like they were his unruly bitches while Pino Palladino whipsaws the bass until its begging in submission. The new band fits John like a sharply tailored suit. The man has been collaborating with everyone from Kanye West to Herbie Hancock since recording Heavier Things so its little wonder that he's looking for company when taking his next musical leaps.
"Wait for Tomorrow" sounds like a 70s southern rock anthem, dying to grow up to be a classic rock staple. While it comes with a tank full of energy thirsty to drive, it never quite lives up to its promise. Tracks like this define the raw sound Mayer packs into Try! They seem almost an experiment, the release of a musician shaking out the ache of his quarter-life crisis and shutting the doors of his high school only to hurdle into his life, free of a safety net.
Other tracks flat out blister the mark. The bluesy "Out of my Mind" is Mayer buried in the zone. The guitar has a voice of its own as it quivers and shakes. These are moments that make you remember why you love music so. "I've Got a Woman" sounds like the spirit of Ray Charles took up residence in him for the evening. It's got a funky swagger that really shouldn't be pulsing from a white man. Dave Chappelle might have to rethink his theory after a track like this. The closer "Try!" has a very throwback to the 50s "Shout!" quality to it. "Gravity" is the album's pinnacle. It wields that "Your Body is Still a Wonderland" romantic magic wand to make the girls instantly go rubbery in the knees. It's the wavering heartache he's spooned up a hundred times before, but when its plugged into this fuller, more complete sound, it just shines.
Now if you are looking for the sweet studio polish, wait for his coming disk Continuum. Try! was recorded live in concert from two sessions at Chicago's House of Blues. This helps to capture the urgency and raw edge Mayer needs to express these songs. Gone are the sorority girls screaming hysterically like he was some invading Beatle, and their singing every blessed word to every song like they've got a voice. We don't have to fight that battle because all these tracks are new. During the encore, he does break out "Something's Missing" and the God awful "Daughters," but they're almost a welcome distraction to lay the pop artist side-by-side with the blues artist to show off how two-dimensional and pale these pop tunes are. Oh and no concert would be complete without the obnoxious person yelling out "Comfortable." That song seems to be John's "Free Bird."
While Try! isn't the perfect disk, it is one juiced with daring, flinging the doors of possibility open for John and his fellow troubadours. He was the man that birthed the latest invasion of the singer-songwriter, and he's sneaking out the backdoor, not content to stay planted in popdom any longer. If you prematurely wrote Mayer off as a slave to the pop melody, its time to wake up and smell the sweet aroma of this new sound. For the fans, your music collection is about to find a fresh horizon to wake up to.
Release Date: November 22, 2005
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