I have found that there are very, very few artists that I love who started playing music any later than the early t0 mid- 1990s. John Mayer has been an exception, at least up until his whole “I’m into blues/I’m very serious/I have long hair” phase. I fell in love with Room For Squares, found Inside Wants Out charming, and couldn’t stop listening to Heavier Things. Unfortunately, I found Continuum to be unimpressive on the whole. And don’t even get me started on Try!
So, for this session, I went back in time to “Love Song For No One,” hoping to conjure up a time when I loved Mayer and his work. I think his first album is often dismissed, as though every song were “Your Body is a Wonderland” — which I’m man enough to admit I really enjoy…
Without further ado, here’s my take on “Love Song For No One,” a version that took me many takes before I was happy enough to release it. I’m still not entirely happy with it, but my voice was scratchy and I did my best. Besides, you know what they say — a session a day… keeps Chris, Jim, and Jeff going crazy? 🙂
Hello and welcome — one and all — to an all-new acoustic rock cover song music video! Yes, it’s a mouthful, but it’s the best way to describe this music blog that you’re viewing. Whether you’re a regular visitor or this is your first time, I hope you’ll see how much work we’ve put into the design, the variety of bands represented, and the quality of content for each post. We don’t just record a video; instead, we write substantive text posts to give you something interesting (we hope!) to read as you listen to the session of the day. Whenever possible, we share information about the band or our individual processes for recording the videos — and we hope that you find the reading worthwhile. We certainly have found these songs worthwhile and devote a lot of time to learning, practicing, recording, and writing about them.
Which brings me to my video for this Saturday session. Today, I picked John Mayer’s “Not Myself,” a great track from his great album Room For Squares. Yes, it may be an over-publicized album (having won many awards and much notoriety when it first came out) and it may be better known for such hits as “Your Body Is a Wonderland,” but it is so much more than these aspects would suggest. I still think this is John Mayer’s best album to date, as it combines great songwriting with great sounds, blending acoustic and electric elements nicely. Possibly my favorite John Mayer song, “Why Georgia,” is on this album, not to mention another close runner up, “Love Song for No One.”
And I’ll always have an odd memory of this album. When I first bought it and started listening to it, I was hooked and couldn’t get enough of it. It gradually became the album that I would listen to in the shower and sing along to, practicing and enjoying singing. Now, this was before I had a portable set of speakers for my iPod, so I would put the CD in my stereo and blast it loud enough to be heard down the hall, in the bathroom, with the water running for the shower. (I obviously only did this when no one else was home.)
So, I was thinking about songs that I really would like to learn and record, and “Not Myself” immediately came to mind. I’ve always liked the structure of the song and the overall mood of the studio recording. I hope I’ve done it justice and that you’ll enjoy listening to it!
Don’t forget to hurry home early, hurry on home (as Warren Zevon would say) for Jeff’s video tomorrow, then hurry even faster for the man, the myth, the legend — Jim Fusco! — on Monday. (And I must assure you that this warm reference to Jim has nothing to do with the fact that he gave me the best birthday present a man like myself could ever hope for — an all-expenses paid set of recording sessions at Fusco-Moore Studios and his creative input as producer on my new album! I’m more excited than I can quite explain in words right now to think about what my songs will sound like with his expertise and creative input, especially based on what his new unreleased music sounds like.)
