"This is the new deep"...

Yesterday Evelyn and I made the final step into our quest for musical nirvana. In April I bought two tickets to see today's god of guitar. The man who successfully brought blues and soul back into the mainstream. Who pulled himself out of the wreckage of his pop hit "Your Body is a Wonderland" and was reborn. After 'Room for Squares' he created a deeply emotional and intimate sound with 'Heavier Things.' But no one really expected the alternative artist to jump headfirst into blues with his Trio. He blew us away with his live album "Try." What an incredible leap for a pop artist to make! But he pulled it off and everyone embraced it. After that, working with Alicia Keys, they wrote "Lesson Learned." Maybe the soul queen inspired some of his R&B rifts in his next album, "Continuum." His Jimi Hendrix covers rocked, his guitar and vocal skills were more refined and he had brought blues to a new crowd who were illiterate to the genre. But in this fan's opinion, no album was quite as satisfying as his latest. "Where the Light Is" (lyrics from 'Gravity') was a live album that blew us away. With five acoustic songs, including a soulful version of Tom Petty's 'Free Falling', eight songs with the Trio and six songs with his new eight member band, this was a masterpiece. His guitar skills more complex and intense, vocals deeper and precise and the band's revival of old songs, "Where The Light Is" is definitely this summer's best album. And I'm not just talking about a great pop chart hit. I'm saying that no one today has the same appreciation and respect for music the way that Mayer does. He takes it to a level we haven't seen in decades. He fuses jazz, blues, and rock with emotional intensity and intellectualism.
Last night Evelyn and I got to see John Mayer for the first time, live. After seven years of music worshiping, we finally saw him in concert! I would just like to say that after all these years, seeing Mayer was unbelievably satisfying. His music was just as brilliant and touching as it as has been. Yet at one point when the lights lifted onto the audience and all you saw was the band sillouhetted on stage while "Gravity" was taken to a new level the lyrics "Just keep me where the light is, love the perfect you, just keep me where the light is..." I felt this euphoric connection to the universe and to everything in it. I knew I was in musical nirvana. And now I know I need to see no other artist to experience that feeling.
I don't really know how to end this blog entry other than to say, if you haven't listened to anything but Mayer's pop hits, it's time to experience his music. "Where the Light Is" is also a DVD for anyone that has a short attention span. So do it!