Review of John Mayer's Where the Light Is

John Mayer's recent attempt at capturing his career in a nutshell has been captured on the new release "Where the Light Is." On this collection of Mayer live mimi-jams, he shows his proficiency on both the acoustic and electric, in a number of different settings. The recording is from December 8, 2007, at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles, from a show labelled as the 1st Annual Holiday Charity Revue, a benefit concert for Toys for Tots, Inner City Arts, and the Los Angeles Mission. A DVD by the same name has been released, with the entire concert footage, as well as some extra behind the scenes material.

The concert, broken up into 3 parts, incorporates songs from across Mayer's career, including a few songs that have never been released.

The CD starts with John on stage alone with his acoustic guitar. After a long jamming intro, Mayer breaks into the familiar intro of Neon, which dates all the way back to his independent release Inside Wants Out. Next, Mayer plays Stop This Train, an introspective piece about growing up from his Continuum album. He follows that up with In Your Atmosphere, a never-before-released ballad about avoiding Los Angeles due to a relationship gone bad. Robbie Macintosh (and his slide guitar) joins Mayer on stage for a version of Daughters from the Heavier Things album. For the final song of the acoustic set, David Ryan Harris joins Mayer and Macintosh for a mellow (but very moving) cover of Tom Petty's 80s ballad Free Fallin', a throwback to the music of the 80s and 90s that had such a heavy influence on Mayer's musical style.

After a short break, Mayer returns to the stage as part of the John Mayer Trio along with Steve Jordan and Pino Palladino to re-visit some of their blues jams from the album Try! The set is out and out blues, with the band ripping through songs of their own, as well as some blues classics - overall, the performance makes me think of a poor man's Stevie Ray Vaughan set. Right out the gate, the trio plows through Elmore James' Every Day I Have the Blues, followed by Jimi Hendrix's Wait Until Tomorrow. The Trio then moves through several of their own songs: Who Did You Think I Was, Come When I Call, Good Love is on the Way, Out of My Mind and Vultures. The power and energy of these blues performances draws a sharp contrast to the laid back feel of the opening acoustic set, drawing a more enthusiastic response from the crowd. (At one point, as the crowd recognizes the opening riff from Out of My Mind, Mayer even stops to comment "Let me first say how wonderful it feels to know that it's 2007 and we just launched into a slow blues and 7,000 people in LA just went nuts. All is not lost.") The Trio finishes up by re-visiting the Hendrix classic Bold as Love, complete with a breakdown where Mayer talks to the crowd about love.

After another break, Mayer returns to the stage with his full touring band. This final set consists mainly of songs from the most recent album Continuum¸ but is spiced up with songs from all of Mayer's albums. The band opens with a full-sounding version of the radio hit Waiting on the World to Change, followed by the bluesy love song Slow Dancing in a Burning Room. (Mayer's breakthrough single No Such Thing and Bigger Than My Body were cut from the album, but were played in this spot in the concert). Mayer reaches further back to his pop roots and invites the crowd to sing along to his Why Georgia, and backs it up with the smooth melody driven Heart of Life. The crowd is treated to Mayer's rendition of Ray Charles' I Don't Need No Doctor, where he seemingly channels the vocal stylings of Peter Gabriel and duals David Ryan Harris on the outro riff.

Mayer and company close the set with four straight songs from his blues-infused Continuum album. The band goes ballad heavy for nearly half twenty minutes, as a ten-minute version of the bluesy Gravity is backed up by nine minutes of I Don't Trust Myself (With Loving You). The show closes with the driving power blues of Belief, wrapped up with a heartfelt I'm Gonna Find Another You.

Overall, the concert album tracks Mayer's whole career, and really showcases his mastery of the guitar in multiple forms. Mayer displays that he is just as comfortable with the intricate fingerwork on the acoustic as he is with the slow emotion poured into his blues numbers. If you are already a fan of Mayer's, then the album is a must have glimpse into this phase of his career. If you are curious about Mayer and his sound, this album will give you a great overview of how his music has changed from the beginning of his career, and the direction it seems to be taking.